Books for self-instruction in Classical Literary Tamil

[Phillip Ernest]

On Mon, 22 Jan 2001, Rupa Viswanath wrote:

Much thanks for the advice given below.  I will see if I can find this
book in the U of T library, to begin with.

P
> Specifically for Cankam literature the Int'l Institute of Tamil Studies
> published a two volume set by J. Vacek and S.V. Subramaniam, "A Tamil
> Reader: Introducing Sangam Literature," 1989.
>
> Though the authors mention that the book is designed for those with some
> modern Tamil, I think you could use it quite easily, especially if you
> could consult a teacher occasionally.  The first volume is an introduction
> plus selected poems; the second is a list of vocabulary in the poems.  Each
> poem is presented in Tamil script and English transliteration, followed by
> translation and detailed grammatical and prosodic analysis.  And they are
> arranged, roughly, in order of difficulty.  I have found these volumes to
> be enormously useful, at least as a place to start.
>
> I agree with Stephen Hodges that Classical Tamil grammar is quite different
> from the modern, but for basic grammatical categories, as well as common
> sandhi changes (which are covered in the above volumes, but at lightning
> speed) it may be useful to consult a modern Tamil grammar.
>
> Best,
> Rupa