[INDOLOGY] Date of the Tolkappiyam

rajam rajam at earthlink.net
Sat May 12 01:13:51 UTC 2018


Thanks! My comments are inserted below.


> On May 11, 2018, at 4:53 PM, Sudalaimuthu Palaniappan <Palaniappa at aol.com> wrote:
> 
> Sorry, here is the attachment I forgot to attach.
> 
> <SII volume 8, number 196.pdf>
> 
> Regards,
> Palaniappan
> 
>> On May 11, 2018, at 6:44 PM, Sudalaimuthu Palaniappan <palaniappa at aol.com <mailto:palaniappa at aol.com>> wrote:
>> 
>> The question of the name ‘Tolkāppiyam’ being related to ‘kāvya' arises only if the name of the author, Tolkāppiyaṉ, is derived from his work. But that does not seem to be the case according to the pāyiram of the Tolkāppiyam. According to the pāyiram of the Tolkāppiyam, his name was Tolkāppiyaṉ.

It’s not just in the pāyiram (பாயிரம்), but in Iḷampūraṇar’s commentary also we find the word Tolkāppiyaṉ as the name of the author and Tolkāppiyam as the name of the book. 

Reference: Tolkappiyam, collatikāram, vēṟṟumai mayankiyal 33

For the benefit of all those who can read Tamil:

… தொல்காப்பியனாற் சொல்லப்பட்டது தொல்காப்பியம் …



>> Since the pāyiram is supposed to be produced at the beginning of a text’s existence, it is unlikely, the author would be named after the grammar at that stage. Then the question has to be changed to whether he could have been named after some exemplary kāvya he had authored before producing his grammar. That seems unlikely also since the author is only praised for his knowledge of Aintiram, a possible grammatical text and not a kāvya. It is high time we give up relating the name ‘Tolkāppiyam' to kāvya.
>> 
>> On the other hand, the name kāppiyaṉ has been discussed in this list earlier as derived from a gotra name. See http://list.indology.info/pipermail/indology_list.indology.info/2009-April/127593.html <http://list.indology.info/pipermail/indology_list.indology.info/2009-April/127593.html>. See attachment for SII 8, no. 196.


Good! I just saw them.


>> 
>> Regards,
>> Palaniappan
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>> On May 11, 2018, at 3:39 PM, rajam via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info <mailto:indology at list.indology.info>> wrote:
>>> 
>>> 1. Doesn’t the word kāvya refer to something related to literature? If that would be the case, how can the Tolkappiyam, which is a grammar, can be connected with that?
>> 
> 



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