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. 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.
Regards,
Palaniappan
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?