The problem with the Intensive Course in… series of the CIIL is that they teach a supposedly 'colloquial' 'spoken' form of the language. I suspect that Krishnaprasad wants to read Tamil, and then that book (esp. in view of the diglossia that is typical of Tamil) will be only of limited use.

Somewhat drily written, but correct and still very useful, is the old A Progressive Grammar of the Tamil Language by A.H. Arden (Madras: Christian Literature Society, 1910, with many reprints). That is the book from which I learnt Tamil. And when you already know Kannada (that's a note for you, KP), then that book is the fast way.

RZ


Nagaraj Paturi via INDOLOGY wrote on 27.01.20 04:43:

https://www.scribd.com/doc/233254886/An-Intensive-Course-in-Tamil-Dialogues-Drills-Exercises-Vocabulary-Grammar-And-Word-Index-Central-Institute-of-Indian-Languages-1979-CIIL-In  

On Mon, Jan 27, 2020 at 8:57 AM Krishnaprasad G via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:

Dear all 

Which is the best book to learn Tamil from the scratch. Your help is much appreciated.

Thank you.

KP

--
Prof. Dr. Robert J. Zydenbos
Institute of Indology and Tibetology
Department of Asian Studies
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (University of Munich – LMU)
Germany

_______________________________________________
INDOLOGY mailing list
INDOLOGY@list.indology.info
indology-owner@list.indology.info (messages to the list's managing committee)
http://listinfo.indology.info (where you can change your list options or unsubscribe)