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<BR>Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2001 14:21:38 -0000
<BR>To: agathiyar@yahoogroups.com
<BR>Subject: Re: Date of tolkAppiyam
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<BR>--- In INDOLOGY@y..., narayan prasad <prasad_cwprs@y...> wrote:
<BR>> The most controverial issue about fixing the date
<BR>> of old literature is, perhaps, that of tolkAppiyam,
<BR>> the oldest extant Tamil grammar. 
<BR>> 
<BR>> Dr B G L Swamy has mentioned 20 different dates
<BR>> by different authors at p.292 of his article entitled
<BR>> "The Date of Tolkappiyam - a Retrospect", Annals of
<BR>> Oriental Research, Univ. of Madras, 1975, pp.292-317.
<BR>> These dates vary from 8000 BC to 8th century AD, the
<BR>> last one arrived at by A C Burnell. The author of this
<BR>> article concludes:"The fact that five of its
<BR>> commentaries appeared in the 13th century AD alone
<BR>> suggests that the treatise could have been written a
<BR>> century or two earlier". This means that as per Dr
<BR>> Swamy, the date of Tolkappiyam should be about 11th or
<BR>> 12th century AD.
<BR>
<BR>Before scholars decide on the dates of layers of tolkAppiyam,
<BR>Gift Siromony's discovery of puLLi letter in
<BR>rock inscrptions dating to mid 2nd century,
<BR>and R. Nagasamy found the unique puLLi letter
<BR>used in mid 2nd century AD Satakarni inscription.
<BR>The definition of puLLi is in tolkAppiyam.
<BR>http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CTamil/message/311
<BR>
<BR>Iravatham Mahadevan was dating TolkApiyam sections
<BR>to 5th century. Conclusive archaeological data
<BR>discovered by Gift Siromony, Prof. S. Raju, ...
<BR>made him revise his 5th century date backward by
<BR>at least 300 years. I. Mahadevan was talking
<BR>about puLLi in 5th century back in 1960.
<BR>Now he has revised his earlier guesses.
<BR>http://groups.yahoo.com/group/INDOLOGY/message/1516
<BR>
<BR>Tolkaapiyar tradition comparable to Buddha or Socrates:
<BR>http://groups.yahoo.com/group/INDOLOGY/message/833
<BR>
<BR>The TolkAppiyam grammar's antiquity and the recent
<BR>archaeological discoveries of Tamil Brahmi inscriptions
<BR>in Sri Lanka may be related. Brahmi was invented
<BR>in Ceylon in 4th century BCE, we have archaeological
<BR>occurence of earliest Brahmi there. Given the
<BR>similarities between Semitic alphabets and early Brahmi,
<BR>did the trade with Arabic lands trigger Brahmi
<BR>development in Sri Lanka?
<BR>
<BR>Regards,
<BR>N. Ganesan
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR> 
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