Page:Gleaning Of Tamil Literature.pdf/13

 Development of Literature 13 proper to value it as an ancient literary piece also. Akasthiar, the master of Toikappiar who wrote Tholkappiam has said that grammar would not have come to life if literature had not existed before. With the development of literature, the established usages, conventions and rules grew. Those rules formed the grammar at a later stage. It is evident that before Tholkappiam there had been several masterpieces of literature. Tholkappiam belonged to the middle Sangam age-roughly three thousand years ago. In the history of the world, these three thousand years mark a very small period in the historical time-scale. However we are able to trace the continuity and growth of Tamil literature from the date of Tholkappiam. There are two broad divisions in Tamil literature one called Agam pertaining to love, marriage, and domestic life; the other called Puram pertaining to wars, expeditions, the State and the Country. In ancient Tamil literature we find many masterpieces belonging to the first division.. After the age of Tholkappiam there came a collection of poems called Pattuppattu, Ettuttokai and Pathinen Kil Kannkku. Scholars are of the opinion that much of the valuable literature was destroyed by a deluge that happened before the date of the