Page:Papers in Tamil Literature.pdf/11

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DRAMATIC MONOLOGUES IN AURUNTOKAI

Tolkappiyanar has wisely divided his grammar into three parts, namely Eluttatikaram, Collatikaram and Porulatikaram. These three parts of his grammar deal in extenso with many aspects: orthography, phonetics, phonology, morphology, etymo- logy, syntax, semantics, prosody and rhetoric. The erudition of Tolkappiyam, shows that even prior to that work, there must have existed some treatise on grammar, because Tolkappiyanar mentions in a number of places previous authors on the subject. Words and phrases like ‘enpa’, ‘enmanar pulavar’, ‘yappari- pulavar’, ‘Nuggitit ugarntor’ and ‘molipa’ occur frequently in his writings.

But most of the rules enunciated by Tolkappiyanar lost their force by the time of Sangam literature as seen from the writings of the later day commentators on Tolkappiyam. There- fore, Tolkappiyam may well be looked upon asa treatise on grammar earlier in time compared to the Sangam period.

Tolkappiyanar gives in detail elaborate rules and describes the various sentiments, etc., which were not so much essential for the narrative verse of the later day epic. The dramatic moments are depicted in separate unconnected lyrical stanzas in these works.

The Ceyyu] Iyal, inthe third part of Tolkdppiyam is a treatise on prosody. It deals with the literary composition of the age. The theory of poetry is beautifully brought out in this chapter. The first ‘cittiram’ itself speaks about the various constituents of a verse.