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Tamil is the language of a section of the Dravidian race inhabiting the extreme south of the Indian Peninsula. The area within which it is now spoken has been given in a previous essay. Owing to its antiquity and its high culture at a very early date, this language long ago assumed two forms, the one called the kodum or colloquial, and the other the sem or good literary Tamil.

The locality in which the Sen-Tamil was spoken is. not described by Tolkapyar ; and his commentators are not unanimous on this point. Senavaraiyar and Nacchinarkiniyar give its boundaries this,—செந்தமிழ் நிலமாவது, வையையாற்றின் வடக்கும் மருதயாற்றின்றெற்கும் கருவூரின் கிழக்கும் மருவூரின்மேற்குமாம். (The "pure Tamil” was spoken in the tract bounded by the Maruta-yar on the north, the Vaiga on the south, Maruvur on the east and Karuvur on the west).

According to Tamil saints and poets the Sen-Tamil land seems to have been the modern district of Madura ; this seems to me to be more accurate in as