Page:Tamil studies.djvu/177

150 அகத்தியமொன்றே யாகலான். On the other hand, the Jains believe that Agastya learnt his Tamil from Avalokita. Following the traditions current in their days, the poets Kamban and Villiputturar have said that the language itself was created by Agastya :

தமிழெனுமளப்பரிய சலதிதந்தவன்.—Kam.

அகத்தியன்பயந்த செஞ்சொலாரணங்கு.-Vil.

All these would only amuse the school children of modern days.

But Sanskrit and Tamil, though they may have been the oldest, were not the only two languages prevalent in the Bharata Varsha. In the extreme south we have now Telugu, Kanarese and Malayalam besides minor dialects, each being considered by its speakers as valuable as, and even more than, Tamil. The Telugus call Tamil aravam or 'soundless', and the Kanarese speak of it as the “stammerer's language' (tigalu). These vernaculars which are, however, closely allied to one another are collectively known as the 'Dravidian family'.

No definite laws for the permutation of vowels and consonants in the allied words of these languages, like those of Grimm or Vernor, could be framed as they had been influenced to a very considerable extent by Sanskrit before their grammars were written. Tamil is the only solitary exception. Though Malayalam has been the most unfortunate of the family, having been affected most by Sanskrit, the consonantal interchanges in Dravidian words between it and Tamil are almost trifling,