Page:Tamil studies.djvu/255

228 and approach that eternal light which they termed 'paranjoti', 'peroli', 'pazh-veli' or 'vetta-veli.' It will be seen from the above extracts that their language is quite modern and their style simple and at times slang.


 * If we omit the commentaries on abstruse early poems, the whole Tamil literature including theology, philosophy, grammar and dictionary, is all poetry. In the whole range of Tamil literature prose had no distinct place. For a long time the Tamils made no distinction between prose and poetry, the former being regarded as a form of poetry. It might be said that the early Tamils did not recognize prose. The earliest form of prose composition is what we find in the Silappadikaram, an heroic drama of the third century A. D. The same style was adopted later in the Tamil version of the Mahabharata by Perundevanar and in the Tagadur Yattirai. Both of them are known as உரையிடை இட்டபாட்டு or poems interspersed with explanatory prose. To these may be added the commentary on Iraiyanar's Agapporul written by some unknown author (not by Nakkirar as hitherto believed) during the early part of the eighth century. And from the excerpts subjoined below it will be seen that they are a sort of poetic prose in pure Tamil, sweet and rhythmic like the English of Hooker's ‘Ecclesiastical Polity’ or Ruskins' 'Modern Painters' :

(1) குடத்துப்பாலுறையாமையுங் குவியிமிலேற்றின்மடக் கண்ணீர் சோர்தலு முறியில் வெண்ணெயுருகாமையு மறிமுடங்கி யாடாமையு மான்மணி நிலத்தற்று வீழ்தலும் வருவதோர்