Talk:Tamil literature

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Venu62 (talk • contribs)

Hope someone knowledgeable enough would improve this page KRS 17:41, 20 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Literary works from Sri Lanka,Malaysia and other Tamil speaking regions

This page should also conatin literary works from all Tamil speaking countries.Currently it contains information only from Tamil Nadu. Hope somebody from these regions or who knows information regarding such works can add these information to this article.

[edit] Ok, found a source about Lankan Literary...

The earliest known Sri Lankan Tamil poet was Eelattu Poothanthevanar, whose poems were included in the Tamil cankam (sangam) poetry anthologies compiled in southern India before 250 ad. A distinctly Sri Lankan Tamil literary tradition first developed in the 1940s with the works of the so-called marumalarchi (renaissance) writers Mahakavi, A. Kandasamy, and Varadar. [1] User:Karooran

[edit] Modern Tamil Women Poets

Iam not sure if this is the right place to mention about emerging poets and their controversise. Tamil Literature is too broad a topic for such information. I think this needs to be moved to a more "appropriate page". -- Sanjeeth 09:17, 2 Dec 2004 (UTC)

I agree with Sanjeeth. This is not the place to mention about the controversy. We have a lot to document about the Tamil Literature, not these menial issues.

-- SanthoshGuru 16:17, 25 Jan 2005 (UTC)

The current article is nowhere near what is expected of it. We need better coverage for all the eras under all categories (poetry, prose, short stories etc), not a mere listing of works and authors. All these controversies can be put in a separate article like Controversies over Tamil literary works or Controversies with Tamil authors or some other better title. -- Sundar

[edit] Further development

This article requires a complete rewrite. Here is a very ambitious structure of what I think an 'ideal' article on Tamil literature would include:

  • Cankam literature Done for now, but this sub-topic should also have its own article with more detailed coverage
    • Overview
    • Tamil traditions about the three Cankams
    • The cankam corpus (ettuthokai, patthupáttu, tolkáppiyam)
    • Cankam poetics (the akam and puram tinais and their significance - illustrate with examples?)
  • Post-sangam literature (the padhinen kizhkanakku)
    • Thirukkural
    • Náladiyár
    • Brief description of the other works
  • Epic literature
    • Cilappathikáram and Manimékalai
    • Civakacinthámani
    • The lost epics
    • Perhaps also a bit about the Perunkathai and Culamani?
  • Early bhakti literature -- work in progress: expected completion 7 Feb
    • The nayanárs and the thirumurais
    • The ázhvárs and the náláyira thivya prapantham
    • Kambarámáyanam
    • Periya puránam
  • Later bhakti literature -- work in progress: expected completion 7 Feb
    • The tamil puranas (e.g. Kaccaiyappar's kanthapuranam)
    • Religious commentaries and the growth of religious Manipravalam literature
    • Arunakirináthár
    • Non-hindu religious literature (e.g., cirappuránam, tempávani)
  • Folk-inspired and social literature (the cittars, Tháyumánavar, Pattinatthar, Ramalinka svamikal, Gopalakrishna Bharati, thiruvilaiyátal, kurava songs, parani, ulá, thúthu poetry, etc.)
  • Modern literature
    • The birth of the Tamil novel and the Tamil short story (should include Vetanayakam Pillai, Rajam Aiyyar, VVS, and Kalki)
    • Bharatiyar's marumalarcci natai and its impact
    • The "pure Tamil" movement and its effect (is the puthu manipravala natai even worth mentioning?)
    • Puthumaipitthan and the Manikkoti movement
    • Tamil women's literature
    • Contemporary literature (Jayakanthan, Ramatirthan...)
    • Tamil emigrant literature
  • Sri Lankan Tamil literature
    • Early evidences of Sri Lankan Tamil Literature
    • Tamil Literature during Jaffna Kingdom Period (13th century - 1620 AD)
    • Early Colonial rule and Tamil Literature in Sri Lanka (1620 - 1796 AD)
    • Tamil Literature during British rule (1796 - 1948 AD)
    • Post Independent phase (1948 and after)

Feel free to edit this list as you like - and especially to say which bits you think you can take primary responsibility for. We can probably also draw on some of the people who write for the Tamil wikipedia. As you can see, this whole thing will probably be too big for one article. We could perhaps just write summaries of some of these sections for now, but they should ultimately be fleshed out in their own articles, if not here.

To get started, I'll write and post a draft of the Cankam literature section this weekend. - Arvind 15:50, 28 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Good work, Arvind. A humongous project indeed. Let's pool in our resources and make it. -- Sundar 05:27, Jan 31, 2005 (UTC)
Arvind, I saw your note in my talk page. I will contribute on the Tamil literature of Sri Lanka. Further, there evolves a whole new type of expatriate Tamil literature through the Sri Lankan Tamils now living in many Western Europeon countries, Canada, Australia and other places. The Tamil literature is becomming familier with a new set of situations and contexts through them. We can mention about this too. Mayooranathan 17:58, 11 Mar 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Use a consistent system of spelling

I suggest that all pages on Tamil in Wiki use a consistent system of spelling. The best would be to use the Tamil Lexicon system which has the advantage of being consistent with other Indian alphabets. For example we will have Pāratiyār, Cilappatikāram etc.

Hi there. That's exactly what I've tried to do in my ongoing rewrite of this article - take a look at the Caṅkam literature section. We do need to agree on a set of transliteration guidelines, though - I'm working on a set of draft guidelines for the nynorsk wikipedia at the moment and I was planning to translate them into English and put them up for discussion when I was done, but that'll take time so if you'd like to take it up please go ahead. Where I've gotten stuck is on the system of transcription to use for article titles - we can't use ā, ṭ, ṅ and other such characters there. If anyone has any suggestions, I'd be glad to hear them. -- Arvind 12:47, 2 Feb 2005 (UTC)
For the article titles, use the forms of the letters ā, ṭ, ṅ etc. without the diacritics, so you have Paratiyar instead of Pāratiyār, etc. This isn't ideal, but that's the general Wikipedia solution for special characters that can't be included in article titles due to technical reasons. For instance, the page on Lech Wałęsa is at Lech Walesa. Any other solution would probably confuse those not familiar with Tamil. Good luck, --Iceager 16:23, 23 Jun 2005 (UTC)
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