`Tolkappiyam' for Telugus

W. Chandrakanth

Translation to help Telugus learning Tamil

PHOTO: P.V. Sivakumar

Tolkappiyam in Telugu.

HYDERABAD: For Telugus in general, Tamil remains one of the more difficult Indian languages to master, despite the fact that Telugu phonology has only 30 primary and three secondary sounds. In fact, if two secondary allophones — i and u — are taken away, only 31 sounds remain.

That Sanskrit had less influence on Tamil than Telugu, and the purity of the ancient language, could be the reasons.

However, there is now some news for Tamil loving Telugus: the Potti Sriramulu Telugu University is undertaking a translation of Tolkappiyam, the first work on the grammar of Tamil that spells out rules of poetry-writing in Tamil, apart from dealing with habitats, animals, plants and so on.

The purity of the Dravidian language as preserved in Tolkappiyam had often come as a deterrent to those interested in learning the richness of Tamil.

Moreover, it deals with both sentamizh (the ancient and classical dialect as preserved in literary works and kochaitamizh (the colloquial version of the language).

The university entrusted the translation with Savithri, a research scholar of Thanjavur University, which has a Telugu Chair. A scholar in both Tamil and Telugu, she completed the task and presented the Telugu manuscript to the university recently.

The work was adjudicated by P.S. Subramanyam, a Professor at Annamalai University. It is now in print, and the university plans to get the first copy released at its three-day All India Telugu meet beginning in Chennai on June 1.

Vice-Chancellor Avula Manjulatha said dealing with such a great Tamil work was a challenging task. "It is a gift not only to Telugus but also to our Tamil brethren."

(The Hindu: 26-05-2007)

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