Tolkāppiyam in the context of "Tamil literature"

The Sangam literature (Tamil: சங்க இலக்கியம், caṅka ilakkiyam), historically known as 'the poetry of the noble ones' (Tamil: சான்றோர் செய்யுள், Sāṉdṟōr Seyyuḷ), connotes the early classical Tamil literature and is the earliest known literature of South India. The Tamil tradition links it to legendary literary gatherings around Madurai in the ancient Pandya kingdom. It is generally accepted by most scholars that the historical Sangam literature era, also known as the Sangam period, spanned from c. 100 BCE to 250 CE, on the basis of linguistic, epigraphic, archaeological, numismatic and historical data; though some scholars give a broader range of 300 BCE to 300 CE.

The Eighteen Greater Texts (Patiṉeṇmēlkaṇakku), along with the Tamil grammar work Tolkappiyam, are collectively considered as Sangam literature. These texts are classified into the Ettuttokai (Eight Anthologies) and Pattupattu (Ten Idylls). They encompass both Akam (interior) themes, focusing on personal emotions and love, and Puram (exterior) themes, emphasizing heroism, ethics, and societal values. Notable works include Akananuru (400 love poems), Purananuru (400 heroic poems), Kurunthogai (short love poems), and Natrinai (poems set in five landscapes). The Pattuppāṭṭu highlights specific regions and rulers, with works like Malaipadukadam and Perumpanarrupadai serving as guides to wealth and prosperity.

Tamilakam (Tamil: தமிழகம், romanized: Tamiḻakam) also known as ancient Tamil country as was the geographical region inhabited by the ancient Tamil people, covering the southernmost region of the Indian subcontinent. Tamilakam covered today's Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry, Lakshadweep and southern parts of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Traditional accounts and the Tolkāppiyam referred to these territories as a single cultural area, where Tamil was the natural language and permeated the culture of all its inhabitants. The ancient Tamil country was divided into kingdoms. The best known among them were the Cheras, Cholas, Pandyans and Pallavas. During the Sangam period, Tamil culture began to spread outside Tamilakam. Ancient Tamil settlements were also established in Sri Lanka (Sri Lankan Tamils) and the Maldives (Giravarus).

During the Prehistorical, Classical, Middle and Early Modern ages, the entire region of Tamilakam mostly remained unconquered by the Northern Indo-Aryan dynasties, ranging from the Maurya Empire to the Mughal Empire.

Puram (Tamil: புறம், puṟam, Lit. exterior) is one of two genres of Classical Tamil poetry. The concept of the lifestyle of human beings falls in two categories: personal and public. The genre dealing with poems about love affairs is called Akam (அகம்), while Puram concerns many subjects including wars, kings, poets and personal virtues.

Tolkāppiyam, the earliest work of Tamil grammar and literature available in Tamil, divides each genre into seven strands (Thinai), comparing and connecting the two categories of lifestyle.

Extended-Tamil script or Tamil-Grantha refers to a script used to write the Tamil language before the 20th century Tamil purist movement. Tamil-Grantha is a mixed-script: a combination of the conservative-Tamil script that independently evolved from pre-Pallava script, combined with consonants imported from a later-stage evolved Grantha script (from Pallava-Grantha) to write non-Tamil consonants. Some scholars posit that the origin of Tamil-Grantha is unclear: the script could also be a direct descendant of the Pallava-Grantha script which extensively developed during the Middle Tamil period to write Middle-Tamil.

The Modern Tamil script is a subset of Tamil-Grantha alphabet, retaining only the 18 consonants taken from Tolkāppiyam-based Old Tamil which generally was written using Vatteluttu script. Tamil-Grantha has 36 consonants, hence covering all Indic consonants like Malayalam script. However, the Modern-Tamil standard allowed a few additional consonants from Grantha into its alphabet: ஜ (ja), ஷ (ṣa), ஸ (sa), ஹ (ha). But their usage is discouraged by Tamil purists and recommend to assimilate the sounds to approximate pure-Tamil phonology, respectively: ச (ca), ச (ca), ச (ca), க (ka). Another letter ஶ was also allowed in 2005 exclusively to write ஶ்ரீ (śrī); however purists enforce the usage of திரு (tiru) over ஶ்ரீ.

Old Tamil is the form of the Tamil language used from the 3rd century BCE to the seventh century CE, following Proto-Tamil and preceding Middle Tamil. The earliest records in Old Tamil are inscriptions from between the 3rd and 1st century BCE in caves and on pottery, written in the Tamil-Brahmi variant of the Brahmi script. The earliest long text in Old Tamil is the Tolkāppiyam, an early work on Tamil grammar and poetics, whose oldest layers could be as old as the mid-2nd century BCE. Old Tamil preserves many features of Proto-Dravidian, the reconstructed common ancestor of the Dravidian languages, including the inventory of consonants, the syllable structure, and various grammatical features.