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A. CHAKRAVARTI:
of fact, grammar is but a science of language codifying the literary usages and as such must presuppose the existence of a vast literature in that particular language. Even the Tamil grammarians have recognised this fact in as much as they speak of literature first and grammar second'. Hence if we are to accept the tradition that Tolkāppiyam belongs to the period of the middle Sangam, we have to assume a vast literature prior to that, now somehow lost completely. Such a supposition would not be altogether improbable, if we call to our mind the condition of the early Dravidian civilisation. About the time of Asoka, the Tamil land consisted of three great kingdoms, Cēra, Cāļa and Pāņdya. Asöka does not refer to having subdued these kingdoms. They are mentioned in the list as friendly states around the Aśokan empire. That the Tamil land contained excellent harbours, carried a flourishing sea-borne trade with the European nations around the Mediterranean basin, that the Tamil language contributed important words to foreign vocabulary* and that Roman gold coins indicating contact with the Roman empire are found in various places in the Tamil countrys are all facts well known to students
1. Radhagovinda Basak : Asokan Inscriptions (1959), p. 5. 2. P. T. Srinivasa Iyengar : op. cit., pp. 189, 293-300.
3. P. T. Srinivasa Iyengar : Ibid., pp. 36-43, 96-102, 12934, 192-206, 301-21.
4. Caldwell : A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian Languages (1915), pp. 89-91 ; S. Vaiyapuri Pillai : History of Tamil Language and Literature (1956), pp. 8-10.
5. TRAS., 1904, pp. 623-34 ; Ancient India (Archaeological Survey of India, 1949), No. 2, pp. 118-19, 121.
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