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Sanskrit loan words in the Civakacintāmaņi
165
These Skt. loan-words when borrowed in Tamil are always made of phonemes which are found in Tamil. Tolkappiyar divides these Skt. words into two kinds. 1 The first kind of loan-words are the words which are made of phonemes which are common to Skt. For example: Skt.
Tamil 1. Kamalam (lotus)
Kamalam
(lotus) 2. vanam (forest)
vanam
(forest)
The second kind of words are the words which are originally made of phonemes which are not found in Tamil, but when borrowed from Skt. were altered according to the Tamil grammatical rules. For example : Skt.
Tamil 1. Sutra (aphorism) Cuttiram (aphorism) 2. Yakşa (a yakşa)
Iyakkan
(a yakşa) 3. Bhuta (element)
Pūtam
(element)
In the middle Tamil period the number of Skt. loan-words used in Tamil literature increased in number. The introduction of Buddhism and Jainism in Tamil land, the Bhakti movement of the Saiva Saints and the Vaişpava Aļvārs, the encouragement and patronage given by the kings who were ruling Tamil land for Skt. and Pkt. studies and the great interest shown by the poets in borrowing Skt. ideas and stories from Skt. literature are the main reasons which caused the increase of Skt. loanwords in Tamil
The literary works which were composed in the Middle period before the period of the Cc. can be classified into three categories :
(i) The didactic works (The eighteen minor works (Patinenkilkaņakku works)) (ii) The devotional hymns of the Saiva saints and Vaisnavs Alvars (iii) The epics, the Cilappatikāram, the Maşimēkalai and the Peruňkatai
Tiruva]ļuvar, the author of the Tirukkural, one of the eighteen minor works, has freely borrowed ideas from Skt. works such as the Manudharma Šāstra, the Niti Šāstra, the Ayurvedic treatises and the Kāma 'sūtra and these ideas are very often expressed with the help of Pkt. and Skt. works, hybrid forms and translations of Skt. phrases. According to S. Vaiyapuri Piliai, out of seven hundred and fifty words used in the Tirukkural, one hundred and fifty are of Skt. and Prakritic origin.a
1 (i) vaļa-cor kițavi vațav elutt orii
elattoļu punarnta collākumma (ii) citaintana varinum iyaintana variyār. Tolkappiyam, Collatikūram, Eccaviyal, Sutras, 401, 402 2 S, Vaiyapuri Pillai, Kaviyakālam, p. 51.
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