Commenting on these sutras Nacchinarkiniyar writes thus,—இங்ஙனம் ஆசிரியர் சூத்திரம் செய்தலின் அக்காலத்து ஒருமொழியாக வழங்கிய சொற்கள் உளவென்பது பெற்றாம் ; அவை இக்காலத்து இறந்தன.
Not a single word of the kind referred to in the sutras is to be found in the whole range of the existing Tamil literature. The earliest work of any magnitude—that is the Kural of Tiruvalluvar—goes back to the first century A.D., and the period when such words were current should have been at least three or four centuries before the age of that work. For these reasons, it would not be too much to suppose that Tolkapyar flourished before B.C. 350, that is five centuries earlier than Apollonius, the Stoic philosopher and the first grammarian of the Latin language. A fortiori Tolkapyar's teacher and first Tamil grammarian and divine rishi, Agastya must have lived before the fourth century B. C. When these two Indo-Aryan scholars began to write their grammars, Tamil had already become a written language.
It is said by Prof. Macdonell of Oxford that the Katantra of Sarvavarman, the famous minister of the Andhra king Satavahana, served as a model for the native grammar of the Dravidians. As this is a work of the second century A.D., Tolkapyar could not have
- ↑ This view bas, however, been questioned by the authors of தொல்காப்பியச் சூத்திரவிருத்தி and திராவிடப்பிரகாசிகை following the commentaries of இளம்பூரணர் and சேனாவரையர். But we are inclined to follow நச்சினார்க்கினியர்.
