Iyal Tamil, it will not be inopportune to first briefly say something about the Isai and the Nātakam or kuttu, before we proceed to our subject.
Tradition says that Agastya was the only grammarian who wrote complete treatises on the grammar of all the three classes of Tamil, but none of them are now extant. During the early centuries of the Christian era attention seems to have been paid by the Tamils to all the three. They had their own dances and music-vocal and instrumental. They, of course, with the help of Brahmans, developed the art of dancing to a high degree of perfection and many treatises were written on this fine art ; even their gods had their characteristic favourite dances. Music too, was in a state of perfection, and their pans or tunes were sui generis to the Tamil race. The only ancient Tamil work of the nature of the drama that has come down to us is the Silappadikaram (third century). It gives a vivid description of the stage, the actor, the singer, the drummer, the flute-player, the yazh-player and others of the troupe; and contain beautiful specimens of vari (வரி), pattu (பாட்டு), kuravai (குரவை), ammanai (அம்மானை), usal (ஊசல்), kandukam (கந்துகம்), vallai (வள்ளை), and other classes of musical songs.
A brief description of the yâzkı-a stringed musical instrument, similar to the guitar, peculiar only to the ancient Tamils may not be uninteresting. It was of four kinds, viz-பேரியாழ், மகரயாழ், சகோடயாழ் and செங்கோட்டியாழ். The Per-yazh had 21 strings; a Makra--
