That which distinguishes Tolkaapiyam from PaNini and the tradition of Sanskrit linguistic studies is the massive PoruLatikaaraam and which also makes it quite contemporary.
Such studies as contained here, began in the West only from the beginnings of 20th cent and because of stimulations provided by the Phenomenology of Husserl. We have fields as Conversation Analysis, Ethnomethodology and so forth because of this.
But what are the essences of this PoruLatikaaram?
The PoruLatikaaram.
The Sutras number around 563 and the topics are essentially a Hermeneutic Analysis of EXISTENCE and hence can be easily confused with anthropology, ethnology and so forth. However we should remember that by PoruL is NOT meant here the material wealth, which is also one of its meanings but rather the Existential Meanings people have and which makes them ACT in various ways.
People in all walks of life are SEEKING something and what they seek out, the MEANINGS are the matter of study here and for which the various kinds of languages people use - the Vazakku, the ordinary speech, CeyyuL, the composed literature, the Meyppaadu, the body language and so forth are used. There is also mention of the language of Mantras but an analysis of which, except for a broad delineation, is not given.
This book, interestingly enough begins with AkattiNaiyiyal, the Hermeneutic Science of Domestic Life and goes onto to PuRattiNaiyiyal, a study of akam’s sociological expressions. Then it returns to Akam where KaLaviyal takes up pre-marital love behavior and KaRpiyal, the dynamics of married life. The next chapter that follows, PoruLiyal, deals with the common elements to both KaLaviyal and KaRpiyal in addition to some extraneous elements.
Then it is followed with what can be called essentially socio-psychological i.e. Meyppaaddiyal where the feelings and emotions are taken up for an exhaustive study. ‘Meypaadu’ means the bodily experiences, emotions and feelings (uNarvu, uNarcci uruci, cuvai etc) and are called so only because they are the accessed inner states of the anmas by inferring from the observable bodily features.
In fact the principles of Hermeneutic Science are more evident here than anywhere else.
This is followed with Uvamaviyal, the Science of Analogy and which initiates studies into THINKING processes but as they occur in natural life both in oral and written discourses. In the History of Indian Logic, later it became incorporated as one of PiramaaNas. This chapter also distinguishes analogy (Uvamam) from metaphors (ULLurai Uvamam), a distinction that became lost and replaced with that of Uruvakam, figures of speech and possibly because of the influence of Sanskrit treatises on AlaGkaaram, i.e. Poetics. For Tol the uLurai Uvamam was important because it is that which allows the determination of TiNai, the Inner Ecology of speech
This is followed by the massive CeyyuLLial, the poetics, stylistics and rhetoric as well as an understanding of various kinds languages. In fact in this chapter we have some sutras that pertain to some interesting observations on the communicative acts in general.
The Ecological Thinking
The first chapter AkattiNaiyiyal is philosophically and historically the most important in the sense it outlines some central insights that gave the Tamil Philosophic Thinking its distinctive identity as well as the insights that served the later Tamil philosophers to assimilate and deconstruct the various streams of metaphysical thinking that poured in form various parts of India and eventually led to the burst of Bakti movement along with the formulation of philosophical treatises like MeykaNda Sastras and Sri VaishNava Acarya Hridayam and so forth.
All communicative acts of which only some are verbal are said to issue from the Inner Ecologies of TiNais, altogether SEVEN in number. They are also divided into Akam with PuRam reflexes. The Akam are: the LOVE dominated KuRinjci Mullai Marutam, Neytal, and Paalai and the socially disapproved KaikkiLai and PeruntiNai. The PuRam reflexes are: the Vedci, the PuRam of KuRinjci, Vanjci that of Mullai, Uzinjai that of Marutam, Tumbai that of Neytal, Vaakai that of Kaanjci and PadaaN of Paalai, Kaanjci that of PeruntiNai and PaadaaN that of KaikkiLai.
Thus we can see the WHOLE domain of Human behavior is analyzed and made sense of in terms of SEXUALITY and in which LOVE based ecologies are said to be ACCEPTABLE while those not so, the KaikkiLai and PeruntiNai, are not acceptable. Thus we see that Sexuality is already analyzed along with ETHICS and that both domestic and public behavior are taken to be founded upon these basic instinctual forces.
These insights, not accepted because they are mystic disclosures or the contents of smrities and sruties, but rather as TRUTHS ANYONE can see for themselves provided they analyze EXISTENCE hermeneutically, gave the solid foundations for battling with the nonscientific elements that poured from within and without into the Tamil countries. This battle continues to this day only that now this tradition which is immensely rational and scientific, is almost dead.
Loganathan Krishnan @ Ullaganar
( editing and re-paragraphing by his student )
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