Before I pass over Collatikaaram, I must point out something very interesting in the final chapter of Col, the importance of which has been overlooked.
In this chapter Tol is concerned among others what words can be allowed to enter the literary compositions in Tamil so that they are not in conflict with the grammatical essences of Tamil language.
This drives him to make a kind of SURVEY of all the languages in India and with that work out RULES on which words are admissible and what must be phonetic adaptations the scholars should impose if their phonological shape is foreign to phonemic repertoire of Tamil as such. It begins with the sutra:
iyaRcol tiricol ticaccol vadacolenRu
anaitttee ceyyuL iiddac col
Meaning: All the words that are deemed suitable to be used in the composition of verses are classified into iyaRcoL, Tiricol, Ticaccol and Vadacol
1. The meanings of classifications of words into Iyarcol etc are given as follows:
Among these word classes the Natural Words, the IyaR Col are those that are in agreement with the usages in the lands of Centamiz and in active use without distortions of their natural meanings.
Comments ( Teyvasilaiyaar) :
Now since it is said in the forward:
(Tollkaappiyar investigated) the phonology,
morphology, grammar and meanings of both
the language of speech and literature in the lands of Centamiz (the Chaste Tamil)
that lie between Vengadam in the North and Kumari in the South”
the lands meant by the Lands Centamiz are in fact the countries lying on the South of Vengkadam, North of Kumari, East of the Western seas and West of the Eastern seas.
Sample of words that are in agreement with the language in use in these lands and which function without deviating in meaning are: cooRu( cooked rice), kuuz ( porridge), malai( hill), maram (tree) ; uNdaan ( he swallowed), tinRaan (he ate), oodinaan ( he ran), paadinaan ( he sang) and so forth.
Such words, because in these lands are in active use without any deviations, are called Natural Words (iyaR col). They can also be termed Cenjcol ( the proper words)
Notes (Loga): This classification is rather different from that available in Sanskrit grammar. What we have here is reference to the LIVING PRESENCE and ACTIVE USE of a language and uniformity in their morphology and semantics throughout the countries demarcated. This comment and definition also points out that at the time of Tol. the whole of South India, the vast stretch of land that now is divided into Tamil Nadu, KeraLa, Karnadaka and TuLu were known as the land of CenTamiz and hence a land unified with the rule of the SAME language, viz, CenTamiz.
2. The meaning of Tiricol are given as below:
The Tiricol are the semantically ambiguous words where the dual processes hold viz. the same word meaning different things and the same meaning being conveyed by different words.
So such words are those which communicate the same meaning as communicated by the Natural Words but in different ways.
Notes:( Loga)
Another meaning implicit in the concept of Natural Words is brought out here. While the natural words are semantically unambiguous throughout the whole land of Centamil and hence with univocity in meaning, the Tiricol are different in being polysemantic and polymorphic and thus requiring disambiguation, using regional and contextual factors. The morphologically same word may have different meanings in different regions and contexts(polysemantic). Similarly the same MEANING may be communicated by morphologically different words in different regions etc (polymorphic). They are called Tiri Col i.e. deviant words on account of this. Note that this definition presupposes the meaning of the Natural Words.
3. That which is the substance of the claim that there was a kind of (primitive) linguistic survey of India is the following clarifications of Ticaicol ( regional words?)
centamiz ceernta panniru nilattun
taGkuRip pinavee ticaiccoR kiLavi
The Ticaic Col are those words which have only regional prevalence in the 12 countries that linguistically belong to the lands of Centamiz.
The TWELVE countries are as follows: -- The PotuGkar Naadu on the South East of the River Vaiyai; oLi Naadu,Ten paaNdi Naadu, karuGkudda Naadu, Kuda Naadu, the PanRiNadu, the KaRkaa Naadu, the Siitai Naadu, the Puuzi Naadu, Malaadu, Aruvaa Nadu and the country on the north of AruvaNadu.
The following comments are given by Teyvaccilyaiyaar:
Now because it is said “ the 12 countries one with the lands of Centamiz” , these lands (of Ticaic col) are different from the above. Some scholars enumerate them as follows:
The lands beyond the boundaries -ancient island in the seas south of Kumari, Kollam, Kuupakam , SingkaLam and Kannadam, teLiGkam koGkaNam TuLuvam Kudakam and kuNRakam. The Sutra from Akattiyam will enumerate them as follows: The countries on both sides of the Western hills where a deviant type of Tamil is prevalent, the words that are pleasant in the lands of the TEN governors along with another TWO who co-exist and who all rule the lands under the control of the Three Rightful Kings. Here the twelve countries are those beyond the boundaries of Tamizakam and where a deviant kind of Tamil is prevalent and where the prevalence of Centamiz was very welcome. This interpretation is further supported by the fact that in the Forword (Paayiram to Tol) , over and above saying “ in the countries where speech in Tamil is prevalent, investigating both the literary and verbal expressions etc” it is also said “ also examining the ancient texts in the lands which are in essence the same as the lands of Centamil’, it has to be taken that the lands meant are those which are related to the above boundaries. Thus the 12 countries are: the ancient island in the seas south of Kumari, Kollam, kuupakam, SingkaLam, the countries West of the Hills such as KoGaNam, TuLuvam Kudakam and KuNRakam; the countries on the East Karnaadakam, Vaduku TeliGku and Kaligkam
Among these it may be possible that because Kuupakam and Kollam were swallowed by the sea, people migrated to the northern shores of Kumari and called the lands with the same name. Now the people in the North also call these lands the Pancha Dravida , and hence these five cannot be countries on the South of Vengkadam
The words in these countries, even if different from the Natural Words of Centamil, but on account of they occurring in the literary compositions of great scholars, they will not be disallowed.
Notes( Loga)
It appears that at the time of Tol (c. 3rd cent BC) the whole of the South , the lands on the South of the Vindhyas, were essentially Tamil with the languages beyond the borders of CentamiL Naadu, considered the lands of Kodun Tamil, a kind of deviant Tamil and hence only dialectically different and where the Tamil language was most welcome. It is interesting that in this list we have Sri Lanka, KaliGka, Andhra, Karnadaka and perhaps also Maharastra and Gujarat ( as they were also known as lands of Pancha Dravida)
There is clear recognition of DIALECTICAL variations of Tamil which was a living language in the whole of the South with the rule that even words specific to a dialectic variety will be accepted by scholars as part of Centamil language.
4. The Vadacol, Sanskrit words were identified as a separate category:
VadacoR kiLavi vadavezuttu orIi.i
ezuttodu puNarnta collaa kummee
Meaning: The words designated as Vadacol ( Northern Words) are those which are incorporated into Tamil by deleting those phonemes specific to the Northern languages and replacing them with equivalent phonemes available in Tamil
Even though common to all the nations, because current in the Northern countries, they are termed as Northern Words. Now because it is said Vadacol ( Northern Words), the living languages such as Prakrit are also included. ( prakiritam> paakatam)
The example of words of Northern Language: vaari , maNi, kungkumam and so forth. The Prakrit words are : vaddam, naddam, paddinam and so forth. There are many such words (in Tamil)
Now there is an interesting corollary to the above sutra of Vadacol
citaintana varinum iyaintana varaiyaar
Meaning: Even if some words come with gross distortions and where systematic phonemic mapping does not hold, even such words will not be rejected as long as they are overall consonant with the phonemes of Tamil.
The examples are : kantam, tasanaangku, saakaram, sattiram, pavaLam and so forth.
Among these FOUR different kinds of words, it may be observed that the Natural Words may occur as Nouns Verbs, the Enclitics, the Prepositions and so forth; the TiriCol and Ticaic Col occur mainly as Nouns and in a limited way as Verbs. The Northern Words do not occur except as Nouns
Notes ( Loga)
We shouldn’t fail to notice that Tolkaappiyar offers here a linguistic survey of a kind of the WHOLE of INDIA, where the Tamil lands are designated as the lands of CenTamil, the adjacent lands, including Maharastra, Gujarastra ( the lands of Pancha Dravida) are designated as lands of Kodun Tamil, which is perhaps a native term for what is called now as dialectical variations. The countries outside these are simply termed Northern lands and where Sanskrit Prakrit and such other languages prevailed with their distinctive phonemic clusters.
We should also note that Tol. does not speak of lexical borrowings and hence Sanskritization/ Aryanization of the Tamils and Tamil language ( something that came in vogue only at the beginning of the 17th cent.) . Though there may be words with peculiar phonetic realization in Sanskrit and Prakrit, but they are taken as COMMON WORDS (potu coL) which shows off there being cognition that throughout India there was a common repertoire of lexemes but with different kinds of phonological realizations, some even undergoing gross distortions (citaivu).
It may also be possible that Tol does recognize a difference between Sanksrit and Prakrit, both being called Vadacol and only because they contain phonemic innovations of the same words not available in the different registers of Tamil.
It also follows that Tol. notices that there can be differences in what can be called STYLES of Language use where while one term may be actively in use in one linguistic community, this may not be so in another ( even neighboring) community. Thus the Vadacol are such words, words which are also native to Tamil but NOT in current active use, and hence words that have become obsolete.
ULLAGANAR
( editing and re-paragraphing by his student )
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