bokks on tamils
Parthasarathy Nambi
Hi folks here is a list of some book on/about tamils that I was
able to find:
1) " Fluid signs: being a person the tamil way" by E. Valentine
Daniel, University of California Press, 1984
2) " Splendours of Tamil Nadu" (Author?) Marg Punlications,
Bombay, 1980 (maps)
3) " Notes on Love in a tamil family" by Margaret Trawick,
University of California - Berkeley Press, 1990.
4) " Poets of the tamil anthologies: ancient poems of love and
war" by George L. Hart III, Princeton University Press, 1979.
5) " The Tamil Veda: Pillan's interpretation of the Tiruvaymoli"
by John Carman and Vasudha Narayanan, University of Chicago
Press, 1989.
6) " Nutrition in Tamil Nadu" by Rajammal P. Devadas, Sangam
Publishers for Madras Institue of Development Studies, Madras
1972.
7) " The conceptual basis of the Tamil adverbial participle" by
James Milton Lindholm, Thesis, University of Chicago, 1975
8) " Poems of Love and War: from the eight anthologies and the
ten long poems of classical tamil" selected and translated by
A.K.Ramanujan, Columnia University Press, 1985.
9) " Agricultural systems in Tamil Nadu: a case study of Peruval-
anallur village" by Yoshimi Komoguchi, University of Chicago
Dept. of Geography, 1986.
10)" The face behind the mask: Women in tamil literature" by
C.S. Lakshmi, Vikas Publishing House, New Delhi, 1984
11)" The first European Tamil grammar: a critical edition" by
Hans J. Vermeer; English version by Angelika Morath,
Heidelberg, Groos, 1982.
12)" Heritage of the Tamils : temple arts", by S.V.Subramanian,
G. Rajendran, International Institute of Tamil Studies,
Madras, 1985.
13)" Portrait of population: Tamil Nadu", K. Chockalingam,
Director of Census Operations, Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry
Controller of Publications, New Delhi, 1978.
14)" Tamil heroic poetry" by K. Kailasapathy, Oxford, Clarendon
Press, 1968.
15)" Tamil temple myths: sacrifice and divine marriage in the
South Indian Saiva tradition" by David Dean Schulman,
Princeton University Press, 1980.
16)" Tamil in 550 A.D.; an interpretation of early inscriptional
tamil" by Kamil Zvelebil, Prague, Pub. House of the
Czechoslavak Academy of Sciences, 1964
17)" Tirukkural: an ancient Tamil classic, Translation in verse
by Kasthuri Sreenivasan, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Bombay 1969
18)" The wisdom of the tamil people, as illustrated by translated
selections from their ancient literature" by Emmons E. White
Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers, New Delhi 1975
Happy reading!!
P. Nambi
Srini Pichumani
>
> Hi folks here is a list of some book on/about tamils that I was
> able to find:
>
There are a few more Very Important books/translations that I should point
out:
1. The Interior Landscape A.K.Ramanujan Indiana Univ Press, 1967
In this book, Prof.Ramanujan translates from the Kurundogai. His explanation
of many of the facets of Sangam poetry is fantastic. This book is the "de-facto"
standard for all later translations of Tamil poetry to English, appearing in
the West from time to time.
2. Hymns for the Drowning A.K.Ramanujan
This contains translations of the AzhvAr hymns.
3. Poems of Ancient Tamil; their milieu and their counterparts in Sanskrit
literature George L. Hart
This is a very interesting book; Prof.Hart actually has a Ph.D in Sanskrit from
Yale or Harvard University. At the instance of his mentor, Prof.Ingalls of
Harvard, another great Sanskritist, George Hart studied the Sangam poetry
and traces common themes occuring in Tamil, Prakrit, and Sanskrit.
In this book, he also questions Kailasapathy's and Zvelebil's view of Sangam
poetry as "Heroic Poetry".
4. The Smile of Murugan Kamil Zvelebil
Prof.Zvelebil takes a bird-eye view of different landmarks in Tamil literature.
5. Tamil Literature Kamil Zvelebil
This is probably the most comprehensive book on Tamil literature written in
English. Prof.Zvelebil touches upon all of the "ilakkiyam" available in Tamil
leaving out the "technical" texts like those of "saiva siddhAnta" and
grammar.
The book is encyclopaedic in scope, and is written in classic European style
(1, 1.1, 1.1.2, ...etc). Prof.Zvelebil gives references to the earliest
Christian catechisms that appeared in Tamil in the late 1500s, either in
Roman transliteration or in Tamil script. He points out that Tamil is the
first non-Western language in which movable type, a la Gutenberg, and
block printing was introduced.
There are some other acute observations in this book: like the change in
Tamil prosody, from the acai, cIr system to one based on mAtrAs. This
occurs in the medieval centuries.
--Srini.
ps: Many of these books are available in libraries around the country.