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Tamil: A Biography
Spoken by eighty million people in South Asia and a diaspora that stretches across the globe, Tamil is one of the great world languages, and one of the few ancient languages that survives as a mother tongue for so many speakers. David Shulman presents a comprehensive cultural history of Tamil language, literature, and civilization emphasizing how Tamil speakers and poets have understood the unique features of their language over its long history. Impetuous, musical, whimsical, in constant flux, Tamil is a living entity, and this is its biography.
Two stories animate Shulman s narrative. The first concerns the evolution of Tamil s distinctive modes of speaking, thinking, and singing. The second describes Tamil s major expressive themes, the stunning poems of love and war known as Sangam poetry, and Tamil s influence as a shaping force within Hinduism. Shulman tracks Tamil from its earliest traces at the end of the first millennium BCE through the classical period, 850 to 1200 CE, when Tamil-speaking rulers held sway over southern India, and into late-medieval and modern times, including the deeply contentious politics that overshadow Tamil today.
Tamil is more than a language, Shulman says. It is a body of knowledge, much of it intrinsic to an ancient culture and sensibility. Tamil can mean both knowing how to love in the manner of classical love poetry and being a civilized person. It is thus a kind of grammar, not merely of the language in its spoken and written forms but of the creative potential of its speakers.
Two stories animate Shulman s narrative. The first concerns the evolution of Tamil s distinctive modes of speaking, thinking, and singing. The second describes Tamil s major expressive themes, the stunning poems of love and war known as Sangam poetry, and Tamil s influence as a shaping force within Hinduism. Shulman tracks Tamil from its earliest traces at the end of the first millennium BCE through the classical period, 850 to 1200 CE, when Tamil-speaking rulers held sway over southern India, and into late-medieval and modern times, including the deeply contentious politics that overshadow Tamil today.
Tamil is more than a language, Shulman says. It is a body of knowledge, much of it intrinsic to an ancient culture and sensibility. Tamil can mean both knowing how to love in the manner of classical love poetry and being a civilized person. It is thus a kind of grammar, not merely of the language in its spoken and written forms but of the creative potential of its speakers.
416 pages, Hardcover
First published September 30, 2016
85 people are currently reading
985 people want to read
About the author
David Dean Shulman
35 books41 followersDavid Dean Shulman is an Indologist and regarded as one of the world’s foremost authorities on the languages of India. His research embraces many fields, including the history of religion in South India, Indian poetics, Tamil Islam, Dravidian linguistics, and Carnatic music. He is also a published poet in Hebrew, a literary critic, a cultural anthropologist, and a peace activist. He has authored or co-authored more than 20 books on various subjects ranging from temple myths and temple poems to essays that cover the wide spectrum of the cultural history of South India
In 1967, on graduating from Waterloo high school, he won a National Merit Scholarship, and emigrated to Israel, where he enrolled at Hebrew University. He graduated in 1971 with a B.A. degree in Islamic History, specializing in Arabic. He gained his doctorate in Tamil and Sanskrit. Shulman is a peace activist, and member of the joint Israeli-Palestininian 'Life-in-Common' or Ta'ayush grass-roots movement for non-violence.
In 1967, on graduating from Waterloo high school, he won a National Merit Scholarship, and emigrated to Israel, where he enrolled at Hebrew University. He graduated in 1971 with a B.A. degree in Islamic History, specializing in Arabic. He gained his doctorate in Tamil and Sanskrit. Shulman is a peace activist, and member of the joint Israeli-Palestininian 'Life-in-Common' or Ta'ayush grass-roots movement for non-violence.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
October 3, 2016
A movingly passionate (and more than a little geeky) study of both Tamil's nature a language and Tamil's long history of literary works. As an introduction to a totally alien-yet-alluring new world, it gives most science fiction some serious competition! My fuller review:
http://www.openlettersmonthly.com/boo...
http://www.openlettersmonthly.com/boo...
March 2, 2021
EDIT: Over time, I've come to appreciate this work even more. The couple of misgivings I had in the review below seem to be too minor in the face of the overall value of the book. I shouldn't have focused as much on those as I did in my review below.
David Shulman has written this comprehensive book on Tamil rich in facts. He displays a deep appreciation for nuanced aspects of Tamil grammar and literature, far exceeding levels a non-native speaker can be expected to achieve. However there are a few issues with this book. There's a subtle bias, sort of an overreaction due to the author's eagerness to counter modern era purist movements and assumptions. Because of that, among other things, the author seems to use non-native Sanskrit grammatical terminology almost always in parenthesis, but occasionally as the main term, giving scope for misleading interpretation.
He also shows a slight frustration at what he perceives as a negative fallout of rediscovery of the classical works causing modern literature to languish. There's probably some truth to that, but he has overlooked a major domain where modern literature thrived, theatre and cinema. His over-reliance on Iraiyanar Agapporul and the myths in it is an issue too.
Despite the two issues, Shulman has brought out a well balanced set of facts for which I'd recommend this book. I've cited this book several times since I finished reading it. One other note on style is that it's quite ornate and laboured for the tastes of some readers.
David Shulman has written this comprehensive book on Tamil rich in facts. He displays a deep appreciation for nuanced aspects of Tamil grammar and literature, far exceeding levels a non-native speaker can be expected to achieve. However there are a few issues with this book. There's a subtle bias, sort of an overreaction due to the author's eagerness to counter modern era purist movements and assumptions. Because of that, among other things, the author seems to use non-native Sanskrit grammatical terminology almost always in parenthesis, but occasionally as the main term, giving scope for misleading interpretation.
He also shows a slight frustration at what he perceives as a negative fallout of rediscovery of the classical works causing modern literature to languish. There's probably some truth to that, but he has overlooked a major domain where modern literature thrived, theatre and cinema. His over-reliance on Iraiyanar Agapporul and the myths in it is an issue too.
Despite the two issues, Shulman has brought out a well balanced set of facts for which I'd recommend this book. I've cited this book several times since I finished reading it. One other note on style is that it's quite ornate and laboured for the tastes of some readers.
February 11, 2021
A Scholarly work on Tamil, the language.
The audience of this is for other scholars.
The title of the book needs to be renamed, "Scholarly work on Tamil Linguistic History"
Because, Tamil, a biography does not fit accurately.
What can you quote from this work?
Tamiḻ, means something like “knowing how to love."
"Do you know proper Tamil?”
He means by this: “Do you know how to behave properly as a male lover should"
Knowing Tamil, means to be civilized.
My Suggestions:
The Author constantly inundated with poetry. I understand, they are part of important literary works of Tamil.
I could not follow. I am not interested in archaic, turgid poetry, with exhaustive insights.
Maybe you can enlightenment me -- how I can benefit from them? I am not a Tamil Scholar.
I understand the book is scholarly, many academic works are clear, well-structure.
One can refer this work for scholarly sources of Tamil works
For layman interested in History of Tamil; History of Tamil Nadu, this would not be recommended.
Deus Vult,
Gottfried
The audience of this is for other scholars.
The title of the book needs to be renamed, "Scholarly work on Tamil Linguistic History"
Because, Tamil, a biography does not fit accurately.
What can you quote from this work?
Tamiḻ, means something like “knowing how to love."
"Do you know proper Tamil?”
He means by this: “Do you know how to behave properly as a male lover should"
Knowing Tamil, means to be civilized.
My Suggestions:
The Author constantly inundated with poetry. I understand, they are part of important literary works of Tamil.
I could not follow. I am not interested in archaic, turgid poetry, with exhaustive insights.
Maybe you can enlightenment me -- how I can benefit from them? I am not a Tamil Scholar.
I understand the book is scholarly, many academic works are clear, well-structure.
One can refer this work for scholarly sources of Tamil works
For layman interested in History of Tamil; History of Tamil Nadu, this would not be recommended.
Deus Vult,
Gottfried
February 18, 2018
Either Shulman, or his editors would seem to have specially exerted themselves towards making the book as incomprehensible to the lay reader as only a professor with assured tenure could. I refer to the learned professor's observations on such perfectly innocuous and mundane Tamil sentences such as " I may have peeked out" and "I may have thought". Consider this sentence that occurs on page 11-
"If one adds to this particularly thick set of modal devices the omnipresent aspectual morphology of the Tamil verb - that is, the use of verbal chains, or so-called auxiliary verbs, to define the action as either fully completed or as continuing in one of several possible patterns, in all three tenses - the result is a supple, systemic expressivity beautifully suited to specifying what happens in the sentence (in particular the nature and meaning of an action either as enacted in external space or as transpiring, or undergoing interpretation, somewhere in the mind)."
The deed seems particularly black considering the cheery and light-hearted opening promise of the author to format his book in the nature of a music concert, a 'kutcheri'. Shulman must be the only performer of carnatic music whose audience is sorely tempted to desert him right at the opening alapana in favour of crisp vadas in the canteen.
For the moment, the book rests where it gives least offence, the bright orange jacket eyesore hidden from public view. Looks like one would have to be extremely nimble, and avoiding such jabberwocky, consider oneself lucky if one can plod through as much as a fifth of the book.
"If one adds to this particularly thick set of modal devices the omnipresent aspectual morphology of the Tamil verb - that is, the use of verbal chains, or so-called auxiliary verbs, to define the action as either fully completed or as continuing in one of several possible patterns, in all three tenses - the result is a supple, systemic expressivity beautifully suited to specifying what happens in the sentence (in particular the nature and meaning of an action either as enacted in external space or as transpiring, or undergoing interpretation, somewhere in the mind)."
The deed seems particularly black considering the cheery and light-hearted opening promise of the author to format his book in the nature of a music concert, a 'kutcheri'. Shulman must be the only performer of carnatic music whose audience is sorely tempted to desert him right at the opening alapana in favour of crisp vadas in the canteen.
For the moment, the book rests where it gives least offence, the bright orange jacket eyesore hidden from public view. Looks like one would have to be extremely nimble, and avoiding such jabberwocky, consider oneself lucky if one can plod through as much as a fifth of the book.
June 29, 2017
Tamil by David Shulman is a brilliant book that traces the life of the language. The moment he starts with why he considers Tamil as a life form instead of a language, you will be hooked on to the book.
He tries to pin a date of origin and doesn’t shy away from comparing and contrasting with Sanskrit. He elaborately dwells into the legends surrounding the origins and development of Tamil grammar. He also discusses the impact of various kingdoms, castes and temples on the growth of the language. The way it was structured is profound - he talks about the different speaking modes of the language, and on the other hand, he eloquently illuminates the beauty of ‘Akam’ and ‘Puram’ poetry.
The vast list of references (20% of the book on Kindle) is a treasure trove and shows the effort gone into the writing.It was a difficult read due to the use of accent notations for Tamil names written in English. I expected him to discuss the Dravidian movement and Tamil nationalism in detail, but he hasn’t.
The book is one of the definitive, unbiased pieces of writing on Tamil and celebrates the beauty of the language.
He tries to pin a date of origin and doesn’t shy away from comparing and contrasting with Sanskrit. He elaborately dwells into the legends surrounding the origins and development of Tamil grammar. He also discusses the impact of various kingdoms, castes and temples on the growth of the language. The way it was structured is profound - he talks about the different speaking modes of the language, and on the other hand, he eloquently illuminates the beauty of ‘Akam’ and ‘Puram’ poetry.
The vast list of references (20% of the book on Kindle) is a treasure trove and shows the effort gone into the writing.It was a difficult read due to the use of accent notations for Tamil names written in English. I expected him to discuss the Dravidian movement and Tamil nationalism in detail, but he hasn’t.
The book is one of the definitive, unbiased pieces of writing on Tamil and celebrates the beauty of the language.
June 14, 2018
Shulman attributes to the language of Tamil, an obsession with in-ness (and a love for the flow of life and power) and thence pours life into the language itself. So the book is told as a biography not a history. To resonate with a musicality of that language - and language in general - the book also runs like a Karnatic Katcheri: beginning with an aalapana and ending with a Ragamalika. The book is an account of primarily the language and literature, politics and other aspects of culture act to give fillip to the first two. Very early on questions about origins of the language and the apparent distance between 'Aryan' and 'Dravidian' languages are discussed. A closely aligned debate is that around the relation that this ancient language has with the other: Sanskrit. This is a thread that runs long, thick, and consistently in Shulman's work. He takes a dispassionate approach in saying this political and controversial story - that is filled with amusing anecdotes, linguistics and philology, etymology. Ideas are important in this book but so are great men, Tamir-Muni: Agastya, Ilango Adigal, Valluvar, the Bhakti saints, the trinity of Karnatic Music, and Periyar. This has a very crucial place in language studies in India. Although the melody of the book can better be experienced by those who are fluent with the language, this is still a book for all.
June 9, 2017
Come for the linguistics, stay for the poems. What a wonderful book! Shulman is clearly at the top of his game, wise and knowledgeable without being a show-off of all that he knows (and he knows a lot).
The book takes us through the history of Tamil as a language, using examples from poetry and prose. Shulman is a great raconteur, mixing stories with analysis with nudges to keep the narrative flowing. For a non-specialist, I found this pretty dense to follow along, but really I don't see how he could have done it any other way.
Highly recommended as an introduction to something you're unlikely to come across otherwise, and as a gateway to a huge literary tradition.
The book takes us through the history of Tamil as a language, using examples from poetry and prose. Shulman is a great raconteur, mixing stories with analysis with nudges to keep the narrative flowing. For a non-specialist, I found this pretty dense to follow along, but really I don't see how he could have done it any other way.
Highly recommended as an introduction to something you're unlikely to come across otherwise, and as a gateway to a huge literary tradition.
October 20, 2016
An excellent history of the Tamil language from one of its foremost students; written in an easy style without foregoing scholarly rigor. Worth it!
Read
August 28, 2017It is by no means easy to chronicle the history of a two thousand year old language which is rich and so full of life. David Shulman manages that task considerably well providing a detailed account of the history and the evolution of the language. My biggest problem with Shulman's narrative was that he assumes far too much to be already known to the reader. He expects the reader to be familiar with specific concepts in linguistics. The book keeps alternating between arcane and lucid. The first hundred pages of the book turned out to be a difficult read for me. I wasn't much familiar with phonemes or lexemes or the Sangam poetry that it dealt with. The book moves to easier territory with Thiruvalluvar and Kamban and the latter day poets, but still, it felt like Shulman could have eased down the narrative in areas that concern linguistics, even in the latter part of the book where he explains Manipravala and Lila-Tilakam. I enjoyed Shulman's take on Valluvar specifically and how he is underrated as a love poet. Shulman analyzes specific aspects of poets and movements like Kambar and his idea of truth incredibly well. Oh, and have to give it to Shulman, he is a connoisseur. His choices of poems for examples are brilliant. I especially enjoyed his choice for Irayanar Agaporul. And I could see his anecdotes were very well researched. I would say this is one of those books that you would want to refer back to again and again to enjoy specific portions.
July 30, 2019
A must read for any Tamil who wants to know about the long, complex and beautiful life of his/her language - no Tamil could have written it better. For others who seek to know about about the Tamil language, civilization and the people, this should be the first book you pick up. The book flows like music.
November 24, 2022
my favorite thing about talking to family members sometimes is that because of my fluency in speaking tamil and knowing the amount that i read, they just...forget that i'm completely illiterate in it. they show me something or tell me to write something down and i just stare at them blankly until they awkwardly laugh and switch topics of discussion.
i couldn't read this in its entirety, partly because i hated the translations of the tamil poems (although there's nothing i can do about that, save for learning how to read tamil, which i have been attempting to do for 3 years to no avail), and partly because shulman is so wordy and complex in his explanations. some parts interested me, and others bored me out of my mind.
the parts that interested me and actually taught me things about my language that i didn't know before made me want to keep reading; the parts that made me want to go to sleep weren't meant for me—they were meant for academics and english majors and poetry writes and tamil scholars, none of which are my cup of tea.
i'm gonna be completely honest, i had no idea that tamil was considered a romantic language before reading this. yes, i did consider it better than english (purely because of variety of expressions we use and levels of dramatics and easier set-up for comedy that doesn't exist in english) but romantic? but then i read some of the poems (the ones that were tamil words written about using the english alphabet) and i thought: oh. now i get why.
the complexity of this language that i can joke around and speak in completely floors me, because just when i think i know everything there is to know about it, it turns out that i am an idiot, and i know absolutely nothing. it's even worse now, because now i know that i know nothing, and i can't even read this entire thing to find out what i don't know, because i can't understand half of it—the amount of background knowledge i need for this is extensive, because i know nothing of tamil poetry.
the only thing i can do at this point is increase my efforts in reading tamil (as of yesterday, it took me an hour to read an entire paragraph).
i couldn't read this in its entirety, partly because i hated the translations of the tamil poems (although there's nothing i can do about that, save for learning how to read tamil, which i have been attempting to do for 3 years to no avail), and partly because shulman is so wordy and complex in his explanations. some parts interested me, and others bored me out of my mind.
the parts that interested me and actually taught me things about my language that i didn't know before made me want to keep reading; the parts that made me want to go to sleep weren't meant for me—they were meant for academics and english majors and poetry writes and tamil scholars, none of which are my cup of tea.
Specifically, Tamil means something like "knowing how to love"—in the manner of the classical love poetry with its conventions, its heroes and heroines, its powerful expressive and suggestive techniques. This the great poet Cuntaramurti Nayanar...says to his god, the beautiful but unpredictable Lord Shiva [...] "Do you know proper Tamil?" He means by this: "Do you know how to behave properly as a male love should? Can you understand the hints and implicit meanings that a proficient lover out to be able to decipher?"
i'm gonna be completely honest, i had no idea that tamil was considered a romantic language before reading this. yes, i did consider it better than english (purely because of variety of expressions we use and levels of dramatics and easier set-up for comedy that doesn't exist in english) but romantic? but then i read some of the poems (the ones that were tamil words written about using the english alphabet) and i thought: oh. now i get why.
the complexity of this language that i can joke around and speak in completely floors me, because just when i think i know everything there is to know about it, it turns out that i am an idiot, and i know absolutely nothing. it's even worse now, because now i know that i know nothing, and i can't even read this entire thing to find out what i don't know, because i can't understand half of it—the amount of background knowledge i need for this is extensive, because i know nothing of tamil poetry.
the only thing i can do at this point is increase my efforts in reading tamil (as of yesterday, it took me an hour to read an entire paragraph).
October 27, 2019
The opening chapters, the blurb and popular reviews of the books fail to mention a key aspect about this book: that the text is not aimed at a lay audience. In fact, all of my preliminary research before buying this book seemed to suggest the opposite. I bought this book to learn more about Tamil, its history, literature and other linguistic aspects. While the book does open with a couple of excellent chapters on Tamil syntax (left-branching vs. right-branching), its poetry (akam vs. puram) and its mythic history and role in Tamil life, it soon ends up becoming a lectern for the author from which to declaim to his fellow-scholars. The lucid, engaging writing style of the first few chapters soon vanish and is instead replaced with an altogether dense technical style that would leave most lay-readers clueless as to what the author is on about. Here is a sample sentence: "And like the Sanskrit original, the Tamil mantric idiom, incorporating a hypersemantics moving into trans-semantics, is fully grammiaticalized, with rules and metarules that can be inferred from usage." Got that?
That said, I very much enjoyed the snippets of Tamil poetry that the author included with little commentaries on their beauty. It is a shame most of the other discussion just went right over my head.
That said, I very much enjoyed the snippets of Tamil poetry that the author included with little commentaries on their beauty. It is a shame most of the other discussion just went right over my head.
April 11, 2019
The book discusses the history of Tamil through literary works, poems and poets. It also highlights the early political regimes (Chola, Chera, Pandyas and Pallavas) that shaped the language. Few pages could be overwhelming for non-native speaker and it is easy to get lost with so many (long) names. Being a native speaker but not well versed with Tamil literature, first few pages were difficult for me to follow. The book focuses on "akam" and "puram", majorly discussed through poems. Works of Tiruvalluvar are highly appreciated in Chapter 2. It also describes the influence of Tamil in Sanskrit and vice versa. Since being an academician and an outsider, Shulman has tried to portray the facts in a balanced (non-controversial) way. A great starting point to know about the language. Worth a (slow) read!
June 21, 2020
I found this difficult to read - a bit too scholarly for the lay person. (Maybe it is meant to be that way) The material seems to require some background in tamil, tamil history and/or language studies . The presentation is also a bit dry and at times sentences are crowded with names of people, places and works - which distracts from the story telling. The transliteration too was quite disturbing - the dots,dashes and spelling protocols often rendered the otherwise familiar names and phrases, unfamiliar. Nevertheless, it has its parts and should be quite useful as a reference for those with a broad interest in Tamil culture.
January 11, 2020
In Tamil, David Shulman walks us through the evolution of the Tamil language and its literature over the last 2000 years. Some of the latter chapters in the book are quite dense, when he goes into the details of syntax and morphology of tamil literature, but you can skim through it if you are interested only in the broad strokes. I think the book is aimed at a semi-professional audience but it certainly provides the necessary introduction and sets the scene if you want to delve deeper into Tamil/South Indian history.
October 22, 2024
David Dean Shulman's Tamil: A Biography is a profound exploration of the Tamil language, intertwining its historical evolution with a rich tapestry of literary tradition. The book is structured uniquely, resembling a Carnatic music composition, which reflects Shulman's artistic approach to the subject matter.
Shulman presents two primary narratives: the evolution of Tamil and the development of its literary corpus. He begins with a historical linguistic overview, tracing Tamil's origins back to its earliest inscriptions and moving through significant literary periods, including the classical Sangam poetry and the medieval literary renaissance. This dual narrative allows readers to appreciate both the language's structural dynamics and its cultural expressions.
Historical Context:
The book emphasizes that Tamil has never existed in isolation. Shulman argues against the notion of a pure, autonomous Tamil, illustrating how it has interacted with Sanskrit and other languages throughout history. This perspective challenges prevalent Tamil nationalist narratives that often romanticize a primordial Tamil identity detached from external influences.
Literary Richness:
Shulman delves into the intricate world of Sangam literature, particularly focusing on the poetic categories of akam (love) and puram (war). His analysis highlights the significance of landscape in shaping these poetic forms, offering a nuanced understanding of Tamil's expressive capabilities.
Modern Challenges:
In discussing modern Tamil literature, Shulman acknowledges his limitations but critiques contemporary purist movements that overlook Tamil's historical complexities. He argues for a more integrated view that recognizes the contributions of various cultural and linguistic influences over time.
Writing Style
Shulman's prose is described as lyrical and engaging, making complex linguistic concepts accessible to a broader audience. His storytelling blends scholarly rigor with personal insights, creating a narrative that is both informative and enjoyable to read46. The use of musical terminology to structure chapters adds an additional layer of creativity to the work.
In conclusion, David Dean Shulman's Tamil: A Biography serves as both an academic resource and a literary journey through one of the world's oldest languages. It challenges readers to reconsider their understanding of linguistic nationalism while celebrating the rich heritage of Tamil literature.
Shulman presents two primary narratives: the evolution of Tamil and the development of its literary corpus. He begins with a historical linguistic overview, tracing Tamil's origins back to its earliest inscriptions and moving through significant literary periods, including the classical Sangam poetry and the medieval literary renaissance. This dual narrative allows readers to appreciate both the language's structural dynamics and its cultural expressions.
Historical Context:
The book emphasizes that Tamil has never existed in isolation. Shulman argues against the notion of a pure, autonomous Tamil, illustrating how it has interacted with Sanskrit and other languages throughout history. This perspective challenges prevalent Tamil nationalist narratives that often romanticize a primordial Tamil identity detached from external influences.
Literary Richness:
Shulman delves into the intricate world of Sangam literature, particularly focusing on the poetic categories of akam (love) and puram (war). His analysis highlights the significance of landscape in shaping these poetic forms, offering a nuanced understanding of Tamil's expressive capabilities.
Modern Challenges:
In discussing modern Tamil literature, Shulman acknowledges his limitations but critiques contemporary purist movements that overlook Tamil's historical complexities. He argues for a more integrated view that recognizes the contributions of various cultural and linguistic influences over time.
Writing Style
Shulman's prose is described as lyrical and engaging, making complex linguistic concepts accessible to a broader audience. His storytelling blends scholarly rigor with personal insights, creating a narrative that is both informative and enjoyable to read46. The use of musical terminology to structure chapters adds an additional layer of creativity to the work.
In conclusion, David Dean Shulman's Tamil: A Biography serves as both an academic resource and a literary journey through one of the world's oldest languages. It challenges readers to reconsider their understanding of linguistic nationalism while celebrating the rich heritage of Tamil literature.
November 1, 2021
Tamil: A Biography takes a ln interesting but apt approach to the history of the South Indian states and the Tamil-birthed languages that exist in South india, by following the language itself.
The book starts with the origins of the language itself, the deep and revivalism lt culture or Sangam poems and the ethos around it, and goes up till the modern times, . Citing several poems of all these eras, and elaborating and giving context for all of them over its pages, it is a very beautifully explained and in depth foray into the language and culture, and the multiple cultural Renaissances that took place in the south at almost every stage of it's history.
And maybe language is the right way to approach Tamil nationalism, as the novel also covers the shortcomings of parties like DMK and their history, as well as the future of the language (and how lingual states hamper the free flow of information). It also unintentionally brings up a narrative of unity with the North in explaining the continuous and constant Sanskrit influence from the Sangam to the Tamil Vedas (which were performed unlike the Sanskrit Vedas that were simply recited). It also makes one realise how much of Indian history is truly ignored in the education of Indian History.
Overall it's a great andin depth book, but it may not be for everyone; those into poetry or those who are already well versed with the meta-Tamilian (incl Telegu, Kannada,etc) culture, or both, may get more out of this. Poetry fans and South India fans have a lot to get out of this.
This book is a 9/10. For more reviews, follow @normiesaftersesh on instagram.
The book starts with the origins of the language itself, the deep and revivalism lt culture or Sangam poems and the ethos around it, and goes up till the modern times, . Citing several poems of all these eras, and elaborating and giving context for all of them over its pages, it is a very beautifully explained and in depth foray into the language and culture, and the multiple cultural Renaissances that took place in the south at almost every stage of it's history.
And maybe language is the right way to approach Tamil nationalism, as the novel also covers the shortcomings of parties like DMK and their history, as well as the future of the language (and how lingual states hamper the free flow of information). It also unintentionally brings up a narrative of unity with the North in explaining the continuous and constant Sanskrit influence from the Sangam to the Tamil Vedas (which were performed unlike the Sanskrit Vedas that were simply recited). It also makes one realise how much of Indian history is truly ignored in the education of Indian History.
Overall it's a great andin depth book, but it may not be for everyone; those into poetry or those who are already well versed with the meta-Tamilian (incl Telegu, Kannada,etc) culture, or both, may get more out of this. Poetry fans and South India fans have a lot to get out of this.
This book is a 9/10. For more reviews, follow @normiesaftersesh on instagram.
November 2, 2020
A highly academic biography of the Tamil language and certain aspects of the Tamil culture. A rather critical review here:
The book, on rough inspection, strives to give off a sense of an easy writing for the lay-person, emphasized by the arrangement as aspects of a Carnatic music concert. Indeed, the first couple of pages do give an impression of how passionate the author is about the language -- as a Tamil, I felt moved. But things only started getting complicated from thereon.
The author is an excellent academic, but he is unsure of his audience -- is it written for graduate students in language? Is it written for a Tamil-speaking lay-person? Or is it written for a lay person without any comprehension of Tamil language, but with a genuine interest in learning the literary aspects? The author is totally lost here. The target starts off as a lay person and then goes on to be complicated to the level of graduate students.
One of the fundamental tenets of "Scientific outreach" is simplify, abstract and let the reader evolve with your text. The author superbly fails in this regard. I loved some of the Tamil poems the author quotes, but got totally lost in the author's interpretation of these poems: why, I found the English interpretation to be extremely difficult to comprehend w.r.t the Tamil poem itself!
Read this book only if you are well-versed with academic texts in Tamil/linguistics. Else, you may end up frustrated and drop the book.
The book, on rough inspection, strives to give off a sense of an easy writing for the lay-person, emphasized by the arrangement as aspects of a Carnatic music concert. Indeed, the first couple of pages do give an impression of how passionate the author is about the language -- as a Tamil, I felt moved. But things only started getting complicated from thereon.
The author is an excellent academic, but he is unsure of his audience -- is it written for graduate students in language? Is it written for a Tamil-speaking lay-person? Or is it written for a lay person without any comprehension of Tamil language, but with a genuine interest in learning the literary aspects? The author is totally lost here. The target starts off as a lay person and then goes on to be complicated to the level of graduate students.
One of the fundamental tenets of "Scientific outreach" is simplify, abstract and let the reader evolve with your text. The author superbly fails in this regard. I loved some of the Tamil poems the author quotes, but got totally lost in the author's interpretation of these poems: why, I found the English interpretation to be extremely difficult to comprehend w.r.t the Tamil poem itself!
Read this book only if you are well-versed with academic texts in Tamil/linguistics. Else, you may end up frustrated and drop the book.
January 4, 2022
Tamil: A Biography
Can anyone weave political thoughts around a life of a language? Could not a biography of English language be written to explain Imperialism of the West? Could not a biography of Sanskrit be a narrative of how the caste system got created in the society? David Dean Shulman has traced Tamil’s journey as independent small tradition to Tamil’s symbiotic existence with Sanskrit and then taking on the Sanskrit! A journey that explains various social systems that got formed, perpetuated and extinguished! There are many critics to that book, but the main critic would be how Tamil is seen only as the basis for Brahmin and Non-Brahmin divide, and not from the life of an Adi-Dravida caste! That would require a Neelam Production to do that.
Can anyone weave political thoughts around a life of a language? Could not a biography of English language be written to explain Imperialism of the West? Could not a biography of Sanskrit be a narrative of how the caste system got created in the society? David Dean Shulman has traced Tamil’s journey as independent small tradition to Tamil’s symbiotic existence with Sanskrit and then taking on the Sanskrit! A journey that explains various social systems that got formed, perpetuated and extinguished! There are many critics to that book, but the main critic would be how Tamil is seen only as the basis for Brahmin and Non-Brahmin divide, and not from the life of an Adi-Dravida caste! That would require a Neelam Production to do that.
November 18, 2022
With such an exciting-looking cover and simple name, and an opening chapter that teaches very basic facts about the Tamil language and claims to be written as an artistic piece, the book seemed to be aimed at layman, and I thought it was about the history of the Tamil language. The rest of the book, however, is clearly aimed at other academics, and focuses mostly on Tamil culture and literary development. I found it entirely too dense to get through, and ended up just reading the chapter summaries. I was particularly disappointed at the lack of details on the language, its diachronic evolution, the diglossia situation, and no mention anywhere of the beautiful orthography (which has also changed over time).
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February 3, 2022This book touches on the evolution of the language, about its wide usage in the past, and the importance attributed to it. The author, a non-Indian, has researched and presented quite a few aspects of the language some of which might even be unknown to the people who use it daily. While there are aspects of the book that are quite intense and would need the reader to know the language to understand this book, the major part of the book will also interest any reader interested in learning about the different aspects of a language.
Due to the nature of the subject, the book does get a bit boring and might seem to be a drag sometimes.
Due to the nature of the subject, the book does get a bit boring and might seem to be a drag sometimes.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 7, 2019
A fascinating and deeply scholarly linguistic, literary and historical journey through Tamil in its many forms. Prof Shulman's love for the Tamil language, and particularly its poetry really comes across. The writing is however very dense and not as accessible as it could be, which detracts a little from what is otherwise an excellent book (possibly so much so that for a lay reader with no background in linguistics I suspect it may at times seem impenetrable).
April 30, 2023
This is a poetic study of a fascinating subject, Tamil, and allows for an alternative viewpoint on South Asia, specifically, from a southern point of view. It is very erudite but very difficult to follow. Nonetheless, books written by poets can be incisive and illuminating. One pet peeve is that there are next to no dates for the first few sections on the development of Sangam poetry. He just jumps into book titles. But maybe there are difficulties with chronology.
May 30, 2020
Thought that this book will cover the origin and evolution of Tamil language. Chapter 1 started on the right note on some research of the language but soon degenerated in to dry theory. Author discusses about poetry , prose which is really dry. A extremely slow and difficult book to read.
October 22, 2020
The biggest reason I gave this book 3 stars and not something more is because, at times, I felt like I was reading a PhD dissertation as a linguist and not a book as a casual reader. There is a lot of great content and poems in this book though, which makes it more enjoyable.
March 23, 2017
this romp through the shifts and twists of Tamil is beautiful yet at times feels exhausting and overwhelming. written for lovers of the language more than for people just developing an interest, slow reading is advised ;)
February 22, 2020
A very difficult book to read. Definitely not for someone trying to look for a quick history of Tamil . The book feels more like a thesis on Tamil and its intricacies and richness .
September 21, 2020
Fairly technical but if you are a linguaphile and fond of History in general, this is for you!
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March 14, 2017This book is quite scholarly and has the look and feel of a PhD dissertation. Not meant for a lay audience at all. Even the brief sections that I found interesting would probably be opaque to non-native speakers. Two stars if I were to rate the book based on my reading experience but will skip rating it since I had the wrong idea about the book going in.
April 14, 2017
Thanks to this book which restored my reading habit after a long time. I have no idea how many books have already being written about Tamil language in English but I found this one fortunately when I was quite desperate to have a general knowledge of Tamil language. It does not teach you Tamil of course but it lets you know about the "life" of Tamil. I am an Indian but I don't know Tamil and unfortunately Hindi writers have not bothered to write such a book. Anyway, Tamil preserves India's cultural heritage and the writer of this book deserves accolades that he wrote such a book. I wish it be translated in Hindi so that Hindi readers know about the greatness of Tamil too. The language itself of this book reflects that the author is a refined linguist. He does not bombard the reader with difficult vocabulary but uses words which you wonder do exist, like "autochthonous." (Pardon my ignorance).
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