A. R. Gopala Pillai's Ph. D. thesis on the 'Linguistic interpretation of Liilaatilakam' though printed three years ago is released now due to his insistence on an introduction from me. An assignment at Tanjore and my ill health have prevented me from reading through the printed material in time. With a sense of guilt for the delay, I have a few observations on this work.
In three parts. A. R. G. has presented a critical analysis of the text and the commentary (part 1), the phonemic and morphemic analysis based on the text and the commentary (part 2) and the word index (part 3) which will appear later.
Reading through the two parts, one will be struck by the enormous amounts of labour and dedication of A. R. G. in collecting all available information connected with Liilaatilakam and arguing cogently about problems where the views of other researchers' are different.
A good edition of this great work which is a jewel among the early grammatical works of the Dravidian language is a desideratum and A. R. G. has assured that he will undertake it soon.
The early grammars of the four Dravidian languages are non-Paaniniyan in their contents. But Paaniniiyam was familiar to the grammarians of Malayalam, Telugu and Kannada. Only a commentator of Tolkaappiyam, Teyvaccilayar explicitly mentions Paanini. The Tamil work referred to above is considered to be non-Paaniniyan. The format of all early grammatical works in the four languages are grammar and rhetoric.
A hypothesis propounded chiefly by the Historians emphasises that it is the Bhakti movement which is responsible for the revival of the spoken languages in the north as well as in south India. In Tamil the Sangam classics followed by the twin epics and the ethical literature are anterior to the Bhakti literature, Thevaram and Nalayiraprabandham. The contribution of the Buddhists and Jains were considerable before the Bhakti poets. In Malayalam the pre-Liilaatilakam literature is on Sringara or of the adulatory type. The educated class, chiefly Brahmins made use of the spoken language to popularise Sanskrit works and themes. Contribution to Sanskrit is considerable from the Kerala coast. In Kannada the Bhakti literature of the Veerasaivas rose only after the 14th Century. Before that the Jains had contributed to the growth of the Kannada literature. Also in Telugu, literature dating before Ramanuja's time is available. Popularisation of northern mythologies and controlling The masses for political and administrative purposes through their own language might be responsible for the revival of the regional languages with the exception of Tamil.
The passion with which the author of Liilaatilakam pleads for the independence of Malayalam as against the Paandiya and Chola Bhasha is infectious. But he is well versed in the ancient grammars of Tamil especially Tolkaappiyam and Nannuul. The school of scholarship in Tamil which existed at that time in Kerala was different from that of Tamilnadu. The Akattiya Suutra quoted in the commentary of Liilaatilakam is not found in Tamil. Perhaps it was available during the commentator's time in Kerala. Chattampi Swaamigal's writing also has an instance, in referring to Naccinaarkkiniyar as the Madurai aaciriyar 'the teacher from Madurai'. This mode of reference to him is not found in Tamilnadu. The commentator's familiarity with Kannada, Telugu and Kodagu among the Dravidian langu-ages besides Tamil is also worthy of recall. He has an enviable sense of analysing the language material and his hypotheses are not incorrect.
**Contents and Sample Pages**
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