![]() A revivification of Tamil literature did take place commencing from the late nineteenth century, when studies of religious and philosophical inclination were penned in a style that made it easier for the common mass to relish. This gesture of relating with the masses, nationalist poets from the pre-independence period had begun to apply the power of poetry in inciting the masses. With growth of literacy, prose began to flower and unfold and mature towards its contemporary stage. Short stories and novels in Tamil literature began to make their sequential appearance. The tremendous admiration for Tamil Cinema has also furnished opportunities for modern Tamil poets to re-emerge. ![]() Tamil literature was classified into the broad categories of 'subjective' (akam) and 'objective' (puram) topics to enable the poetic minds to converse on any topic under the sun, from grammar to love, within the framework of well-prescribed, socially-accepted conventions. Subjective topics pertain to the personal or human facet of emotions that cannot be verbalised adequately or elucidated entirely. It can only be experienced by the individuals and comprises love and sexual relationship. Even Kuruntokai, a collection of poems belonging to the Ettuthokai anthology in Tamil literature, evidences an early handling of the Sangam landscape. Such handlings are however found to be much polished in the later works of Akananuru and Paripaatal. Paripaatal takes its name from the musical Paripaatal metre, applied in these above-mentioned poems; this is the first ever instance of a work set to music. Akaval and Kalippa were the other popular metres employed by poets during the Sangam age. Tamil literature, running parallel and in line with the state's evolution from ancientness to contemporaenity, holds a gargantuan time-line, beginning in pre-Christian era and still moving towards additional refinement. In this context, Tamil literature and its germination can be divided into the periods classified as: the Sangam Age in Tamil literature, the Post-Sangam Age in Tamil literature, Medieval Tamil Literature, Vijayanagar and Nayak Age in Tamil literature and, the Modern Era in Tamil literature. |