Old Tamil

Old Tamil is the period of the Tamil language spanning from the 3rd century BCE to the seventh century CE. Prior to Old Tamil, the period of Tamil linguistic development is termed as Proto-Tamil. After the Old Tamil period, Tamil becomes Middle Tamil. The earliest records in Old Tamil are inscriptions from between the 3rd and 1st century BCE in caves and on pottery. These inscriptions are written in a variant of the Brahmi script called Tamil-Brahmi. The earliest long text in Old Tamil is the Tolkāppiyam, an early work on Tamil grammar and poetics, whose oldest layers could be as old as the mid-2nd century BCE. Old Tamil preserved many features of Proto-Dravidian, the reconstructed common ancestor of the Dravidian languages, including inventory of consonants, the syllable structure, and various grammatical features.

According to Bhadriraju Krishnamurti, Tamil, as a Dravidian language, descends from Proto-Dravidian, a proto-language. Linguistic reconstruction suggests that Proto-Dravidian was spoken around the third millennium BCE, possibly in the region around the lower Godavari river basin in peninsular India. The material evidence suggests that the speakers of Proto-Dravidian were of the culture associated with the Neolithic complexes of South India. The earliest epigraphic attestations of Tamil are generally taken to have been written from the 2nd century BCE.

Among Indian languages, Tamil has the most ancient non-Sanskritic Indian literature. Scholars categorise the attested history of the language into three periods: Old Tamil (300 BCE–700 CE), Middle Tamil (700–1600) and Modern Tamil (1600–present). In November 2007, an excavation at Quseir al Qadim revealed Ancient Egyptian pottery dating back to first century BCE with ancient Tamil Brahmi inscriptions. There are a number of apparent Tamil loanwords in Biblical Hebrew dating to before 500 BCE, the oldest attestation of the language. John Guy states that Tamil was the lingua franca for early maritime traders from India.

Tamil began to trade with Greece, Rome, Egypt, China, Southeast Asia, Sri Lanka, and Tibet. Their ports were Tondi, Musiri and Comari, Colchi, Poduke and Sopatma. This was done during the period of Tamil independence from 600 BCE to 300 CE. The different types of ships that would go into the port were small vessels, large vessels, and ocean-going vessels. They received the largest number the Roman coins-hoards in Tamil. This ranges from different emperors of Rome as their dates on the coins and as well as the emperors on the coins are different. This trade even continued to the end of the Roman Empire and continued into the time of the Byzantine Empire. The Tamil also trade along the Red Sea as we have seen some of their goods such as potsherds found in dig sites. Rice and salt were popular goods that came out as exports as well as used as currency for bargaining. They were used as a means of bartering as they were able to transport large amounts and the demand for these items was always there. There was a port called Cholas that traded with the west and the Malaya coast.

There were large amounts of Roulette potteries and Roman coins were found in a brick jetty that they would put items into so they would be ready for when they needed to unload them a mound in Arikamedu with Rouletted ware, amphorae, conical jars, agate, and chalcedony. Two of the port cities were later destroyed by tsunamis. These were the cities of Thenmadurai and Kapatapuram. Archaeologist T. Satyamurth found 160 urns at their dig site. Dr. Jagor found 9000 objectives such as pottery, weapons, vessels, ornaments, stone beads, clothes, bones, ivory, sandalwood, and stone implements for grinding. The population wore cotton clothes and adorned the neck with ornaments made of beads, copper, and bronze.

Many literary works in Old Tamil have also survived. These include a corpus of 2,381 poems collectively known as Sangam literature. These poems are usually dated to between the 3rd century BCE and 5th century CE, which makes them the oldest extant body of literature in India. Other literary works in Old Tamil include Thirukural, Silappatikaram and Maṇimēkalai, and a number of ethical and didactic texts, written between the 5th and 8th centuries.

"Tamil is categorized as a classical language as it has a considerably extensive written tradition that is known for predating other classical works in India by over a thousand years." In addition, to its thousands of years of history as a literary language, notably during the Sangam period. A major distinction in this regard, is that Tamil is classified as a Dravidian language, making it the oldest written tradition not descended from Sanskrit in India.

The term Sangam refers to multiple periods in which Sangam Tamil literature originates. Notably, there are to be considered three primary Sangam periods, as well as a Post Sangam period. However, all Sangam literature available to us dates from the third Sangam period, as well as the Post Sangam period. Regardless of this, Sangam Tamil literature still nevertheless boasts a literary history spanning over 2,000 years, making it one of the oldest languages still in use today, as the Tamil from the Sangam period is still mutually intelligible to a degree by modern Tamil speakers. The exact dates of Sangam publications are debated by scholars. "There are two primary styles defined through Sangam literature, Akam and Puram. Through Akam, aspects of love and romantic feelings are portrayed through five distinct categories, each relating to a unique landscape. Puram typically displays aspects of war and politics."