Manuscripts, Memory and History: Classical Tamil Literature in Colonial India

The earliest stratum of Tamil literature - Ettuthogai, Pathuppattu and grammar Tolkappiyam is dated to the early centuries of the Common Era. Widely commented upon during the medieval period the classical corpus was known among the commentators as Canror Ceyyul (poetry of the noble ones). This book traces the history of classics during the modern period when print technology started to proliferate in Tamil society during the nineteenth and early twentieth century.

Tracing the manuscript copies of classical Tamil literature during the pre-colonial period the book investigates the social history of print-publication of this literature during the nineteenth and early twentieth century. The publication of classical Tamil literature created conditions for the reappraisal of Tamil literary history, a task taken up by the indigenous Tamil scholars. The process involved contesting the histories of and commentaries on Tamil literature by missionary-orientalists and colonial administrators. The book reconstructs the debate on Tamil literature among indigenous Tamil intellectuals, missionary-orientalists and colonial administrators. Classics also provided 'resources' for modern nationalism and the book locates the place of classical corpus in the organized politics of colonial Madras.