Tolkāppiyam

Tolkāppiyam, also romanised as Tholkaappiyam ( , lit. "ancient poem"), is the oldest extant Tamil grammar text and the oldest extant long work of Tamil literature. The surviving manuscripts of the Tolkappiyam consists of three books (), each with nine chapters (), with a cumulative total of 1,610 (483+463+664) sutras in the meter. It is a comprehensive text on grammar, and includes sutras on orthography, phonology, etymology, morphology, semantics, prosody, sentence structure and the significance of context in language. Mayyon as (Vishnu), Seyyon as (Murugan), Vendhan as (Indra), Varuna as (Varuna) and Kotṟavai as (Devi or Bagavathi) are the gods mentioned.

The Tolkappiyam is difficult to date. Some in the Tamil tradition place the text in the historical Pandya kingdom Second tamil sangam, variously in 1st millennium BCE or earlier. Scholars place the text much later and believe the text evolved and expanded over a period of time. One perspective by Tamil scholar Na Mahalingam says it could be around 7 BCE. He uses the concept that the first month of tamil year keeps changing every 1000 years. Tolkappiyam mentions the starting month as Aavani. We now as chittirai as starting month. Ihis cycle has 9000 years. Since now we are in 2000 subtracting that, he says it is 7000 years oldAccording to Nadarajah Devapoopathy the earliest layer of the Tolkappiyam was likely composed between the 2nd and 1st century BCE, and the extant manuscript versions fixed by about the 5th century CE. The Tolkappiyam Ur-text likely relied on some unknown even older literature.