TAML5600 - Tamil Advanced Readings and Culture

This course is an introduction to Tamil literary works produced between the 3rd century BC and 4th century AD prior to bhakti literature which evolved from about the 6th century AD onwards with a specific focus on divinity and religious themes. Classical Tamil, in comparison to bhakti literature, is secular in nature and is devoid of any religious themes. We will read selected poems from the three major divisions of classical Tamil poems namely the eight anthologies, ten songs, and the five epics, and attempt to discuss how the three major themes namely Aham, Puram, and Didactics play a role in them. While the Aham works concentrate on love poems, ethics of love life, moods of the heroes and heroines, the other varieties of poems mainly discuss the political and moral lives of the Tamils.Even though knowledge of Tamil script and some grammar of Tamil would help understand the readings well, no prior knowledge of script and grammar is essential to take this course. We will read the poems in romanized script with English translations and attempt to illustrate the poems in English.Students will be required to write a number of short essays and a final long essay, either in Tamil or in English with transliterations with a research topic based on what is discussed in class.