With a view to promoting the cause of Classical Tamil, CICT has mapped out various plans all of which will address the vital issues of the antiquity and uniqueness of Tamil.

• Engaging multidisciplinary scholars to study the antiquity of Tamil

• Research on the impact of Tamil language on other Dravidian languages

• Publishing the research outcome and findings related to the ancient Tamil grammar, literature

and archaeological studies

• Online teaching of Classical Tamil literature and grammar

• Carrying out researches on Dravidian comparative grammar and the study of Tamil dialects

• Creating Tamil Chairs in world-class Universities in different parts of the World to engage

multinational scholars in Tamil studies

• Providing Grant-in-Aid to the publication of ancient Tamil texts and to translate and publish

them in English and other Indian languages respectively

• Grant-in-Aid for short term research projects to Institutes and researchers who excel in Tamil

research

• The Presidential Awards for Classical Tamil to honour the distinguished scholars who have

made an outstanding contribution to Classical Tamil language and literature

DEFINITIVE EDITIONS OF THE ANCIENT TAMIL WORKS

The project aims to bring out definitive editions of the ancient Tamil Classics with accuracy and authenticity. The 41 ancient Tamil classics were selected for the project include both grammatical and literary texts which are original and which belong to the period between antiquity and 600 A.D. The project has so far published critical editions of Iṟaiyaṉār akapporuḷ and Aiṅkuṟunūṟu (Marutam, Neytal).

TRANSLATION OF ANCIENT TAMIL WORKS

At the first instance, the extant English translations of all the forty-one classical Tamil texts will be evaluated and edited by the expert committees. The translation will be in Tamil source text, with its transliteration, English translation, glossary and index. Through this project various classic texts including Tirukkuṟaḷ have been translated and published in English. Translation of Classical Tamil texts into Hindi, Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu and other Indian languages will also be undertaken.

HISTORICAL GRAMMAR OF TAMIL LANGUAGE

The aim of the project is to publish a comprehensive report on the historical grammar of Tamil language which evolved from Classical Age (300 B.C. to 600 A.D.), Middle Age (A.D. 601 to A.D. 1600) and Modern Age (1601 A.D. till date). The format of the grammatical description includes: defining the category (structural and notational), identifying the structure with examples (with morphological and syntactic properties), structural and functional variation through periods for each category with adequate examples and accommodation of both traditional and linguistic terminologies. Historical Tamil grammar will be published in both Tamil and English.

ANTIQUITY OF TAMIL: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH

Tamil is one of the longest surviving classical languages in the world. It is also stated as the 20th in the Ethnologue list of most-spoken languages worldwide. It has been described as “the only language of contemporary India which is recognized to be continuous with a classical past.” The variety and quality of classical Tamil literature has led to its being described as “one of the great classical traditions and literature of the world”. The earliest period of Tamil literature, Sangam literature, is dated from ca.500 BC -AD 300. It has the oldest extant literature among Indian languages. The earliest epigraphic records found on rock edicts and hero stones date from around the 5th century BC. The schemata include:

• Digitization and preservation of stone inscriptions representing the period up to 600 A.D.

• An annotated bibliography, digitization of photographs, and corpus development for inscribed

pottery

representing the period from antiquity to 600 A.D.

• Revival of excavation works in important sites such as Kodumanal, Azhagankulam and

Korkai.

• Decipherment of Indus scripts

• Preservation through digital photographs of ancient coins and jewellery

RESEARCH AND STUDY OF TAMIL DIALECTS (Synchronic & Diachronic study of

Tamil dialects)

• The aim of the project is to compare contemporary regional the dialectal information available

in ancientand medieval literary works, grammatical works, commentaries of classical Tamil

texts, inscriptions, manuscripts, revenue documents of Moghul and European periods,

Nighantus, Biblical translations, modern fictions and folklore

• Publishing of detailed dialect dictionaries and demographic atlases

• Preparation of a detailed account of the demography of the Tamil speaking population

in the world as a whole

• Compilation of information available on modern dialects- occupational, social and regional

• A filed survey of modern dialects

TAMIL AND OTHER LANGUAGES (India as a linguistic area)

The aim is to undertake comparative studies of Tamil with other Dravidian and non-Dravidian families of languages in India and also with other language families such as Indo-Aryan, Astro-Asiatic, Tibeto-Burman, Andamanese, Finno- Ugric, African and Australian.

• Publication of Core grammar of Indian languages with reference to Phonology, Morphology

and Syntax

• Publication of Multilingual Dictionary of Tamil and other Indian languages

• Study of relation between Dravidian and other families of languages

• Comparison between Tamil and other languages with reference to culture, linguistics and literature

DIGITAL LIBRARY FOR ANCIENT TAMIL STUDIES

The aim is to create an online repository for Tamil Classics and cyber-infrastructure for e-research, e-learning. (Institutional repositories, open archives, data collections) for antiquity studies.

• Creating a national repository of data and documents, for Tamil heritage that supports

searching of digital collections, and services related to Tamil studies

• Comprehensive collection and conversion of digitized materials related to Ancient Tamil

Studies

• E-publishing of Institute’s publications in Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (print and

e-versions) and Apple’s iBook store

ONLINE TEACHING OF CLASSICAL TAMIL

Classical Tamil Online provides a web-based course on Classical Tamil for the learners interested in interpreting the language as found in the ancient Tamil Texts. The course module will involve one hundred and twenty hours of instruction covering the four major kinds of ancient literature namely, Akam literature, Puṟam literature, Kāppiyam (epics) and Aṟam literature. The entire course content is organised in four modules; each module has three units and each unit has three lessons. Each lesson will be covered in three hours; and twelve hours have been allotted for both formative and summative assessment.

CORPUS DEVELOPMENT FOR CLASSICAL TAMIL WORKS

Corpus Development for Classical Tamil works is to prepare a machine-readable corpus on Tamil classics with thematic and grammatical tagging. The work will be carried out in three phases:

• Keying in all the forty-one ancient Tamil texts

• Thematic and grammatical tagging

• Developing different kinds of search facilities