Encyclopaedia of South Indian Literature (In 3 Volumes)

South India is the area encompassing India’s states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry. South India is home to a large number of languages and dialects. South India has an independent literary tradition going back over 2000 years. The first known literature of South India are the poetic Sangams, which were written in Tamil between 2000 to 1500 years ago. Distinct Malayalam and Telugu literary traditions developed in the following centuries. The encyclopaedia deals with linguistic topics, ranging through the Dravidian family as a whole; others concentrate on specific languages, such as Tamil, Telugu, Kanadda and Malayalam. This pioneering work will interest all those in the fields of sociolinguistics, language studies, literature and sociology.