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

The earliest stratum of Tamil literature – Ettuthogai,Pathuppattu and grammar Tolkappiyam is dated to theearly centuries of the Common Era. Widelycommented upon during the medieval period theclassical corpus was known among the commentatorsas Canror Ceyyul (poetry of the noble ones). This booktraces the history of classics during the modern periodwhen print technology started to proliferate in Tamilsociety during the nineteenth and early twentiethcentury.