.....Continued

Tamil is rich in devotional literature. Nayanmars are the exponents of Saivism and Alwars that of Vaishnavism. Thiru Jnanasamabandar, Thirunanukkarasar, Sundarar and Manikkavacakar are the four great Nayanmars. The great Alwars are 12 in number. Kulasekhara Alwar and Andal are specially remembered. There are 5 major kavyams and 5 minor kavyams in Tamil. Jain and Buddhist works are in abundance in the language.

Coming to the period between 13th and 18th centuries, we notice Muslim and Christian impact on the Tamil literature. Umaruppulavar composed a long poem of 5000 verses on the life of Prophet Mohammed. The Christian influence began with the Portugese and continued with the Danes, the Dutch, the French and the British. Beschi, Cadwell, Winslow and Pope have made significant contribution to Tamil. The Italian priest Beschi (1680-1747) composed the magnificent poetic work Tembavani (the Instiable Beauty) on the life of St. Joseph. Vedanayagam Pillai and Krishna Pillai are two other Christian poets.

20th century has produced many talented men of letters in various fields, Poetry, prose , novel, biography, drama, short stories etc. Dr. Swaminath Iyer unearthed many literary works and edited them. Swami Vadachalam, Thiru V. Kalyansundera Mudaliar and V.O.Chidambaram Pillai are great writers of the modern period. However, the greatest poet of modern period is Subramania Bharti whose patriotic poems have inspired thousands of readers of this time. In some of his poems like Kuyilpattu (song of the Cuckoo), Kannanpattu (poems on Lord Krishna) or Panchali Sapatham (the vow of Panchali) we notice a religious perception at work.

Rajam-Ayyar, Madha-vayya, Pudumaipithan, Ku-pa, Rajagopalan and Kalki Krishnamoorthy have contributed much to the field of Tamil fiction. In the post-Independence period several writers have come to the fore. Among poets, the names of Kulothungan, Ka-Na Subramanyam and C.S.Chellapa may be mentioned. And in fiction, the outstanding names are Akilan, Jayakanthan, Neela Padmanabhan, Sundararamaswamy, Ashokamitran and Indira Parthasarthy.