to accept that the grammar is one and the same both for Tamil and Sanskrit. This is the logic and the philological acumen of a divine and the head of a non-Brahman Saiva monastery. While another scholar and a Brahınan contemporary of the above has almost upet the Tamil grammar by his indiscreet substitution of Sanskrit terminology. His book, after all, is a logomachy and is no improvement on its predecessors. He says,—வடமொழிக்குந் தமிழ்மொழிக்கும் இலக்கண மொன்றென்பதறியாது சம்ஞாபேதத்தாலும் பாடை வேற்றுமையாலும் இகழ்ந்து வேறென்பாரை நோக்கி யென்க.
In determining the affinity of any two languages the points that must be considered are,-(a) the similarity of general structure, grammar (both in forin and meaning) and signification; and (b) regular and uniform interchange of phonetic sounds between the languages compared. Of these, the first two relate to grammar, and the rest to the vocabulary of a language. We shall at the outset deal with the vocabulary which is less important.
The vocabulary of modern Tamil is composed essentially of two elements only, the Tamilic or southern and the Sanskritic or northern. There are, indeed, a few dozens of foreign words chiefly relating to commerce and adminstration, introduced into the Tamil language during the past two or three centuries. Eliminating all the Sanskrit words from the Tamil dictionary, there will be a large residue of native words, which must have been the vocabulary of the original Tamils. They had been a tolerably civilized
