them under the four-heads of vocabulary, grammar style and matter.
According to the late Mr. P. Sundaram Pillai's calculation the percentage of Sanskrit words in three of the Ten Poems (Pattuppattu) is between one and two. In the Nedunalvadai there are altogether but twenty Sanskrit words, and in the Madurai-Kanchi, a poem of 782 lines, the number does not exceed fifty-five. And in fact the introduction of Sanskrit words is strongly condemned by the best writers of the academic period. It was considered by them as the mark of an imperfect education. Two of the earliest Kanarese poets have characterized it as 'an unnatural union...' or as the 'stringing of pearls along with pepper-corns.'
Words of foreign origin were never introduced, notwithstanding the commercial intercourse of the Tamils with the Greeks, Romans, and Arabs, whom they indiscriminately called the Yavanas. Sanskrit words were very sparingly used and even these were mutilated in their form as will be seen in the following examples: முழுத்தம், பாசம், ஆணை, அவை, தச்சன், நிரயம், அமிழ்து, உளசி, பாசி, &c. Some Tamil roots were used in sentences without formative particles as கால் for காற்று, வென் for வெற்றி, அவ், இவ், உவ் and யா for அவை, இவை, உவை and யாவை. Some words were used in senses which have now become obsolete For example, சேவல் meant 'a horse', கண்டி meant a 'he-buffalo,' களிறு meant 'a pig’ and பொன் was 'iron' &c. Relational words like எவ்வை= our younger sister,
