first. Still, their manliness, the generosity of their character, their natural intelligence, entitle them to freedom. One requirement only remains, and that is education: educate them, and free them from superstition, and they will be one of the finest races on God's earth. There is, we believe, a gentleman in the Civil Service of the North Western Provinces, who prides himself on his descent from Hindustani blood. We can almost sympathize with his feelings; although for our part, we confess, we prefer British ancestry.

Our tale is now told, and our paper at an end. We do not venture to prophesy ;

Heaven from all creatures hides the Book of Fate,

All but the page prescribed-the present state.

The present state of things, however, we have shown to be highly unsatisfactory and anomalous. We hope the Legislature will not long leave it so. As it is, in looking at Bengal, we are inclined to borrow from Mrs. Malaprop her well-known remark," Ay, Sir, there's no more trick, is there? You are not like Cerberus, three gentlemen at once, are you"?

ART. VII.-1. The Nannul, an Original Tamil Grammar. By Pavananti.

2. Grammars of the Common and High Dialect of the Tamil Language, by the Rev. Constantius Joseph Beschi, Jesuit, Missionary in the Kingdom of Madura.

3. Rudiments of Tamil Grammar, by Robert Anderson, of the Madras Civil Service, London, 1821.

4. A Grammar of the Tamil Language, by the Rev. C.T.E. Rhenius, Missionary C. M. S. 1836.

5. Oriental Manuscripts in the Tamil Language: translated with Annotations. By William Taylor, Missionary. 2 vols. 1835. 6. A Dictionary of the Tamil and English Languages. By the Rev. J. P. Rottler, D. Ph. Edited by the Rev. W. Taylor. 7. Translations of the Kural of Tiruvalluvar. By F. W. Ellis, Esq., and Rev. W. H. Drew.

WE need no apology for introducing our readers to the knowledge of a language, which is emphatically called Ten Mozhy, or Southern speech, in opposition to Vada Mozhy, or Northern speech, i. e., the Sanskrit. Among the nineteen vernacular languages of India, we think the Tamil has especial claims on the attention of scholars, not only as being a rival of the ancient Sanskrit, but as being rich in indigenous literature, and opening an extensive field for philological research and ethnological science. If the Sanskrit is, as its name imports, a thoroughly finished language,—the Tamil is, as its name signifies, a sweet and harmonious tongue. Drávida, or southern, is the name by which it is known in Sanskrit books. Colebrooke, in his Dissertation on the Sanskrit and Prakrit languages, derives the name Tamil, which he writes Tamla, from Tamraparna, the name of the river in Tinnevelly. Tamil writers themselves have no such idea; they confine their speculations on the term to sweetness; and who that knows any thing of its flowing poetry and melodious song, will deny the language this peculiar appellation?

The language is spoken by a population of more than eight millions, being current throughout South India from Cape Comorin to Vengadam, a mountain sacred to Vishnu, about 100 miles north of Madras. It is also the language of the eastern and northern parts of Ceylon. It is more or less connected with Canarese, Maleali and other dialects in the Madras Presidency, constituting the speech of more than twenty millions of people.

In an able article, forming an Introduction to Campbell's Telugu Grammar, Mr. Francis W. Ellis, whose knowledge of the various spoken dialects of Peninsular India, added to his acquirements as a Sanskrit scholar, constitutes him a great authority, has proved, in opposition to Carey, Wilkins, Colebrooke, and others, that the Tamil is not derived from the Sanskrit, but is an original language. Babington, the translator of Beschi, a competent judge on the subject, in his preface to the adventures of Gooroo Paramartan, says :— "The Tamil is not derived from any language at present in 'existence, and is either itself the parent of the Telugu, Malealam and Canarese languages; or, what is more probable, has its origin in common with these in some ⚫ ancient tongue, which is now lost, or only partially preserved in its offspring. In its more primitive words, such as 'the names of natural objects, the verbs expressive of physical action or passion, the numerals, &c., it is quite unconnected with the Sanskrit, and what it thence so largely borrowed, when the Tamils, by intercourse with the more enlightened people of the North, began to emerge 'from barbarity, has reference to the expression of moral 'sentiments and abstract metaphysical notions, and is chiefly to be found in the colloquial idiom. In this remarkable circumstance, and also in the construction of its alphabet, the Tamil differs much from the other languages of the South, which are found to admit the Sanskrit more largely in literary and poetical compositions than in the ordinary dialect of conversation, and which adopt the arrangement of the Sanskrit alphabet with scarcely any variation. The higher 'dialect of the Tamil, on the contrary, is almost entirely free from Sanskrit words and idioms, and the language retains an alphabet which tradition affirms to have heretofore consisted of but sixteen letters, and which, so far from resembling the very perfect alphabet of the Sanskrit, wants nearly half its characters, and has several letters of peculiar powers. 'Since, therefore, as might have been expected from its geographical situation, the Tamil language has stronger traces of originality than any of the cognate dialects of Southern India, it is, with propriety, taken first in the order of study, and he who adds a knowledge of this southern tongue to the more polished language of the north, has more than half accomplished the acquisition of all the Hindu languages of < India."

Taking the Nannul for our guide, we shall endeavour, in the

first place, to set forth the principles and peculiarities of the language, before we draw any conclusion regarding its connection and origin.

The Tamil has two dialects, namely, the high, and the low. The classical or learned dialect is called Shen Tamil (Shen or Sem meaning perfection.) The vulgar or colloquial dialect is called Kodum Tamil (Kodum meaning rude.) The Nannul specifies three kinds of Tamil, viz., the Iyal, Isai, and Nádaka Tamil, i. e., the Prose, Poetic, and Dramatic Tamil. The last contains a mixture of both prose and poetry, as well as of the high and low dialects.

We

The Shen Tamil or high dialect is remarkable for its conciseness and copiousness. It is the pliant and glowing language of the Tamil poets. The Kodum Tamil is the spoken language of the people. All business is transacted in this dialect. All stories and prose translations are written in it; while the one is for ornament, the other is for use. may be familiar with the one without comprehending the other. It strikes us that the same analogy exists between these dialects as between the Sanskrit and the Prakrit. The high dialect, however, must have been the more ancient, for the hill tribes, supposed to be the aborigines, use more of the high than the low Tamil words. The Tamil scholars of the present day, not natives, (for they would adhere to what is fixed and ancient), combine both the dialects in their writings and translations.

The Tamil alphabet consists of thirty letters, viz., twelve vowels, and eighteen consonants. They may be represented in Roman characters thus:

Medial y

r

n n m .n

Comparing this with the Sanskrit alphabet, it will be perceived that the Tamil rejects all aspirates. The vowels e o, and the consonants zh, r,, n, and 1* are peculiar to it: words in which these letters occur are exclusively Tamil, and they have no letters in the Sanskrit to express them. The Tamil retains the, a, e, a, and ч, of the Sanskrit, and rejects

* This letter, however, occurs in Sanskrit Vedic words, and is given in Wilson, -tr.

all the aspirates and corresponding soft consonants, as well as all the sibilants. The second consonant ch is made to express s also. The Sanskrit sibilants and the aspirate h, are introduced into some books in the Grandonic characters. The Tamil has no visargah nor anuswara. The most difficult letter for a European to pronounce is the zh, or as some represent it rl. Even some of the natives skip over it by substituting or y instead. เ

Mr. Ellis thinks the Tamil letters are totally different from the Sanskrit Devanagari; we think otherwise. The Tamil and its parent, the Grandonic, are evidently derived from the Devánagari. A close inspection and comparison of the Tamil alphabet, with the elements of the Devanagari characters given in Wilkins and Williams' Grammars, will prove that the one is derived from the other. The Tamil characters, however, are formed with a view to an easy flow in writing.

The vowel is very expressively called uyir, life or soul; and the consonant mey, body; and the compound or syllabic letter uyirmey-soul and body. The Nannul only admits of three original vowels, viz., a i u. As in Sanskrit, the vowels are represented as medials and finals by certain signs, and the first vowel is inherent in all consonants. A dot (viramah) is placed over the quiescent or mute consonants, which are divided, according to the distribution of Greek mutes, into three classes, as indicated above.

The Tamil consonants, rejecting as it does all the aspirates and corresponding letters of the Sanskrit, represent them all, but of course, in an imperfect and inconvenient way. No other combination of consonants is admitted than the duplication of mutes, and the junction of the nasal and the mute.

We have not been able to ascertain where Mr. Babington, and some others after him, got their information of there having been only sixteen letters originally in Tamil.

The

The combination and permutation of letters, called Sandhi, are as refined as in the Sanskrit. Grammatical rules on this subject were given more for poetical compositions. In official papers they are entirely neglected, and admitted in printed Christian books only when absolutely necessary. Madras Bible Society have come to the noble resolution of printing each word separately and in its natural form, without change or addition of letters: excepting in the case of compound forms of expression, and in such words as are united according to the usage of good writers. The Sandhi is also

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