TAMIL AND TAMILIANS

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Tamil is among the four oldest languages in the world apart from Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit. Epic say that, then founder of the language, Sage Agasthiya came down to Earth to spread this beautiful language, on the request of Lord Shiva. He wrote the first Tamil grammar book Agathiyam. It was the first grammar book written for any language in the world. Unfortunately, no copy of this book is known to exist now. The version written by Agasthiya's disciple, Tholkaapiyar, nearly 5000 years ago, still exists, and is accepted as the oldest grammar book in any language. This book is called Tholkaapiyam, after its author. Thirukkural a tamil book on philosophy and life in general, was written by Thiruvalluvar, a sage and philosopher, about 2000 years ago. It is one of the greatest and most succinct books ever written, by popular and critical opinion. After the Bible, the Thirukkural is the book which has been translated into the most number of languages.
The Tamils can be defined as people, having Tamil as their mother tongue. South India has been homelands of the Tamils, from the beginning of recorded history. The region, roughly covered by the modern states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala are identified as ancient tamizakam up to about 10th century AD.
The four southernmost states of India- Tamiz Nadu, KeraLa, Karnataka, and Andra Pradesh- are predominantly linguistically Dravidian, each state carved out on the basis of predominance of the four major Dravidian languages. The Dravidian languages are mother tongues of about a quarter of the Indian population. Though about 80% of the speakers are found within the borders of these four South Indian states, a number of Dravidian languages have been identified in other parts of South Asia. Among the tribal languages of Central India, almost extending to the borders of Bengal, distinct from the Austro-Asiatic family of languages, many Dravidian languages have been identified. The northern reaches of this family have been located in isolated settlements in Nepal and Pakistan. The Brahui speakers are found in the hills of Baluchistan, almost on the borders of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran. So, the Dravidian family of languages is a South Asian family of languages in one sense. About 22 languages are classified as belonging to the Dravidian family and on linguisic criteria, sub-division as North, Central and South Dravidian are made.
Tamils alone number about 60 million people. Some evidence exists for Tamil influence , and strong Tamil presence in Sri Lanka, from about the 10th century. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Tamils migrated to some British colonies in search of employment and thus there are substantial Tamil populations in Malaysia, Singapore, Mauritius, Fiji and South Africa. After the World War II, a movement of Tamil professionals to UK, USA, Australia and New Zealand is proceeding continuously. Due to the recent civil war type situation in Sri Lanka, many thousands of Tamils migrated and live in about 20 countries, with large numbers in Canada, Germany, France, and Switzerland. Within the Nordic countries, Norway and Denmark have more Tamils than Sweden.

SOURCE:KALANJIYAM