TAMIL LITERATURE ONLINE

TAMIL LITERATURE ONLINE

in Tamil script and transliterated formats

Tamil is one of the two classical languages of India. It is the only language in that country which has continued to exist for over two thousand years. It is spoken today by approximately 65 million people living mainly in southern India, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, Africa, Fiji, the West Indies, Mauritius and Reunion Islands, United Kingdom, United States and Canada. Tamil is the pre-eminent member of the Dravidian Language family and has one of the longest unbroken literary traditions of any living language in the world.

A Tamil Electronic Library is now made available on the Internet. Electronic Texts (etext) of ancient tamil classical texts are being made available ONLINE using Web as the distribution medium. The etext files are made available in web pages in two formats: one based the tamil font called Mylai and in romanized/transliterated formats.

Project Madurai is an open, voluntary Internet-based Initiative devoted to preparation of Electronic Texts of Tamil Literary Works and to distribute them free. Launched on Pongal day Jan 1998, the project has over 110 volunteers participating and they come from all four corners of the world. Following is a short list of Etexts that have been released in Tamil Script format: thirukuRaL, thiruvAcakam, nAlAyira divya prabhandam, works of auvaiyar, thirumanthiram, desika prabhandam, Songs of Subramania Bharathiyar, Tamil translation and commentary of Bhagavad Gita by Subramania Bharathiyar, nAladiyAr, thiruvarutpa of rAmalinga adigal, natarajappathu, Holy Bible in Tamil, ulaganeethi, devotional songs on Muruga, AcarakkOvai, pathinenkiizkaNakku works,..... For details visit the Project Madurai website. If you can spare some time and willing to participate in this effort, send an email to the Project Leader.

MYLAI TAMIL FONT

MYLAI is a Tamil font created by Dr. K.Kalyanasundaram (of the Swiss Federal Inst. of Technology at Lausanne, Switzerland) primarily as a medium for archiving and distributing tamil electronic texts on the Internet.

The font is available in two identical formats - truetype form for use on MS-Windows (Windows 3.1, Windows 95 and Windows NT) and Postscript type 1 form for use on Macintosh PCs.

Once installed in the system, the tamil font can be used on almost all applications supported by Windows/Macintosh OSs. (word processing such as Word/Word Perfect, graphics such as Coral Draw, database such as Excel and so on).

The keymapping used in Mylai font is based on two principles: Phonetic link of the Tamil character being typed with the corresponding Roman character and Frequency of occurrence of characters. Thus you type k to get letter ka, ka for kaa, ki for ki, kI for kii, mi for mi, pa for paa etc. The keymapping in the form of a compact table can be consulted any time. Mylai font is distributed to interested individuals, FREE, as a service in the cause of developing and preserving the Tamil Language and Culture, but under certain conditions. If you are interested to get a copy of the font, please consult the web page Mylai Distribution

In the last two years, several thousand internet users have obtained a free copy of the Mylai Tamil font and have been using it successfully on Macintosh and Windows-based PCs. The mylai tamil font users spread across the entire globe (Continental US, Hawaii, Alaska, most of the European countries, Gulf states, India, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, Australasia, Japan, .....).

This forum has been set up to promote such exchange of tamil based materials whenever people use the Mylai tamil font to create these materials. In the initial stage, this Web page will provide all available info. on Tamil Materials that have been prepared using the Mylai Tamil font - materials that their authors are willing to share with the internet audience! Please visit the Mylai Web Forum page for more details.

A Webpage giving detailed guidelines for setting up tamil web pages using Mylai and other tamil fonts is also available.

Mylai-Sri is a tamil font with identical keymap to Mylai, freely distributed on internet by Dr. K. Srinivasan of Canada. You can download a copy directly from his web page and use it to view the "tamil Literature Online" tamil webpages.

tamil texts based Mylai-font

Here are some web pages containing tamil texts based Mylai-font:
thirukuRaL of thiruvalluvar-part I (verses 1-240)
thirukuRaL of thiruvalluvar-part II (verses 241-480)
thirukuRaL of thiruvalluvar-part III (verses 481-800)
thirukuRaL of thiruvalluvar-part IV (verses 801-1080)
thirukuRaL of thiruvalluvar-part IV (verses 1081-1330)
thEvAram-cambandar(select collection)
thEvAram-appar(select collection)
thEvAram-cundarar(select collection)
thiruvaachakam-maaNicka vaacakar-part I(hymns 1-4, verses 1-4)
thiruvaachakam-maaNicka vaacakar-part II(hymn 5, verses 5-104)
thiruvaachakam-maaNicka vaacakar-part III(hymns 6-8, verses 105-194)
thiruvaachakam-maaNicka vaacakar-part IV(hymns 9-16, verses 195-334)
thiruvaachakam-maaNicka vaacakar-part V(hymns 17-27, verses 335-447)
thiruvaachakam-maaNicka vaacakar-part VI(hymns 28-40, verses 448-568)
thiruvaachakam-maaNicka vaacakar-part VI(hymns 41-51, verses 569-661)
thirumanthiram of thirumoolar-part I(paayiram & muthal thanthiram, verses 1-170)
thirumanthiram of thirumoolar-part II(muthal thanthiram (contd), verses 171-336)
thiruvarutpa of ramalinga adigal - akaval (part I, 1-500)
thiruvarutpa of ramalinga adigal - akaval (part II, 501-1000)
thiruvarutpa of ramalinga adigal - akaval (part III, 1001-1500)
thirumurukaRRuppadai of nakkiirar
thiruisappa (select collections of 9th thirumarai)
thiruppuhaz of arunagirinaathar (part I, verses 1-35)
thiruppuhaz of arunagirinaathar (part II, verses 36-70)
thiruppuhaz of arunagirinaathar (part III, verses 71-103)
naalaayira divya prabhandam (part I, verses 1-138)
naalaayira divya prabhandam (part II, verses 138-263)
naalaayira divya prabhandam (part III, verses 264-390)
vadivudai maaNicka maalai of vaLLaLAr /ramalinga adigal
Auvaiyar compositions
aathichoodi, kondraiventhan, nalvazhi, mudurai
Compositions on Lord Vinayaka
(vinayakar akaval, vinayakar thuthi, vinayakar thiruakaval,...)
Abiraami anthAthi of Abiraami Bhattar
Compositions of Pattinaththaar -part I
Compositions of Pattinaththaar -part II
Works of kumaraguruparar (16/17th Century AD)
aachaarakkovai of thiruvayilmuLLiyaar
songs of Poet Bharathidasan
songs of C. Subramania Bharathiyar
songs of Gopalakrishna Bharathi (From: R. Ravi, USA)
Devotional songs on Goddess AkilandEswari (by Mr. Rajagopalan of London, UK)

tamil etexts files currently available

The following are some of the tamil etexts files currently available in transliterated format:
thirupaavai, thiruvembaavai and thirupaLLIezhucci
thiruvarutpa- akaval (part I)
thiruvarutpa- akaval (part II)
thiruvarutpa- akaval (part III)
thEvAram-cambandar
thEvAram-appar
thEvAram-cundarar
works of auvaiyAr
bhArathiyAr songs
thirumurugARRuppadai - nakkIrar
aRputhath thiruvanthathi -kAraikAl ammaiyAr
AcArakkOvai by peruvAyil muLLIyAr
akavals on vinAyakar

TAMIL LITERATURE

I have also a number of other tamil etexts that are yet to be put as webpages. A list of these files (plain text files in mylai format) is given below. Earlier these files were available for direct download (anonymous ftp) of our school. Recently as an adminstrative measure, our school has shut down this ftp server. If you would like to receive a copy of any of these files by email, send me an email request specifying the name of the file/content.

abirAmi an^dhAdhi (of abirAmi bhattar (18th C AD),abirAmi ammaippathiham and thirukkadavUr thiruppathiham

kan^dar alangAram, kan^dar anuboodhi of aruNagirin^Athar, kandar shasti kavachagam of dEvarAya cuvAmigaL

divya prabhandam-part I (verses 1- 473)periyAzhwAr thirumozhi by periyAzhwAr (8th C AD)
divya prabhandam-part I (verses 474 -946)thiruppaavai (474-503) by ANdAL (8th C AD)naacchiyaar thirumozhi(504-646) by ANdAL (8th C A.D)perumaaL thirumozhi (647-751) by kulacEkara perumAL (9th C A.D)thirucchanda viruttham (752-871) by thirumazhicai AzhwAr (9th C A.D)thirumaalai (872-916) by thoNdaradipodi AzhwAr (9th C A.D)thiruppaLLiyezucchi (917-926) by thoNdaradipodi AzhwAr (9th C A.D)amalanaathipiraan (927-936) by thiruppAnAzhwar (9th C A.D) kaNNinuN cirutthaambu (937-947) by mathura kavi (8th C A.D?)

divya prabhandam-part III (verses 947 -1347) thirumangkai AzhvAr - periya thirumozhi

divya prabhandam-part IV (verses 1348-1747)thirumangkai AzhvAr - periya thirumozhi
thiruppAvai (of Andal, 8th C AD) and thiruvembAvai, thiruppaLLiezuchi (of mANickavAsagar, 9th C AD)

thiru isappa (9th thirumarai complete)collection of nine thiruisappas and thirupallandu (301 verses)

thirumanthiram of thirumUlar - Part I (verses 1-548) (pAyiram, muthal, iraNdAm thanthiram) (10th thirumarai)

thirumanthiram -Part II (verses 549-883)mUnRAm thanthiram of thirumUlar , 10th C AD (10th thirumarai)

thirumanthiram -Part III (verses 884-1418)nAngkAm thanthiram of thirumUlar , 10th C AD (10th thirumarai)

thirumanthiram -Part IV (verses 1419-1703)aintham, aaram thanthirams of thirumUlar , 10th C AD (10th thirumarai)

thirumanthiram -Part V (verses 1704-2043)ezhaam thanthiram of thirumUlar , 10th C AD (10th thirumarai)

thiruciRRambalakkOvaiyAr (400 verses) (8th thirumarai) of mAnicka vAcakar (9th C AD)

verses from 11th thirumarai (verses 1-301) thiruaalavaai udaiyaar (1) kaaraikkal ammaiyaar works (2-144) aiyaavadigal kaadavar kon works (145-168) ceramaaan perumaal naayanaar works (169-301)

Verses from 11th thirumarai - verses 302-513 kayilaipaathi kaalaththipaathi andhaathi (302-411) thiruingooimaalai ezhupathu (402-471) thiruvaalanguzhi mummaNikkOvai (472-488) peruntheva paaNi (489 - 490) kopappracaadam (491) kaar ettu (492-499) poRRith thiruk kaliveNbaa (500) thirumurukaaRRuppadai (501-511) thirukaNNappa thEvar thirumaram (512-513)

Verses from 11th thirumarai - verses 514-825 thirukaNNa thEvar thirumaram (514)mooththa naayanaar thiruiraattai manimaalai (515-534) civaperumaan thiru irattai manimaalai (535-571) civaperumaan thiru anththaathi - kapilar (572-671) civaperumaan thiru anththaathi - bharaNar (672-772) civaperumaan thiru mummaNikkOvai (773-802) mooththa piLLaiyaar thiru mummaNikkOvai (803-825)