14th Classical Tamil Summer Seminar 2016

Organised by Eva Wilden at the centre of the École Française d'Extrême-Orient in Pondicherry, 1st to 26th of August 2016

In 2016 the CTSS will be combined with the 5th NETamil workshop, designed to be a one-week special meeting of the Tolkāppiyam group
(http://www.manuscript-cultures.uni-hamburg.de/netamil/calendarium.html).
This means that the advanced classes will last only for three weeks, while the beginners will continue for the full month. The day will be split into two morning reading sessions for the principal text and a choice of afternoon reading sessions devoted to selected texts from different genres of Tamil literature. Classes will be presided over by experts (young and old, Indian and Western) who provide the material and present their work and view of the chosen text, but emphasis will be laid on the discussion in the forum. The goal will not be to arrive at a single "correct" translation, but rather to explore the different possibilities of understanding, based on commentary or argument. In accordance with the general philological outlook of the EFEO, work will not only proceed from the current editions but will included manuscript material photographed by our lab, or in the case of inscriptions photographs and estampages.

The first week under the guidance of Indra Manuel will be devoted to a literary text notorious for its difficulty, the 12th-century Kallāṭam, a collection of 100 stanzas combining the praise of Śiva with an Akam poem. In the second week G. Vijayavenugopal will introduce us to the beauties of a less well-known Jain Peruṅkāppiyam, the Cūḷāmaṇi, generally held to be close in time to the Cintāmaṇi and still belonging to the first millennium. The third week Jean-Luc Chevillard will guide us through his selection of songs from the Tēvāram, the most important text in the Śaiva devotional corpus, sung by the three poet-saints Tiruñāṉacampantar, Appar and Cuntarar between the 7th and 9th centuries.

Programme

The working day for advanced students will be divided into three reading sessions, two in the morning and one in the afternoon, the first two interrelated in that one of them is devoted to a text while the second takes up its revision and detailed discussion. The first session will last from 9.30-11.00 a.m., the second from 11.30 a.m.-1 p.m. (with a coffee break in between), the third session from 3-4.30 p.m., followed by a tea break. Each text will be read and discussed line by line, in detail, and contributions and suggestions for alternative translations will be welcome. It will be up to each participant to decide whether he/she wants to take part actively in all three sessions or whether they prefer to skip one or the other in order to have the time to prepare for the texts that interest them most.

Beginner's Class

A beginners class will take place, provided there is a minimum of five inscriptions by the end of June 2016. The beginners will start early in the morning with a grammar class from 9.30-11 a.m. For the rest of the morning they will have personal preparation time. In the early afternoon, they will have a text class (3-4.30 p.m.) up to the tea break.

Evening Lectures and Concerts

Twice a week in the early evenings there will again be the customary evening lectures, an occasion to invite outside experts, but also time for participants to present their current work to the group. We hope also to be able to maintain our concert tradition on Friday evenings...

Who can participate?

As usual, we look forward to welcoming back former participants. Anybody with at least a basic knowledge of the Classical language will be welcome. We would also like strongly to encourage Indian students to participate in our classes (and for them there will be specially reduced fees). Beginners should have knowledge of modern Tamil or of another Dravidian language.

For further inquiries contact Eva Wilden: wilden.eva@gmail.com

Organisation

Practical organisation rests, as ever, in the hands of the secretary of the EFEO centre in Pondicherry, Mrs Prerana PATEL (preranapatel@efeo-pondicherry.org). Please contact her for any practical question. As the EFEO is currently having to adjust to a tight budget, we would appreciate being able to calculate more precisely the number of people likely to be expected. We have therefore drawn up an application form which has to be filled up and sent to the address above as soon as possible, at the latest, however, by the end of June 2016.