Nachinarkiniyar

Nacciṇārkkiṇiyar, also spelled Naccinarkkiniyar or Nachinarkiniyar, was a 14th-century Tamil and Sanskrit scholar famous for his commentaries on Sangam literature and post-Sangam medieval Tamil literature.^[1][2][3] His commentary on some of the most studied Tamil texts such as the Tolkappiyam,^[4] Kuruntokai and Civaka Cintamani have guided scholarship that followed him, including modern era studies of Tamil literature.^[5] According to Kamil Zvelebil, a Tamil literature scholar, Naccinarkiniyar had a "keen poetic sense, awareness of word values". He vividly analyzed the primary text and secondary literature on that primary text, in a sophisticated impartial manner seen in modern era scholarship. He paid attention to minute details with a critical observation, states Zvelebil, and Naccinarkiniyar's work shows "a clear mind and a vast erudition" of Tamil and Sanskrit works.^[6]

Naccinarkiniyar was a Brahmin of the Shaivism tradition of Hinduism.^[7] Nacinarkiniyar wrote commentaries on the Tolkāppiyam, Pattuppāṭṭu, Kaliththokai, Kuṟuntokai and Civaka Cintamani.

See also

• Ten Medieval Commentators
• Commentaries in Tamil literary tradition

References

1. Kamil Zvelebil 1973, pp. 24, 34, 51, 257.
2. Charles Allen (2017). Coromandel: A Personal History of South India. Little, Brown Book Group. pp. 100–101. ISBN 978-1-4087-0540-7.
3. Emmrich, Christoph (2011). "The Ins and Outs of the Jains in Tamil Literary Histories". Journal of Indian Philosophy. 39 (6). Springer: 599–646. doi:10.1007/s10781-011-9125-0.
4. Kamil Zvelebil 1973, p. 135.
5. Kamil Zvelebil 1973, pp. 24, 34, 51.
6. Kamil Zvelebil 1973, p. 257.
7. The Tamil Plutarch, Pg 57

Bibliography

• Chitty, Simon Casie (1859). The Tamil Plutarch, containing a summary account of the lives of poets and poetesses of Southern India and Ceylon. Jaffna: Ripley & Strong.
• K. Arumugham (1981). A critical study of Naccinarkiniyar. University of Madras.
• Tolkāppiyar; P. S. Subrahmanya Sastri (1999). Tolkāppiyam: Poruḷatikāram. Kuppuswami Sastri Research Institute. ISBN 978-81-85170-27-5.
• K A Nilakanta Sastri (1966). A History of South India: From Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar. Oxford University Press.
• David Shulman (2016). Tamil: A Biography. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-97465-4.
• Takanobu Takahashi (1995). Tamil Love Poetry and Poetics. BRILL Academic. ISBN 90-04-10042-3.
• Eva Maria Wilden (2014). Manuscript, Print and Memory: Relics of the Cankam in Tamilnadu. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-035276-4.
• Kamil Zvelebil (1973), The Smile of Murugan: On Tamil Literature of South India, BRILL, ISBN 90-04-03591-5
• Kamil Zvelebil (1992). Companion studies to the history of Tamil literature. BRILL. p. 73. ISBN 90-04-09365-6.