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.

  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