79 (Vanmai-van) 1. Bounty, liberality 2. Quality, property, nature 3. Beauty 4. Truth 5. Fruitfulness, fertility, abundance 6. Strength 7. Praise, reputation 8. Sirissa Māts 1. greatness 2. strength Mā14 1. Beauty 2. Blackness 3. Colour 4. Paieness caused by love-sickness 3.5 Those who see these meanings of the above noted epithets will have no difficulty in realising the appropriateness of these epithets to Tamil. Now, finally let us conclude by remembering the meanings for the word Tamil itself.” Tamil 1. Sweetness, melodiousness 2. Refined quality 3. Tamil language, being divided into Iyarrami], icai-t-tami], näfaka-t tamil 4. Tamil literature, Tamil work 5. The Tamils 6. The Tamil country 3.6 Although the Tamil Lexicon most unfortunately misses the most significant sense of the word Tamil i.e. love-matter (Akapporus) the earlist reference to this meaning is surely avaliable in the Paripädal text itself (9:25) and also in the colophon of Kurificippättu, one of the ten Idylls. Thus we can find the evolution of the meanings for the word Tamil from that of language to love (life). -
