Tolkāppiyam in Tamil, dated not later than the third century before the advent of the Common Era, is, arguably, the earliest complete work of linguistics in the ancient classical traditions of the world. It is complete in the sense that it encompasses both the written and the spoken languages, and it is a grammar of graphology, phonology, syntax, semantics, poetics, prosody and rhetoric. As such, it marks a sui generis, towering presence without a comparable work in any of the primary classical languages ​​of the world in range and perspective. This apart, Tolkāppiyam contains several concepts and ideas that are futuristic in content and spirit and several others that are pragmatic in character. It also embodies features which are in the nature of pioneering later developments in other languages ​​and literatures, both classical and modern. It is no wonder then that Prof. A.L. Becker of the University of Michigan comments thus: “Tolkāppiyar was someone whose bust they should be putting in American university libraries”. Equally revealing is the observation of Prof. A.K. Ramanujan of the University of Chicago: “He is very close to what you would call a linguistics' ultimate guru”.
The Central Institute of Classical Tamil has, therefore, taken upon the translation of Tolkāppiyam into English and other principal languages ​​of the world including the scheduled languages ​​of India among its primary academic projects, first because Tolkāppiyam has a lot to share with the other linguistic traditions. of the world, secondly because it foreshadows several contemporary linguistic and applied linguistic principles, and thirdly because it is crying to be placed among the finest and the best of the books of the world. Again, Tolkāppiyar's insights into cultural linguistics, lexicography, semantics, case system, TG Grammar and so forth are capable of being juxtaposed with modern conceptualizations in these spheres of scholarship.

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