Intermediate Tamil

The year of Intermediate Tamil is (700-1600). It is the evolution of Old Tamil into Intermediate Tamil. It had been completed by the 8th century. It was characterized by several phonological and grammatical changes. The most important change was the emergence of the present tense as far as grammar was concerned. Intermediate Tamil also witnessed considerable increase in the Sanskritisation of Tamil.

From the period of the Pallava dynasty onwards, a number of Sanskrit loan-words entered Tamil, particularly in relation to political, religious and philosophical concepts. Sanskrit also influenced Tamil grammar, in the increased use of cases and in declined nouns becoming adjuncts of verbs, and phonology.

The forms of writing in Tamil have developed through years.

The Tamil script also changed in the period of Intermediate Tamil. Tamil Brahmi and Vadaeluttu, into which it evolved, were the main scripts used in Old Tamil inscriptions. From the 8th century onwards, however, the Pallavas began using a new script, derived from the Pallava Grantha script which was used to write Sanskrit, which eventually replaced Vadaeluttu.

Intermediate Tamil is attested in a large number of inscriptions, and in a significant body of secular and religious literature. The adaptations of religious legends such as the 12th century Tamil Ramayana composed by Kamban and the story of 63 shaivite devotees known as Periyapuraanam. Iraiyanar-Akapporul an early treatise on love poetics, and Nannool, a 12th-century grammar that became the standard grammar of literary Tamil, are also from the Intermediate Tamil period. Several religious poems and songs of the Bhakti poets like the devaaram verses on Saivism and Nalayira Tivya Pirapantam on Vaishnavism have been composed in Intermediate Tamil.