Being a multilingual country, India has a great treasure of
literature in different languages. One of treasured works
that is compiled by a lot of renowned writers and poets is
Tamil literature. Amongst them are Tamil Stories that are
very famous amongst the Tamil speaking population of the
country.
Tamil stories are a true reflection of Tamil culture and comprise of bedtime stories, folk tales, short stories for children etc. Tamil is quite old and has its close links with rich language like the Sanskrit. Because of this a lot of Tamil stories are incidents from great Indian epics like Mahabharata and Ramayana. Apart from these, a lot of popular tales from Arabian nights and Panchtantra are available in Tamil.
There are a lot of Tamil stories that are based on religion describing events in the lives of various Gods and Goddesses. One of the most popular stories in Tamil literature is the incident where Goddess Durga
kills the evil and thus leads to the formation of Mata Kali.
Stories of love, courage, adventure, bravery, determination,
motivation etc form a part of the rich Tamil literature.
The history of Tamil stories is rich. Tamil short stories can be traced back to the 17th century to Paramartha Kurunkathai’ a transition from the classical Tamil poetry. After this, some great writers like Pudumaipithan, Ku.Pa. Ra and P.S.Ramaiya
contributed to the Tamil literature by writing some
exceptional short stories in Tamil.
Pudumaipithan’s collection of short stories namely; ‘Ponnagaram’, Kodukkapuli Maram’ and ‘Naasakkaara Gumbal’ carry strong messages for the society. His depiction of human relationship and human aspirations fascinated the readers. Another very famous Tamil short story teller T.Janakiraman brought out the miseries in the lives of people with very strong characterization.
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One of the famous Tamil writers whose stories were later made into short films is Jayakanthan. His stories reflected the living of poor people in slum areas. Other famous short stories include ‘Mannasai’ by N.Pichamoorthy and ‘Aathma’ by S.Rangarajan.
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The 19th century also witnessed the emergence of Tamil novelists. This was certainly a western influence on Tamil writers. The first Tamil novelist is considered to be Mayuram V Pillai who wrote Pratapa Mudailiar.
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