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5.7 muṟaiyiṉ vaippu:
This is proper structuring. Concepts should be presented in some logical order. A build-up of
knowledge and rigor should be ensured.

5.8 ulakam malaiyāmai:
This refers to the book or any of its concept not contradicting already established corpus of
knowledge and traditions. Even if the author has something new or apparently out of the box idea /
hypothesis, it should be presented logically from existing first principles.

The Correspondence principle postulated by Niels Bohr in Quantum Mechanics is similar to this
idea.

5.9 viḻumiyatu payattal:
This is in contrast with ‘niṉṟu payaṉiṉmai’ – the work should be of use and value in a given field.
Again, the author should at least justify himself / herself in writing that work that it will add to some
unique utility!

5.10 viḷaṅku utāraṇattatu ākutal:
This particular aspect is expressed as a iraṭṭuṟa moḻital (interpretable in two or many ways): a) The
text should contain adequate examples and b) The text itself should be a good example of its kind.

As noted earlier, the book Naṉṉūl itself is a good example of all these aspects and techniques
enumerated by it!

6. Some Illustrations

Let me illustrate some of the above aspects as seen in a couple of ancient Tamiḻ texts.
My first and favourite example is from the oldest extant Tamiḻ book – the Tolkāppiyam.

In this two thousand five hundred year old grammar, the author (Tolkāppiyar) sanctions the use of
Sanskrit (and other languages, such as Prakrit, Pali, etc) words in Tamiḻ and the process requires
substituting all letters that are not available in Tamiḻ, with corresponding Tamiḻ letters.

That is, the word ‘sarasvati’, for example, should be written in Tamiḻ as ‘caracuvati’, since Tamiḻ
lacks the ‘s’ sound. (Such modified words used in Tamiḻ are called as ‘tatcamam’, whereas words
made entirely of letters available in Tamiḻ itself are called as ‘tatpavam’ (lit. as it is)).
Thus Tolkāppiyar states:
Transliteration:
வடெசா கிளவ$ வட எ9 ஒ=இ vaṭacol kiḷavi vaṭa eḻuttu orīi
எ9 ெதா# ண (த ெசா ஆ .ேம. eḻuttoṭu puṇarnta col ākummē.

Translation:
A northern language word, after leaving the north letters,
Should be added with the (corresponding) letters to become a word.
(My translation is not exact, since I aimed to preserve the word pattern and words themselves rather
than the meaning!)

The point to be noted here is that Tolkāppiyar refers to Sanskrit words and letters with the prefix
‘vata’ (north) while not giving any prefix to refer to Tamiḻ words and letters.

The book is a grammar for Tamiḻ, it deals with the aspects of the Tamiḻ language out and out, and the
author had already defined the letters of Tamiḻ. In fact, he had defined the terms ‘eḻuttu’ and ‘col’ as
technical terms referring to Tamiḻ letters and Tamiḻ words.

Thus he has avoided the superfluous and redundant prefixes such as ‘Tamiḻ’ or ‘teṉ’ (south) before
letter and word while referring to Tamiḻ letters and words!

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