The Central Institute of Classical Tamil (CICT) is a body established by the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

with a view to promoting the cause of Classical Tamil. It is located in

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

History

The CICT was formerly known as the Centre of Excellence for Classical Tamil (CECT) and had been functioning at the

Central Institute of Indian Languages The Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL) is an Indian research and teaching institute based in Mysuru, part of the Language Bureau of the Ministry of Education. It was founded on 17 July 1969. Centres The Central Institute of Indian Lan ...

Mysore Mysore (), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern part of the state of Karnataka, India. Mysore city is geographically located between 12° 18′ 26″ north latitude and 76° 38′ 59″ east longitude. It is located at an altitude of ...

, a branch of the Department of Higher Education, Language Bureau,

Ministry of Human Resource Development The Ministry of Education ( MoE; formerly the Ministry of Human Resource Development from 1985 to 2020) is a ministry of the Government of India, responsible for the implementation of the National Policy on Education. The Ministry is further d ...

. In May 2008, the CECT was moved to Chennai and was rechristened as the Central Institute of Classical Tamil (CICT). The chairman of the new institute was the then Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu M. Karunanidhi. The governing body for Classical Tamil Institute (TLPB) was also changed as ''Aimperumkuzhu'' (literally "5-membered great team") and ''Enperayam'' (literally "8-membered great committee") under two vice-chairmen, V. I. Subramoniam and V. C. Kulandaiswamy, with the chairman for this governing body being M. Karunanidhi. In 2012, the CITC published the only Meitei translation of the

Kural The ''Tirukkuṟaḷ'' ( ta, திருக்குறள், lit=sacred verses), or shortly the ''Kural'' ( ta, குறள்), is a classic Tamil language text consisting of 1,330 short couplets, or kurals, of seven words each. The tex ...

. The work was undertaken by Soibam Rebika Devi, a botanist, linguist, and translator from

Imphal Imphal ( Meitei pronunciation: /im.pʰal/; English pronunciation: ) is the capital city of the Indian state of Manipur. The metropolitan centre of the city contains the ruins of Kangla Palace (also known as Kangla Fort), the royal seat of the f ...

Manipur Manipur () ( mni, Kangleipak) is a state in Northeast India, with the city of Imphal as its capital. It is bounded by the Indian states of Nagaland to the north, Mizoram to the south and Assam to the west. It also borders two regions of ...

, who translated the complete work in prose form. The translation was completed in about a year and a half's time. It is considered the first ever translation of a Tamil work into the

Meitei language Meitei (), also known as Manipuri (, ), is a Tibeto-Burman language of north-eastern India. It is spoken by around 1.8 million people, predominantly in the state of Manipur, but also by smaller communities in the rest of the country and in p ...

. The translation was part of CICT's project of translating the Kural into multiple languages including Telugu,

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

, Nepali, Punjabi and other Indian languages. The translation was officially released in

in March 2014 by the governor of

. In November 2014, the CICT planned to recite the Meitei translation along with translations in 9 other languages to commemorate the launch of the institution's Telugu and Kannada translations of the Kural text.

Premises

Since May 2012, the CICT was functioning from the premises of Road Transport Corporation at

Taramani Tharamani is an area in the south Indian city of Chennai. It is known for the presence of the city's first IT parks and numerous government educational and research institutions. It is located adjacent to the posh residential area of Adyar an ...

. The government acquired a land at Perumbakkam and a fund of 246.547 million was allotted in 2017 to construct a building. Since 2022, the CICT functions from its own building at

Perumbakkam Perumbakkam is a suburb of the southern Indian city of Chennai in Chengalpattu district. Location It is bound by Sholinganallur to the east, Semmencherry to the south, Medavakkam to the north and Sithalapakkam to the west. It is only a few ...

, a southern neighbourhood of Chennai. Built at a cost of 246.5 million on a 16.86-acre land, the four-storied building has a total built-up area of 70,000 square feet. The building houses a library and conference halls on the ground floor, office of the director and administrative offices on the first floor, offices of the academic staff on the second floor, and multimedia center on the third floor. As of 2022, the CICT has 22 academic staff and 23 non-academic staff.

Functions

The CICT is engaged in the task of developing Tamil through various programmes of its own. The Institute is responsible for the

Kural Peedam Award The Kural Peedam Award ( ta, குறள் பீடம் விருது) is a lifetime achievement presidential award given to eminent scholars of classical Tamil. The award was instituted in 2005 by the Central Institute of Classical T ...

Projects

The following are the ten major projects of The Centre of Excellence for Classical Tamil (CECT): # Definitive Editions of Ancient Tamil Works # Translation of Ancient Tamil Works # Historical Grammar of Tamil # Antiquity of Tamil: An Inter-Disciplinary Research # Synchronic And Diachronic Study of Tamil Dialects # India As a Linguistic Area # Digital Library For Ancient Tamil Studies # Online Teaching of Classical Tamil # Corpus Development For Classical Tamil Works # Visual Episodes on Classical Tamil The Tamil Language Promotion Board (TLPB) has been changed as Aimpermkuzhu and Enperayam, with the board reconstituted.

References

External links

Official Website
{{Authority control Tamil language Ministry of Education (India) Language education in India Language advocacy organizations Linguistic research in India Tamil-language education Research institutes in Chennai Year of establishment missing