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

Government of India The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...

with a view to promoting the cause of

Classical Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka **Myanmar Tamils, Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tami ...

. It is located in

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

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 L ...

Mysore Mysore ( ), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. It is the headquarters of Mysore district and Mysore division. As the traditional seat of the Wadiyar dynasty, the city functioned as the capital of the ...

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

Ministry of Human Resource Development Ministry may refer to: Government * Ministry (collective executive), the complete body of government ministers under the leadership of a prime minister * Ministry (government department), a department of a government Religion * Christian mi ...

. 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'' (), or shortly the ''Kural'' (), is a classic Tamil language text on commoner's morality consisting of 1,330 short couplets, or Kural (poetic form), kurals, of seven words each. The text is divided into three books wit ...

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

Imphal Imphal (; , ) is the capital city of the Indian state of Manipur. The metropolitan centre of the city contains the ruins of Kangla Palace (officially known as Kangla Fort), the royal seat of the former Kingdom of Manipur, surrounded by a ...

Manipur Manipur () is a state in northeastern India with Imphal as its capital. It borders the Indian states of Assam to the west, Mizoram to the south, and Nagaland to the north and shares the international border with Myanmar, specifically t ...

, 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 northeast India. It is the official language and the lingua franca of Manipur and an additional official language in four districts of Assam. It is one of the scheduled ...

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

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of South India ** Telugu literature, is the body of works written in the Telugu language. * Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Tel ...

Kannada Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a ...

, Nepali,

Punjabi Punjabi, or Panjabi, most often refers to: * Something of, from, or related to Punjab, a region in India and Pakistan * Punjabi language * Punjabis, Punjabi people * Punjabi dialects and languages Punjabi may also refer to: * Punjabi (horse), a ...

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. Perumbakkam will be part of Tambaram City Municipal Corporation. Location It is bound by Sholinganallur to the east, Semmencherry to the south, Medava ...

, 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 () 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 Tamil under the aegis of the Ministry of Human Resource ...

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