Oldest Living Language of India

Tamil is the oldest living language of India and the world. It belongs to the Dravidian group of languages. Tamil is the official language of the state of Tamil Nadu, and also has official status in Sri Lanka and Singapore. Tamil ranks 17th amongst the top twenty of the world's most spoken languages. Tamil has a literary tradition of over two thousand years. Tolkappiyam, the oldest known literary work in Tamil, has been dated variously between second century BC and fifth century AD. Tamil was declared a classical language of India by the Government of India in 2004 and was the first Indian language to have been accorded the status. The Tamil script consists of 12 vowels, 18 consonants and one special character, the aytam. The vowels and consonants combine to form 216 compound characters, making a total of 247 characters.