JNU | RTI | Directory | Contact Us | Emergency Services | List of Holidays
-A A +A

Special Centre for Tamil Studies (SCTS)

Special Centre for Tamil Studies (SCTS)

Time-Table for Winter Semester 2025
UG optional courses offered in current Winter semester

 

Antiquity of Tamil Literature and Culture
Tamil is one of the oldest surviving classical languages in the world, with a history spanning over 2600 years. The period between 600 BCE and 300 BCE saw the flourishing of Tamil literature, with works like the Tholkappiyam (the earliest surviving Tamil grammar), the Ettuthokai (Eight Anthologies), and the Pattuppattu (Ten Idylls). Excavations at Keeladi, Adichanallur, and other sites in Tamil Nadu show that Tamil had an ancient urban civilization between the 6th century BCE and the 3rd century BCE. The recent researches confirm the use of iron in the Tamil-speaking region over 5,300 years ago. Consequently, it is proved that the Iron Age began on Tamil soil. Ancient Tamil Nadu had trade relations with ancient Greece, Rome, China, and so on. Studying such a great literary, grammatical, cultural, and art history of Tamil will help us to understand the values pertaining to one of the oldest civilizations in the world.

 

Flourishing like the Banyan
Accordingly, an attempt was made to start a Tamil Chair in the year 2000 at the Centre for Indian Languages, SLL&CS, JNU, New Delhi. Began officially in 2007, gradually it was developed as a Tamil stream providing Master of Philosophy (M.Phil.,) and Doctoral Degree (Ph.D.,) courses in 2008.

The Tamil Stream, which had been performing excellently for 15 years, further developed into a Special Centre for Tamil Studies (SCTS) on 21st March, 2023. Now, SCTS offers M.A., Tamil and Ph.D., programs. The current faculty strength is two, and further expansion is in progress.

 

The Ph.D. Program
Concerning the multi-lingual milieu of the university campus, we primarily encourage Ph.D., students to engage in comparative studies that compare Tamil literature and culture with other languages around the world. These studies can help to understand the relationship between Tamil and other languages on a literary and cultural level.

 

The M.A. Program
We have started to offer the M.A. Tamil Program from 2024. We have designed the fifth unit of each subject in our M.A., syllabus with a comparative perspective. This provides an opportunity to compare and understand the literature and grammars of the Tamil language with those of other languages. We also encourage students to study elective papers of various disciplines. Apart from the fellowship given by the University, a scholarship of four thousand rupees per month is given to a selected student from the Rajam Krishnan Memorial Fund.

 

Optional Course
We offer Tamil Language course for UG and PG Non - Tamil students in every semesters. Through these courses, we encourage the Non-Tamil students to learn not only the language but also about the literatures and culture of the Tamils.

 

Weekly Book Reviews and Research Forums
We are organising Book Reviews and Research Forums for our Research Scholars and Post graduate students every week to foster a collaborative environment for sharing research ideas and findings. This sessions help in ensuring the well-being and academic success of students. Till date our scholars and faculties have presented 328 Research Articles and 464 Book Reviews in these sessions.

 

Events
In addition to our frequent special lectures and webinars on contributions of eminent Tamil researchers, we also host the following three events annually with notable guests from Tamil Nadu:
1) Thiruvalluvar Day on the next day of Pongal 
2) Writer Rajam Krishnan Endowment Lecture on her birthday. 
3) Mahakavi Bharathiyar Birthday and Indian Languages Day on December 11th.

A warm welcome to the modified and updated website of the Centre for East Asian Studies. The East Asian region has been at the forefront of several path-breaking changes since 1970s beginning with the redefining the development architecture with its State-led development model besides emerging as a major region in the global politics and a key hub of the sophisticated technologies. The Centre is one of the thirteen Centres of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi that provides a holistic understanding of the region.

Initially, established as a Centre for Chinese and Japanese Studies, it subsequently grew to include Korean Studies as well. At present there are eight faculty members in the Centre. Several distinguished faculty who have now retired include the late Prof. Gargi Dutt, Prof. P.A.N. Murthy, Prof. G.P. Deshpande, Dr. Nranarayan Das, Prof. R.R. Krishnan and Prof. K.V. Kesavan. Besides, Dr. Madhu Bhalla served at the Centre in Chinese Studies Programme during 1994-2006. In addition, Ms. Kamlesh Jain and Dr. M. M. Kunju served the Centre as the Documentation Officers in Chinese and Japanese Studies respectively.

The academic curriculum covers both modern and contemporary facets of East Asia as each scholar specializes in an area of his/her interest in the region. The integrated course involves two semesters of classes at the M. Phil programme and a dissertation for the M. Phil and a thesis for Ph. D programme respectively. The central objective is to impart an interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of history, foreign policy, government and politics, society and culture and political economy of the respective areas. Students can explore new and emerging themes such as East Asian regionalism, the evolving East Asian Community, the rise of China, resurgence of Japan and the prospects for reunification of the Korean peninsula. Additionally, the Centre lays great emphasis on the building of language skills. The background of scholars includes mostly from the social science disciplines; History, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, International Relations and language.

Several students of the centre have been recipients of prestigious research fellowships awarded by Japan Foundation, Mombusho (Ministry of Education, Government of Japan), Saburo Okita Memorial Fellowship, Nippon Foundation, Korea Foundation, Nehru Memorial Fellowship, and Fellowship from the Chinese and Taiwanese Governments. Besides, students from Japan receive fellowship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.