- Tamilakam
unicode|Tamiḻakam (Tamil தமிழகம்) is a Tamil word meaning "the Tamil country" or "the Tamil home". The term was first used in the
Purananuru 168.18 as "Thamizhakam". The term has several different connotations:*In Old Tamil, the term referred to the whole of the
Ancient Tamil country , as distinct from the many kingdoms that existed within its boundaries. [cite book | last =Kanakasabhai | first =V | title =The Tamils Eighteen Hundred Years Ago | publisher =Asian Educational Services | date =1997 | pages =10 | url =http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=VuvshP5_hg8C&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=Tamilakam&ots=doaJ5A3of1&sig=ySkrE4rnDTHyTXKWL0wGDpXxQzk#PPA10,M1 | isbn =ISBN 8120601505 ]*In modern Tamil usage, the word is generally another name for the southern Indian state of
Tamil Nadu .
*In an academic context, the word is sometimes used to refer to a cultural area comprising of the two southern Indian states ofTamil Nadu andKerala [cite journal | last =Abraham | first =Shinu | title =Chera, Chola, Pandya: using archaeological evidence to identify the Tamil kingdoms of early historic South India. | journal =Asian Perspectives: the Journal of Archaeology for Asia and the Pacific | volume =42 | date =2003 | url =http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst;jsessionid=GfpTLJYcL1XJGP4Vv1mSvT1hvmCvCxGMhrrDBZ23l2vmKVN1JkYG!-2096127210?docId=5002047766] , and the northeast of Sri Lanka, all of which are, culturally speaking, descendants of the ancient Tamil people.References
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