The first World Classical Tamil Conference was held for 5 days in Kovai (Coimbatore) during Jun 23-27, 2010 and drew massive gathering. The conference was inaugurated by President, Pratibha Devisingh Patil who said that many concepts intrinsic to India’s society and critical to its polity were found in Tamil discourse over the millenia. The message of peace, universality and the spirit of equality was propounded in Sangam literature more than 2000 years ago. 

The President presented the Kalignar M Karunanidhi Classical Tamil Award to the renowned Indologist, Asko Parpola, Professor-Emeritus of Indology, Institute of World Cultures, University of Helsinki, Finland. He held that roots of Tamil were Proto-Dravidian, which cabn be identified as the language of thousands of short texts in the Indus script, written during 2600-1700 BCE. 

Presiding over the inaugural function, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, M Karunanidhi noted that the roots of Tamil words were present in many languages of the world. Quoting extensively from Valmiki Ramayan, Arthashastra and Purananooru, he stressed that the Tamil people had an ancient origin and a hoary past.

Source – The Hindu