Envisions the Department to be a vibrant centre of Tamil Studies where research in diverse fields of Tamil language will be carried out.

To encourage faculty members to carryout research in new areas.

To create state of the art infrastructure for research in the Department.

To make digital library available to all students of the Department.

To make audio-visual research centre as the central focus for research in the Department.

The history of the Tamil department begins with the introduction of a course, Tamil Translation in 1884. Mr. Ramalingam from Jaffna University was in charge. Tamil was introduced as Part – I Language in the Intermediate course in 1914. The Tamil Department was then headed by Prof. A. Karmega Konar. Prof. P. Jothimuthu, an expert in Translation, translated Sangam Literature into English, particularly Aingurunuru and Purananuru. The undergraduate programme in Tamil was started in the year 1971 under the headship of Prof. Moses Ponniah. It was later upgraded into a Postgraduate Department in 1986. Prof. Solomon Pappiah was the Head of the Department then. It has been recognized as a Research Centre since January 2000. M.Phil., programme was started in the year 2005.