Classical Tamil
Beginning from the winter term 2017/18 onwards the language options include also Tamil, the literary language of South India, of some 2000 years standing. The focus in both research and teaching is on Classical Tamil, although proficiency in modern Tamil also is required because the larger part of modern secondary literature is written in Tamil. (Due to Tamil diglossia, acquiring the modern written language does not actually entail the ability to speak Tamil.) Dealing with South Indian sources, which enable us to understand cultural and historical processes in almost any domain, requires multilinguistic proficiency, including at least Tamil and Sanskrit, ideally in combination with the other Dravidian languages Malayalam, Kannada and Telugu. Thus for Sanskritists working on South India the ideal option is Tamil as a second language, while the long-term interaction of Tamil and Sanskrit in the South clearly demands Sanskrit as a second language for any Tamilist working on premodern sources.
A special collaboration is in place with the Pondicherry centre of the Ecole Française d’Extrême-Orient (http://www.efeo.fr/base.php?code=23) where since 2003 Classical Tamil Winter or Summer Seminars are conducted yearly, an opportunity for intensive study in a mixed group of advanced and less advanced scholars.