Was Tamil derived from Sanskrit ?
Tamil wasn’t derived from Sanskrit.
Both the languages belong to completely different language families.
Tamil belongs to Dravidian language family:
The above picture shows the regions where Dravidian languages are spoken.
Sanskrit is a Indo-European language. It belongs to the Indo-Iranian subgroup.
Indo-European languages:
Let’s see some examples from linguistic point of view to understand the basic difference between the language families:
Indo European :
English : who is your son ?
Sanskrit: Kaha tava sūnu?
Lithuanian: Kas tavo sūnus?
Russian : kto tvoy syn ?
Bulgarian : koĭ e tvoyat sin?
Czech: kdo je tvůj syn ?
Slovenian: kdo je tvoj sin?
English: That is you.
Sanskrit: tat tvam asi
Lithuanian: tas tu esi
Latvian : Tas esi tu