About Us

Puducherry Institute of Linguistics and Culture (PILC) was started in the year 1981 as a Regional Centre of the International School of Dravidian Linguistics (ISDL) and the Government of Puducherry undertook it in the year 1986 and rechristened it as Pondicherry Institute of Linguistics and Culture under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 (S.No.185 of 1986). It is affiliated to the Tamil University, Thanjavur, Tamilnadu. It is one of the premier institutions in South India.

PILC has been functioning under the department of Art & Culture, Government of Puducherry, Puducherry. Its main thrust of activities centered around promoting research in the fields of language and culture in the Union Territory of Puducherry. Right now, PILC has four academic departments. It offers M.Phil., and Ph.D. programmes. Besides that it offers Tamil teaching for foreigners, Govt. officials and non-Tamil learners. PILC also conducts Certificate and Diploma level courses on the subjects like linguistics, anthropology, folkloristics and Sangam literature. As part of the research activities, PILC conducts seminars, workshops, conferences, endowment lectures, research forums, and the like on regular basis. PILC publishes research titles on language and culture and it brings out quarterly Tamil journal and bi-annual journal e-journal in English.