Purnanuru ~ Books I Like

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Purnanuru

As its name suggests, ''Purananuru'' poems deal with the ''puram'' (external or objective) concepts of life such as war, politics, wealth, as well as aspects of every-day living. Some of the poems are in the form of elegies in tribute to a fallen hero. These poems exhibit outpourings of affection and emotions.

''Purananuru'' is an excellent source of information on the political and social history of pre-historic Tamil Nadu. There is a wealth of information on the various rulers who ruled the Tamil country before and during the Sangam era (200 BCE – 100 CE). It is part of the ''Ettuthokai'' anthology which is the oldest available collection of poems of Sangam literature in Tamil. ''Purananuru'' contains 400 poems of varying lengths in the ''Akaval'' meter.

It is not know exactly how many authors wrote the poems in ''Purananuru''. There are 147 different names found from the colophons. However some of these could denote the same author. For example, Mangudi Kizhaar and Mangudi Maruthanaar could denote the same person. Fifteen of the authors were women, one of whom was Auvaiyar who is credited with 33 poems. Some of the authors of the poems such as Kapilar and Nakkirar have also written poems that are part of other anthologies.

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