The night hides the clandestine meeting of two lovers on a hillside. Miles away, under the same moonlight, cattle are stolen, signalling the onset of war. These events may sound as though they are from the pages of a fantasy novel. But they aren’t. They are pieces that tie together eight anthologies of exquisite lyrics, long poems, and grammar.
The Tolkāppiyam or the Old Composition is one of the most esteemed works of literature known to man. The events of love and war mentioned earlier are a part of the thread that runs through the work. Classified under the genres of kuṟiñci and veṭci, cleverly named after flowers that grow on the hillside, the structure ties together the mood and setting of the events in the parallel reality of love and war.
Tamil lore speaks of poets of three sangams, or ages, whose collective works form the rich Tamil literary corpus. The Tolkāppiyam is assigned to the second Sangam. The eight anthologies and long poems to the third. However, some sources have dated the literature to be in the first three centuries of the Christian Era.
This exceptional work of grammar and rhetoric forms the foundation of the early Tamil language. It is divided into three sections comprising of sounds, words and meanings. Each section consists of cūttirams or maxims. The third details the canons of Sangam poetic traditions.
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