Muthollaayiram ( ta, முத்தொள்ளாயிரம், literally "triple nine-hundred") is an ancient

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nati ...

anthology, composed around the 5th century CE. The work consists of three sets of 900 verses each, making a total of 2,700 verses in all, sung in praise of the three ancient Tamil rulers of the Cheras, the

Cholas The Chola dynasty was a Tamil thalassocratic empire of southern India and one of the longest-ruling dynasties in the history of the world. The earliest datable references to the Chola are from inscriptions dated to the 3rd century BCE d ...

, and the Pandyas. This is in line with an ancient Tamil custom of writing 900 verses to complete a work, as in several other works such as ''Vaccha Thollaayiram'' and ''Arumbai Thollaayiram''. It tells about various characteristics of these ancient rulers, namely, land, fortification, army, fighting spirit, valour, generosity, and so forth. The author of the work is not known. Much of it has been lost, with only a small portion available. Out of the 2,700 verses, only 109 verses have been found.

Publication of the work

M. Raghava Iyengar Maha Vidhwan Rao Sahib Mu Raghava Iyengar (Tamil: மு ராகவ ஐயங்கார்) (1878–1960) was a well known Tamil scholar and researcher of Tamil literature. Life Maha Vidhwan Mu Raghava Iyengar (known as M. Raghava Iyeng ...

first published Muthollaayiram verses in 1905 in the magazine ''Senthamil''. In 1938,

S. Vaiyapuri Pillai Rao Sahib Saravanapperumal Vaiyapuri Pillai (12 October 1891 – 17 February 1956) was a renowned lawyer and Tamil language, Tamil scholar. An advocate by profession, he edited and published several Tamil classics from original manuscripts. He is ...

, head of the Tamil research department at the

University of Madras The University of Madras (informally known as Madras University) is a public university, public State university (India), state university in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Established in 1857, it is one of the oldest and among the most prestigiou ...

, published a book containing the verse collections of Muthollaayiram.Muthollaayiram, இரட்டையர்கள்
Marumalarcchi (Tamil Magazine)
April 1948, Yalpanam, Sri Lanka. In 1943, S. Vaiyaapuri Pillai wrote in a journal opining that there could only be 300 songs on each rulers, making only 900 songs in total.

Commentary

T. K. Chidhambaranadhar wrote a simple commentary to the verses of the Muthollaayiram. In the commentary, he indicated that the meaning of 9 verses remains murky and included those verses without any elaboration as an appendix in his commentary.

References

{{Authority control Literature, Tamil Sangam literature Tamil philosophy

Publication of the work

Commentary

See also

References