The ''Patiṟṟuppattu'' ( ta, பதிற்றுப்பத்து, mal, പതിറ്റുപ്പത്ത്, lit. ''Ten Tens'', sometimes spelled ''Pathitrupathu'',) is a classical
Tamil poetic work and one of the
Eight Anthologies
The Eight Anthologies, known as Eṭṭuttokai ( ta, எட்டுத்தொகை) or "Eight Collections" in the literature, is a classical Tamil poetic work that forms part of the Eighteen Greater Texts (''Patiṉeṇmēlkaṇakku'') antholo ...
(''Ettuthokai'') in
Sangam literature
The Sangam literature (Tamil: சங்க இலக்கியம், ''caṅka ilakkiyam'';) historically known as 'the poetry of the noble ones' (Tamil: சான்றோர் செய்யுள், ''Cāṉṟōr ceyyuḷ'') connotes ...
. A
panegyric
A panegyric ( or ) is a formal public speech or written verse, delivered in high praise of a person or thing. The original panegyrics were speeches delivered at public events in ancient Athens.
Etymology
The word originated as a compound of grc, ...
collection, it contains ''
puram
''Puram'' (, ''Lit.'' exterior) is one of two genres of Classical Tamil poetry. The concept of life style of human beings falls in two categories: personal and public. The genre dealing with poems about love affairs is called '' Akam'' (அக ...
'' (war and public life) poems. The
Chera kings, known as the Cheramal, are the centre of the work. Its
invocatory poem is about Maayon, or Mal (
Vishnu
Vishnu ( ; , ), also known as Narayana and Hari, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the supreme being within Vaishnavism, one of the major traditions within contemporary Hinduism.
Vishnu is known as "The Preserver" within t ...
).
The ''Patiṟṟuppattu'' originally contained ten sections of ten poems, each section dedicated to a decade of rule in ancient
Kerala
Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...
(Cerals,
Chera); the first and last sections have been lost.
Of the surviving poems, the second-to-sixth-decade-related poems are about the three generations of rulers from the
Imayavaramban dynasty. The remaining poems are about the three generations of rulers from the Irumporai dynasty. In the ''Patirruppattu'' palm-leaf manuscripts, each decade ends with a (a verse epilogue followed by a prose
colophon. According to
U. V. Swaminatha Iyer
Uttamadhanapuram Venkatasubbaiyer Swaminatha Iyer (19 February 1855 – 28 April 1942) was a Tamil scholar and researcher who was instrumental in bringing many long-forgotten works of classical Tamil literature to light. His singular efforts ...
(who rediscovered the Sangam manuscripts), a commentary was written in or after the 13th century.
[
The ''Patiṟṟuppattu'' was written by several male poets and one female poet, indicating that women could play a scholarly role in ancient ]South India
South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, as well as the union territo ...
. The poems praise rulers and heroes in Hagiographical
A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian hagiographies might ...
form, with a core seemingly rooted in history. They mention the Hindu deities Shiva
Shiva (; sa, शिव, lit=The Auspicious One, Śiva ), also known as Mahadeva (; ɐɦaːd̪eːʋɐ, or Hara, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the Supreme Being in Shaivism, one of the major traditions within Hindu ...
, Murugan
Kartikeya ( sa, कार्त्तिकेय, Kārttikeya), also known as Skanda, Subrahmanya, Shanmukha (), and Murugan ( ta, முருகன்), is the Hindu god of war. He is the son of Parvati and Shiva, the brother of Ganesha ...
and Korravai
Kotṟavai (), also spelled ''Kotravai'' or ''Korravai'', is the goddess of war and victory in the Tamil tradition. She is also the mother goddess and the goddess of fertility, agriculture, and hunters. In the latter form, she is sometimes refer ...
(Uma, Durga), and their worship by warriors and the king. The poems, epilogues, and colophons are significant in studies of ancient culture and sociology. The poetry probably relies on older oral tradition
Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication wherein knowledge, art, ideas and cultural material is received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another. Vansina, Jan: ''Oral Tradition as History'' (1985 ...
s shared by post-Sangam Tamil epics.
Czech scholar Kamil Zvelebil
Kamil Václav Zvelebil (November 17, 1927 – January 17, 2009) was a Czech scholar in Indian literature and linguistics, notably Tamil, Sanskrit, Dravidian linguistics and literature and philology.
Life and career
Zvelebil studied at the Char ...
wrote that the ''Patirruppattu'' was probably composed over a period of time: the first layer sometime between the 2nd and 4th centuries CE, and the second layer between the 3rd and 5th centuries. Its poems and are of significant historical importance.[ According to ]T. P. Meenakshisundaram
Thenpattinam Ponnuswamy Meenakshisundaram (1901–1980), popularly known as Te Po Meenkshisunadaranar, was an Indian scholar, writer of Tamil and English literature and the founder vice chancellor of Madurai Kamaraj University.
Life
Born on 8 J ...
, the ''Patiṟṟuppattu'' is the "only available book of ancient Chera history".
Structure
The ten verses in each of the eight tens now available have a common structure. Each verse has a title or caption, a catchy phrase found in the text of the verse. The text of the verse follows the caption or title. At the end of each verse is information about the poetic theme referred to with the Tamil term துறை (), rhythm with the Tamil word வண்ணம் (Vannam), metre (தூக்கு, Thookku) and the name of the verse, known as பெயர் (). This type of information is rarely found in other classical Tamil literature. An epilogue ()is at the end of each ten. The theme, rhythm, metre, name and epilogues were added by the authors of the at a later date, before the commentaries were written; the , as well as the verses, have been annotated.
Contents
The ''Patirruppattu'' is about ten decades of Chera kings. Its second, third, fourth and fifth ten describe the Imayavaraman dynasty, and the sixth, seventh and eighth ten deal with the Irumporai dynasty. These are called the Ceral (plural Ceralar).
Each decade has 10 poems; each poem has an average length of 21 lines, and the entire decade averages 211 lines. The shortest verse (verse 87) is five lines long, and the longest (verse 90) is 57 lines in length. The supplemental at the end of each decade vary in length from 10 to 21 lines. The poems include graphic details of war and violence.
Patikams
Each verse of the ''Patirruppattu'' extant eight tens ends with a , supplementary information about the decade. These were added to the tens at a later date, before the medieval commentator Atiyarkkunallar, who wrote a commentary on ''Silappatikaram'' quoting the .
First ten
These poems have been lost.
Second ten
These ten poems were written by Kumattur Kannan about the Cheral king Nedum Cheralathan.
Third ten
Palyanai Sel Kelu Kuttuvan, Nedum Cheralathan's brother, is the hero of the ''Patiṟṟuppattu'' third ten. Palyanai helped his brother conquer the northern Malabar Coast
The Malabar Coast is the southwestern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Geographically, it comprises the wettest regions of southern India, as the Western Ghats intercept the moisture-laden monsoon rains, especially on their westward-facing m ...
, at least part of which came under Chera rule. In later life, Palyanai retired from the military life and devoted himself to the arts, letters, philanthropy and helping Brahmin
Brahmin (; sa, ब्राह्मण, brāhmaṇa) is a varna as well as a caste within Hindu society. The Brahmins are designated as the priestly class as they serve as priests (purohit, pandit, or pujari) and religious teachers (guru ...
s.
Fourth ten
Poet Kappiyatru Kaapiyanaar composed these poems about Chera prince Narmudi Cheral, receiving four million gold coins. Narmudi had a series of victories, but was generous to those he defeated. In the battle of Vakaiperumturai, He defeated and killed Nannan of Ezhimalai, and annexed Puzhinadu.
Fifth ten
Paranar
Paranar (Tamil: பரணர்) (c. 1st century CE) was a poet of the Sangam period, to whom 84 verses of the Sangam literature have been attributed, besides verse 6 of the Tiruvalluva Maalai.
Biography
Paranar belonged to the Paanar caste. He ...
composed these ten poems about the Chera king Cenkuttuvan
Cheran Chenkuttuvan ( ml, ചേരൻ ചെങ്കുട്ടുവൻ ; ta, சேரன் செங்குட்டுவன்) (''c.'' 2nd century CE), literally 'the Alluring Kuttuvan Chera', identified with Katal Pirakottiya Vel ...
. According to Kamil Zvelebil, the Paranar poems are probably the ''Patiṟṟuppattu'' best examples of the heroic genre.
This section is notable for dating the earliest Tamil epic, ''Silappatikaram
''Cilappatikāram'' ( ta, சிலப்பதிகாரம் ml, ചിലപ്പതികാരം,IPA: ʧiləppət̪ikɑːrəm, ''lit.'' "the Tale of an Anklet"), also referred to as ''Silappathikaram'' or ''Silappatikaram'', is the e ...
''. Although it includes details about Ceṅkuṭṭuvan's family and rule, it does not mention that he had a brother who became an ascetic and wrote a cherished epics. This has been a reason to consider legendary author Ilango Adikal a mythological figure later extrapolated into the epic, ruling out the epic as part of Sangam literature.
Sixth ten
Adu Kottu Pattu Cheralathan, a crown prince for 38 years who never became king, is the hero of the sixth ten. A patron of commerce, letters and the arts, he is described as giving a village in Kuttanad to Brahmin
Brahmin (; sa, ब्राह्मण, brāhmaṇa) is a varna as well as a caste within Hindu society. The Brahmins are designated as the priestly class as they serve as priests (purohit, pandit, or pujari) and religious teachers (guru ...
s.
Seventh ten
The poet Kapilar
Kapilar or Kabilar (Tamil: கபிலர்) was the most prolific Tamil poet of the Sangam period (c. 3rd century BCE to 3rd century CE). He alone contributed some 206 poems, or a little less than 10% of the entire Sangam-era classical corpus ...
composed these poems about Cheran Celvakkadungo Vazhi Aathan.
Eighth ten
The Cheral king Perunceral Irumporai is the subject of these ten poems.
Ninth ten
These poems were written about the Cheral king Perunceral Irumporai, possibly the brother of the king in the previous ten.
Tenth ten
These poems have been lost.
See also
* Eight Anthologies
The Eight Anthologies, known as Eṭṭuttokai ( ta, எட்டுத்தொகை) or "Eight Collections" in the literature, is a classical Tamil poetic work that forms part of the Eighteen Greater Texts (''Patiṉeṇmēlkaṇakku'') antholo ...
* Eighteen Greater Texts
The Eighteen Greater Texts, known as Patiṉeṇmēlkaṇakku ( ta, பதினெண்மேல்கணக்கு) in the literature, is the collection of the oldest surviving Tamil poetry. This collection is considered part of the Sangam ...
* Sangam literature
The Sangam literature (Tamil: சங்க இலக்கியம், ''caṅka ilakkiyam'';) historically known as 'the poetry of the noble ones' (Tamil: சான்றோர் செய்யுள், ''Cāṉṟōr ceyyuḷ'') connotes ...
References
Bibliography
*
* Mudaliyar, Singaravelu A., Apithana Cintamani, An encyclopaedia of Tamil Literature, (1931) - Reprinted by Asian Educational Services, New Delhi (1983)
*
{{Tamil language
Sangam literature