Thirikatukam (Tamil: திரிகடுகம்) is a
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, nativ ...
poetic work of
didactic nature belonging to the
Eighteen Lesser Texts
The Eighteen Lesser Texts, known as the Patiṉeṇkīḻkaṇakku ( ta, பதினெண்கீழ்கணக்கு) in the literature, is a collection of eighteen poetic works mostly created during the 'post Sangam period' (between 100 ...
(''Pathinenkilkanakku'') anthology of
Tamil literature
Tamil literature has a rich and long literary tradition spanning more than two thousand years. The oldest extant works show signs of maturity indicating an even longer period of evolution. Contributors to the Tamil literature are mainly from T ...
. This belongs to the 'post
Sangam period' corresponding to between 100 and 500 CE. ''Thirikatukam'' contains 100 poems written by the poet
Nallathanaar. The poems of ''Thirikatukam'' are written in the
Venpa
Venpa or Venba ('' வெண்பா'' in Tamil) is a form of classical Tamil poetry. Classical Tamil poetry has been classified based upon the rules of metric prosody. Such rules form a context-free grammar. Every venba consists of between two ...
meter.
''Thirikatukam'' uses the analogy of the traditional herbal medicine, which uses the three herbs ''sukku'' (dried
ginger), ''milaku'' (
pepper
Pepper or peppers may refer to:
Food and spice
* Piperaceae or the pepper family, a large family of flowering plant
** Black pepper
* ''Capsicum'' or pepper, a genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family Solanaceae
** Bell pepper
** Chili ...
) and ''thippili'' (
Long pepper
Long pepper (''Piper longum''), sometimes called Indian long pepper or ''thippali'', is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. Long pepper has a taste simi ...
) to cure maladies of the stomach. ''Thirikatugam'' similarly uses three different
maxims to illustrate correct behaviour.
References
* Mudaliyar, Singaravelu A., Apithana Cintamani, An encyclopaedia of Tamil Literature, (1931) - Reprinted by Asian Educational Services, New Delhi (1983)
* http://tamilnation.org/literature/pathinen/pm0048.pdf ''Thirikatukam'' eText at
Project madurai
Sangam literature
{{India-lit-stub