Inna Narpathu () is a

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

poetic work of

didactic Didacticism is a philosophy that emphasises instructional and informative qualities in literature, art, and design. In art, design, architecture, and landscape, didacticism is a conceptual approach that is driven by the urgent need to explain. ...

nature belonging to the

Eighteen Lesser Texts The Eighteen Lesser Texts, known as the Patiṉeṇkīḻkaṇakku () in the literature, is a collection of eighteen poetic works mostly created during the 'post Sangam period' (between 100 and 500 CE). The poems of this collection differ from t ...

(''Pathinenkilkanakku'') anthology of

Tamil literature Tamil literature includes a collection of literary works that have come from a 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 T ...

. https://rsdebate.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/698308/2/PD_249_11072019_p351_p540_11.pdf

History

The poems of ''Inna Narpathu'' 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 tw ...

meter. It was authored by

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 contributed 206 poems, or a little less than 10% of the entire Sangam-era classical corpus by 473 ...

(c. 50–125 CE). ''Inna Narpathu'' is a collection of 40 poems describing the most undesirable things one should avoid. One of the meanings of the Tamil word ''Inna'' is one that brings unhappiness. ''Inna Narpathu'' includes four categories of harmful things one should avoid: a beautiful but disloyal wife, the wealth of a miser, a life under a tyrant, beauty of a flower without fragrance. ''Inna Narpathu'', together with '' Iniyavai Narpathu'' spells out in simple and succinct terms moral codes essential for daily life of the individual and for the society. They both emphasise the importance of education and individual responsibility in society.

References

* Mudaliyar, Singaravelu A., Apithana Cintamani, An encyclopaedia of Tamil Literature, (1931) - Reprinted by Asian Educational Services, New Delhi (1983) * http://www.chennailibrary.com/pathinenkeelkanakku/innanarpadhu.html * http://tamilnation.org/literature/ * http://tamilnation.org/literature/pathinen/pm0025.pdf ''Inna Narpathu'' eText at Project madurai
Inna Narpathu (இன்னா நாற்பது) at WikiSource
Sangam literature {{India-lit-stub