Thirikatukam (Tamil: திரிகடுகம்) 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 ...
. 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 tw ...
meter.
''Thirikatukam'' uses the analogy of the traditional herbal medicine, which uses the three herbs ''sukku'' (dried
ginger
Ginger (''Zingiber officinale'') is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or ginger, is widely used as a spice and a folk medicine. It is an herbaceous perennial that grows annual pseudostems (false stems made of the rolled bases of l ...
), ''milaku'' (
pepper) and ''thippili'' (
Long pepper) 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