https://indianpedia.org/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=AinkurunuruAinkurunuru - Revision history2026-07-31T12:50:10ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.45.4https://indianpedia.org/index.php?title=Ainkurunuru&diff=85047&oldid=prev>Rasnaboy at 06:36, 14 May 20212021-05-14T06:36:35Z<p></p>
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'''Ainkurunuru''' ({{indic|lang=ta|indic=ஐங்குறுநூறு|trans=Aiṅkuṟunūṟu}} meaning ''five hundred short poems''<ref>{{Cite book|title=Poets of the Tamil Anthologies: Ancient Poems of Love and War|last=Hart|first=George L.|year=1979}}</ref>) is a classical [[Tamil literature|Tamil poetic]] work and traditionally the third of the [[Eight Anthologies]] (''Ettuthokai'') in the [[Sangam literature]].{{sfn|Kamil Zvelebil|1973|pp=50-51}} It is divided into five groups of 100 short stanzas of 3 to 6 lines, each hundred subdivided into 10s, or ''pattu''. The five groups are based on ''tinai'' (landscapes): riverine, sea coast, mountain, arid and pastoral.{{sfn|Kamil Zvelebil|1973|pp=50-51}}<ref name=selby2/> According to Martha Selby, the love poems in ''Ainkurunuru'' are generally dated from about the late-2nd-to-3rd-century-CE ([[Sangam period]]).<ref name=selby2>Selby, Martha Ann. Tamil Love Poetry: The Five Hundred Short Poems of the Aiṅkuṟunūṟu, an Early Third-Century Anthology. Columbia University Press, 2011. {{ISBN|9780231150651}}. pp. 1-6</ref> According to [[Takanobu Takahashi]] – a Tamil literature scholar, these poems were likely composed between 300 and 350 CE based on the linguistic evidence, while Kamil Zvelebil – another Tamil literature scholar – suggests the Ainkurunuru poems were composed by 210 CE,<ref name=selby2/> with some of the poems dated to 100 BCE.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Zvelebil|first=Kamil|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=degUAAAAIAAJ&q=info:3mNeiVqlnhoJ:scholar.google.com/&pg=PR9|title=The Smile of Murugan: On Tamil Literature of South India|date=1973|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-03591-1|language=en}}</ref><br />
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The ''Ainkurunuru'' anthology manuscript includes a colophon which states it to be a Chera ([[Kerala]]) text, rather than the more common [[Early Pandyan Kingdom|Pandyan kingdom]]-based.<ref name="Wilden2014p12"/> The poems in this book were written by five authors and were compiled by [[Kudalur Kilar]] at the behest of [[Chera dynasty|Chera]] King Yanaikkatcey Mantaran Ceral Irumporai.{{cn|date=October 2019}}<br />
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==Style and contents==<br />
This book comes under the ''Akam'' (love and emotions) category of the Sangam literature.<ref name="Wilden2014p12">{{cite book|author=Eva Maria Wilden|title=Manuscript, Print and Memory: Relics of the Cankam in Tamilnadu |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=KuPmBQAAQBAJ |year= 2014|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn= 978-3-11-035276-4|pages=12 with footnote 26}}</ref> The poems of this anthology are in the ''Akaval'' meter. These poems deal with the various aspects of the courtship between the hero and the heroine. The poems are set in various [[Sangam landscape|landscapes]] (''Tinai'' - திணை).{{sfn|Kamil Zvelebil|1973|pp=50-51}}<br />
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Each poem is subdivided and formatted into ''pattu'' or tens, a style found in much of Tamil literature such as ''[[Tirukkural]]'', [[Bhakti movement]] poetry and elsewhere. This may have been, according to Zvelebil, a [[Sanskrit]] literature (''sataka'' style) influence on this work.{{sfn|Kamil Zvelebil|1973|pp=50-51 with footnote 1}} However, the poetry shows relatively few loan words from Sanskrit.{{sfn|Kamil Zvelebil|1973|pp=50-51 with footnote 1}} The ''Ainkurunuru'' has allusions to 17 historical events and offers some window into early Tamil society. For example, it mentions the ''kutumi'', or the "pigtail of Brahmin boys".{{sfn|Kamil Zvelebil|1973|pp=50-51 with footnote 1}}<br />
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==Sections and authors==<br />
The work is divided into five sections by different authors:<ref>Selby, Martha Ann. Tamil Love Poetry: The Five Hundred Short Poems of the Aiṅkuṟunūṟu, an Early Third-Century Anthology. Columbia University Press, 2011. {{ISBN|9780231150651}}. p. ''vii''</ref><br />
# ''Marutam'' - 100 poems on jealous quarrelling, by Ōrampōkiyār<br />
# ''Neytal'' - 100 poems on lamenting the lover's absence, by Ammuvaṉār<br />
# ''Kuṟiñci'' - 100 poems on union of lovers, by [[Kapilar]]<br />
# ''Pālai'' - 100 poems on separation, by Otalānraiyār<br />
# ''Mullai'' - 100 poems on patient waiting for the lover's return, by Pēyaṉār<br />
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The invocation song at the start of the anthology was written by Perunthevanaar, who translated the [[Mahabharatham]] into Tamil.{{sfn|Kowmareeshwari, 2012|p=1}}<br />
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==Publication and commentary==<br />
The text was published by U. V. Swaminatha Aiyar, along with a detailed commentary. A short commentary on ''Ainkurunuru'' anthology was published in the medieval anonymously.{{sfn|Kamil Zvelebil|1973|pp=50-51}}<br />
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==Example==<br />
:'''Poem 255:'''<ref name=selby/><br />
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Original<br />
:குன்றக் குறவன் காதல் மடமகள்<br />
:வரையர மகளிர்ப் புரையுஞ் சாயலள்<br />
:ஐயள் அரும்பிய முலையள்<br />
:செய்ய வாயினள் மார்பினள் சுணங்கே.<br />
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Transliteration:<br />
:Kuṉṟak kuṟavaṉ kātal maṭamakaḷ<br />
:Varaiyara makaḷirp puraiyuñ cāyalaḷ<br />
:Aiyaḷ arumpiya mulaiyaḷ<br />
:Ceyya vāyiṉaḷ mārpiṉaḷ cuṇaṅkē<br />
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Translation:<br />
:The loving young daughter<br />
:of the hill man<br />
:is as beautiful<br />
:as a mountain goddess.<br />
:She is gorgeous<br />
:with her sprouting breasts,<br />
:her reddened lips,<br />
:and her mottled chest.<br />
– Translator: Martha Ann Selby<ref name=selby>Selby, Martha Ann. Tamil Love Poetry: The Five Hundred Short Poems of the Aiṅkuṟunūṟu, an Early Third-Century Anthology. Columbia University Press, 2011. {{ISBN|9780231150651}}. pp 105-106</ref><br />
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==See also==<br />
* [[Eight Anthologies]]<br />
* [[Eighteen Greater Texts]]<br />
* [[Sangam literature]]<br />
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==Notes==<br />
{{reflist}}<br />
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==References==<br />
* Mudaliyar, Singaravelu A., Apithana Cintamani, An encyclopaedia of Tamil Literature, (1931) - Reprinted by Asian Educational Services, New Delhi (1983)<br />
* {{cite book|author=Kamil Zvelebil|title=The Smile of Murugan: On Tamil Literature of South India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=degUAAAAIAAJ|year=1973|publisher=BRILL|isbn=90-04-03591-5}}<br />
*{{cite book | last = Kowmareeshwari (Ed.) | first = S. | title = Nattrinai, Ainkurunuru | publisher = Saradha Pathippagam | series = Sanga Ilakkiyam | volume = 1 | edition = 1 | date = August 2012 | location = Chennai | pages = | language = ta |ref={{sfnRef| Kowmareeshwari, 2012}}}}<br />
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==External links==<br />
* ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20070609132928/http://www.sub.uni-goettingen.de/ebene_1/fiindolo/gretil/4_drav/tamil/pm/pm028__u.htm Aingurunuru of kudalur kizhar]'', Project Madurai<br />
{{Wikisource|:ta:ஐங்குறுநூறு|Original text in tamil language}}<br />
{{Authority control}}<br />
{{Tamil language}}<br />
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[[Category:Tamil language|Literature, Tamil]]<br />
[[Category:Sangam literature]]<br />
[[Category:Tamil philosophy]]</div>>Rasnaboy