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Ainkurunuru (Tamil: ஐங்குறுநூறு,Aiṅkuṟunūṟu meaningfive hundred short poems[1]) is a classicalTamil poetic work and traditionally the third of theEight Anthologies (Ettuthokai) in theSangam literature.[2] It is divided into five groups of 100 short stanzas of 3 to 6 lines, each hundred subdivided into 10s, orpattu. The five groups are based ontinai (landscapes): riverine, sea coast, mountain, arid and pastoral.[2][3] According to Martha Selby, the love poems inAinkurunuru are generally dated from about the late-2nd-to-3rd-century-CE (Sangam period).[3] According toTakanobu Takahashi – a Tamil literature scholar, these poems were likely composed between 300 and 350 CE based on the linguistic evidence, whileKamil Zvelebil – another Tamil literature scholar – suggests the Ainkurunuru poems were composed by 210 CE,[3] with some of the poems dated to 100 BCE.[4]
TheAinkurunuru anthology manuscript includes a colophon which states it to be a Chera (Kerala) text, rather than the more commonPandyan kingdom-based.[5] The poems in this book were written by five authors and were compiled byKudalur Kilar at the behest ofChera King Yanaikkatcey Mantaran Ceral Irumporai.[citation needed]
This book comes under theAkam (love and emotions) category of the Sangam literature.[5] The poems of this anthology are in theAkaval meter. These poems deal with the various aspects of the courtship between the hero and the heroine. The poems are set in variouslandscapes (Tinai - திணை).[2]
Each poem is subdivided and formatted intopattu or tens, a style found in much of Tamil literature such asTirukkural,Bhakti movement poetry and elsewhere. This may have been, according to Zvelebil, aSanskrit literature (sataka style) influence on this work.[6] However, the poetry shows relatively few loan words from Sanskrit.[6] TheAinkurunuru has allusions to 17 historical events and offers some window into early Tamil society. For example, it mentions thekutumi, or the "pigtail of Brahmin boys".[6]
The work is divided into five sections by different authors:[7]
The invocation song at the start of the anthology was written by Perunthevanaar, who translated theMahabharatham into Tamil.[8]
The text was published by U. V. Swaminatha Aiyar, along with a detailed commentary. A short commentary onAinkurunuru anthology was published in the medieval anonymously.[2]
Original
Transliteration:
Translation:
– Translator: Martha Ann Selby[9]
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