Puraporul Venba Malai
Résumé
This lesson offers a brief introduction to Pura Porul Ilakkanam. Tamil grammar is broadly classified into 5 major divisions - ie the letter (sol), the word or ezhuthu , content or porul, prosody or yappu and figures of speech or… ani. “Porul” is the content or the subject of any literary work. The ethics and codes governing the social and domestic life of the Tamils is largely the subject underlying ancient Tamil literature. Tamil grammarians devised the Porul Ilakkanam to codify the content of poetry. Similar to the way in which the inner universe is divided into 7 ‘tinais’ or modes, Tholkappiar, the ancient Tamil grammarian, also codified the behaviour pertaining to the external world into 7 ‘tinais’- viz. ‘vetchi’, vanji’, ‘uzhinjai’, ‘ thumbai’, ‘vaagai’, ‘kanchi’ and ‘paadaan’. ‘Pannirupadalam’ was the first grammar text to explain the various pura tinais. It was composed by the 12 disciples of Agathiyar, including Tholkappiar.Only a few verses of this text are extant today. ‘Puraporul Venba Malai’ is another grammar text on‘puram’ written later by Iyyanaarithanaar.