Ettuthokai

Ettuthogai (Tamil: எட்டுத்தொகை)– 'The Eight Anthologies' - is a Classical Tamil poetic work which forms part of the Pathinenmaelkanakku anthology series of the Sangam Literature. Ettuthogai and its companion anthology, Pathuppaattu, are some of the oldest available Tamil literature and have been dated to between 200 BCE and 200 CE.

Ettuthogai consist of 2,371 poems varying from small stanzas of three lines in Ainkurnuru to stanzas of forty lines in Puranaanuru. The following poems form the Eight Anthologies:

The following Tamil poetry by an anonymous author lists the component parts of this Anthology:

நற்றிணை நல்ல குறுந்தொகை ஐங்குறுநூறு
ஒத்த பதிற்றுப்பத்து ஓங்கு பரிபாடல்
கற்றறிந்தார் ஏத்தும் கலியோடு அகம்புறம்
என்று இத்திறத்த எட்டுத் தொகை.

The ancient Tamil lyrical poetry compiled in The Eight Anthologies is unique and vigorous, full of vivid realism.

There are 470 poets known either by their proper names or by causal names deduced from their works. The authors are unidentified in the case of a hundred stanzas. The poets belonged to different parts of Tamil Nadu and to different professions.

Some of them were very popular like Kabilar, Nakkirar and Avvaiyaar and some others are rarely remembered by their names. Yet a general harmony prevails throughout these eight anthologies. The tone and temper of the age is reflected in all their poems with a singular likeness. They were moulded according to certain literary conventions or traditions that prevailed in the Sangam age. Yet they reveal the individual genius of the poets who sang them.

In those early days of Sangam Literature, the convention which holds that Tamil poetry should only deal with the four aspects of life, namely, virtue (அறம் - aram), material (as in 'material wealth') (பொருள் - porul), joy (happiness and pleasure) (இன்பம் - inbam), and salvation (including death) (வீச்சு - veechu), was not prevalent. The poets sang either of subjective (Agam) or objective (Puram) matters. Agam dealt with ideal love and Puram with the rest, such as war, munificence, etc.

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