The Colas c9.21

c9.21

Among works of secular literature which can be dated with accuracy, the most interesting from our point of view are the *Vīraśōḻiyam* of Buddhamitra, the *Kalingattupparaṇi* of Jayangoṇḍār and the three *ulās* and the *Kulōttungan Piḷḷaittamiḻ* of Oṭṭakkūttan. The first is a work on Tamil grammar composed by a Buddhist writer in the reign of Vīrarājēndra. The *Yāpparungalam* and the *Yāpparungalak-kārikai* are other works on one branch of grammar, prosody, by a Jaina writer, Amitasāgara, of somewhat earlier date. These three works possess glosses slightly later than the original texts; and the examples cited by the authors of these commentaries to illustrate particular rules of grammar are often of uncommon interest; they provide fresh information, and confirm, and sometimes elucidate, data drawn from the inscriptions. The *Kalingattupparaṇi* of Jayangoṇḍār is a war-poem of the conventional *paraṇi* type, which has for its subject-matter the conquest of the Kalinga country by Karuṇākarat-toṇḍaimān, the celebrated generalissimo of Kulōttunga I. The poem is justly celebrated for the excellence of its diction and its superb display of metrical effects; it fetched the title of *Kavic-cakravarti* (Emperor of Poetry) to its author, a title which seems to have been kept on as a sort of poet-laureateship, or at any rate was conferred also on Oṭṭakkūttan who, though himself a poet of no mean order, paid his predecessor the high compliment of imitating him closely in his *Takkayāgapparaṇi* on a well-known theme of mythology. For all its fabulous and supernatural elements, and the absurd hyperboles characteristic of it, the *Kaliṅgattu-pparaṇi* is still valuable to the historian as it furnishes much welcome information on the Cōḻa genealogy and on the details of the Kalinga campaign of Kulōttunga, including the route taken by his army. Parts of the poem were translated into English by V. Kanakasabhai some years ago, and the translation was published in the *Indian Antiquary*. Oṭṭakkūttan chose the *ulā* as the vehicle of his encomiums on three successive monarchs who followed Kulōttunga I. The *ulā* is, like the *paraṇi*, a conventional literary form. If the *paraṇi* is *par excellence* a war-poem, the *ulā* is just its opposite; free from the cares and anxieties of his high station, with no troubles domestic or foreign to cloud his happiness, the king with his retinue is conceived as going for a stroll round the capital city; the beginning of the *ulā* generally gives a more or less studied account of the achievements of the king and his ancestors, and provides a somewhat detailed description of the chief men among his courtiers who accompany him and the place they occupy in the administration of the country; this part of the poem is of considerable historical value. What follows in the *ulā* is not of much immediate interest to us; it is, to a modern student, a monotonous account of the amorous looks and the tell-tale acts of the women of the city who, at the sight of the king, become agitated and love-sick. Besides the three *ulās*, on Vikrama, Kulōttunga II and Rājarāja II, Oṭṭakkūttan also wrote the *Kulōttunga-śōḻan-piḷḷait-tamiḻ*, a child-poem on Kulōttunga II; notable for its fine sentiment and high eloquence, this poem is not nearly so useful to us as the *ulās*.