A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c19.s2.4

c19.s2.4

Most of the important didactical works composed in the period have been grouped together under the title ‘The eighteen kiḻkkaṇakku’ from about the thirteenth century, because of their being composed in various short metres, generally types of the veṇbā. Certainly the best known of them all, and possibly also among the earliest, is the Kural of Tiruvaḷḷuvar, a comprehensive manual of ethics, polity and love. It contains 1,330 distichs divided into 133 sections of ten distichs each—the first 38 on ethics (aram), the following 70 on political and economic topics (poruḷ) and the rest on love (kāmam). The author was most probably a learned Jaina divine and his close acquaintance with the works of Manu, Kautilya and Vātsyāyana is unmistakable. We have little authentic information of his life, and the great merits and continued influence of his work have naturally led to the growth of many popular legends around his name. If, as is often affirmed, he and some other writers of this age belonged to a Saṅgam, it must have been a later institution than the one which flourished in the early centuries of the Christian era: 450-500 may be suggested as the best date for the *Kural*. To the same period must be assigned the *Kalavali* of Poygaiyār, already noticed, and the *Mudumolikkāñji*, a short work of 100 stanzas on mutability by Kūḍalūrkiḷār of Madura.