A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c19.s2.41

c19.s2.41

Among works of grammar composed in this period, after *Nambi Ahapporuḷ*, already mentioned, we have the *Cidambarappāṭṭiyal* by Parañjōti, the son of Tirumalai-nāthan (1508) of the *Cidambara-purāṇam*; the *pāṭṭiyal* explains the conventions governing the composition of different types of Prabandhas. Another work on the same subject was the *Navanitappāṭṭiyal* of Navanīta-naṭan which has evoked a very valuable commentary. Next may be placed a fragmentary and anonymous work based on the *Kaḷaviyal* or *Ahapporuḷ* of Iṟaiyaṉār, and named *Kaḷaviyaṟ-kārigai* for that reason by the editor of this precious fragment, Mr. S. Vaiyapuri; the work, more particularly its commentary, is valuable for its numerous citations from many otherwise unknown authors and works. *Māṟan-Alaṅkāram* by Kurugai Perumāḷ Kavirāyar (c. 1575) is a work on rhetoric which cites many earlier writers and incidentally celebrates Māṟan, i.e. Nammāḷvār. The author wrote also the *Tirukurugā-māṉmiyam*, a *sthalapurāṇam* on Āḷvār-Tirunagari, the birthplace of Nammāḷvār. The *Iḷakkaṇaviḷakkam* of Vaidyanātha Dēśikar of Tiruvārūr belongs to the first half of the seventeenth century and is rightly celebrated as *Kuṭṭit-Tolkāppiyam*, as it is like the *Tolkāppiyam*, a complete exposition of the entire range of Tamil grammar. It is said to have grown out of the lessons given by the author to the children of Mādai Tiruveṅgaḍanāthar, already noticed as ruler of Kayattār under Tirumalai Nāyaka. Dēśikar also composed devotional works like *Pāśavadaip-paraṇi* and the extensive *Nallūrp-purāṇam* of over 1,000 verses.