Studies in Cola History and Administration c6.2

c6.2

The *Puranānūru* is one of the eight major anthologies of the early Tamil classics. Like the *Padirruppattu* and many of the poems in the *Pattuppāttu*, it lays claim to be a collection of contemporary compositions of different poets on the princes and chieftains whose patronage they enjoyed in some form or other. The colophon at the end of each poem generally contains information on the subject of the poem, its author and the occasion for its composition. The authenticity of these colophons has been called in question, and it is our object here to consider whether this has been done on proper grounds. The matter is of some importance to the student of the Early History of the Tamil country. If, as is commonly believed, the colophons embody a tradition, which, apart from the corruptions and losses due to neglect and time, may be accepted as correct, then we must recognise in these poems a quantity of literary evidence of unique value; because then, no other part of India can be said to provide such sober and realistic pictures of contemporary life and politics as these early Tamil classics furnish.[^ *] The data furnished by these poems for historical reconstructions will not be the less valuable on account of their being drawn from casual literary pieces rather than from chronicles or other works of a professedly historical nature. If, however,