Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c9.1039

c9.1039

ing works like Tirumurukāṭṭuppaṭai, etc. Tirukkural, Nāḷatiyar etc. are among the eighteen works under the group Paṭineṇkizhkkaṇakku. Cilappadikāram, Maṇimekhalai, Jīvakacintāmaṇi, Kuṇḍalakeśī and Valaiyāpati are the five great kāvyas and Nilakeśī, Cūḍāmaṇi, Yaśodākāvyam, Nāgakumāra-Kāvyam and Udayakumārakāvyam (Udayaṅkaṇatai) are the five short (laghu) kāvyas. Amongst the above kāvyas Maṇimekhalai and Kuṇḍalakeśī are Buddhist kāvyas and Cintāmaṇi and the five short kāvyas are Jain works. The last seven books might have been written after the Saṅgham period. Tiruttakkatevar, author of Cintāmaṇi, lived in eighth century A.D. Some of the songs in Puranānūru are the oldest among the works of the Saṅgham period. References to Cera Kings are found in many of these works.