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என்.எஸ்.கே. ஹப்NSKHub

Sangam Literature

The oldest surviving Tamil poetic anthologies and the epics and ethical works that followed — a literary tradition over two thousand years deep.

Grammar and poetics treatiseSangam Age

தொல்காப்பியம்

Tolkappiyam

The oldest surviving Tamil grammar, the Tolkappiyam is far more than a rulebook for language — it codifies Sangam-era poetic conventions, social customs, and the five-fold landscape (thinai) framework that shaped centuries of Tamil verse.

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Poetry anthologySangam Age

எட்டுத்தொகை

Ettuthogai — The Eight Anthologies

The core of the Sangam corpus: eight separate anthologies — including Kuruntokai, Akananuru, and Purananuru — collecting short and long poems of love (akam) and public life (puram) from hundreds of named and unnamed poets.

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Long-form poetry anthologySangam Age

பத்துப்பாட்டு

Pattuppattu — The Ten Idylls

A collection of ten substantial single poems — longer and more descriptively elaborate than the shorter Ettuthogai verses — including the Pattinappalai, prized for its detailed portrait of the Chola port city of Puhar under Karikala Chola.

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Ethical couplet treatise (1,330 kurals in 133 chapters)Post-Sangam (Patinenkilkanakku corpus)

திருக்குறள்

Tirukkural

A work of universal ethics distilled into 1,330 terse two-line couplets, the Tirukkural addresses virtue, wealth, and love without invoking any single deity or creed — making it one of the most widely translated and cross-culturally revered texts in Tamil literature.

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Epic poem (one of the Five Great Tamil Epics)Post-Sangam epic

சிலப்பதிகாரம்

Silappatikaram

The story of Kannagi, whose husband Kovalan is wrongfully executed by the Pandya king of Madurai, and whose grief and fury burn the city down — a foundational Tamil epic that gave rise to the widespread Pattini (Kannagi) cult of chastity and justice.

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Epic poem (one of the Five Great Tamil Epics)Post-Sangam epic

மணிமேகலை

Manimekalai

A philosophical sequel to the Silappatikaram, following Manimekalai — daughter of Kovalan and the courtesan Madhavi — as she renounces worldly life and embraces Buddhist teaching, making the epic a rare literary window into Tamil Buddhism.

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Children's ethical primers and gnomic verseMedieval Tamil literature (post-Sangam; distinct from the earlier Sangam-era poet who shares the name)

ஔவையார் நீதி நூல்கள்

Avvaiyar's Moral Verses

Short, alphabet-anchored maxims like Aathichudi and Konraiventhan, traditionally credited to a beloved poet-grandmother figure called Avvaiyar, have taught generations of Tamil schoolchildren their first lessons in ethics, still recited today.

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Epic poem (Tamil retelling of the Ramayana)Medieval Tamil literature (post-Sangam)

கம்பராமாயணம்

Kambaramayanam

Kambar's sweeping Tamil retelling of the Ramayana is treated not as a translation but as an independent literary masterpiece — celebrated for the emotional depth, poetic imagery, and devotional intensity Kambar brought to Valmiki's story.

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