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.
The Pattuppattu ('Ten Songs' or 'Ten Idylls') gathers ten long individual poems, each considerably more extended than the typical Ettuthogai verse, allowing for sustained, richly descriptive treatment of a single subject. The collection includes devotional and processional poems such as the Tirumurugarruppadai (a guide-poem to the shrines of Murugan) alongside poems of court and city life. Among the most historically valuable is the Pattinappalai, attributed to the poet Kadiyalur Uruthirankannanar, which describes the bustling Chola port city of Kaveripattinam (Puhar) and praises the achievements of the early Chola king Karikala — including his construction of major irrigation works. Read alongside archaeological evidence of Indo-Roman trade along the Coromandel coast, the Pattuppattu poems offer some of the richest literary detail available on urban and economic life in the Sangam-era Tamil country.
Highlights
- Ten long-form poems, each treating a single subject in extended detail
- Includes the Tirumurugarruppadai, a guide to the shrines of Murugan
- The Pattinappalai vividly describes the Chola port city of Puhar under Karikala Chola
- A key literary source for Sangam-era urban and maritime trade life
Ten named Sangam-era poets
Long-form poetry anthology
c. 2nd – 4th century CE (compilation later than composition of individual poems)