Kuruntokai (குறுந்தொகை)
Kurunthogai (குறுந்தொகை)
is one of the eight different books in Ettuthogai (எட்டுத்தொகை),
which means "Collection of Eight books". ”Kuru” means short and ”Thogai” means
consolidation or compilation. The eight books are as follows:
1. Kurunthogai
2. Nattrinai
3. Aganaanooru
4. Puranaanooru
5. Ainkurunooru
6. Kalitthogai
7. Pathittruppathu
8. Paripaadal
Among these Nattrinai, Kurunthogai,
Iynkurunooru, Kalithogai and Aganaanmooru are on love or " Agam
"Puranaanooru and Pathittruppathu are on kings and warfare or " Puram
". Paripaadal deals with both agam and puram.
There are altogether 402 poems in
Kurunthogai. They were written by 205 poets. These poems were compiled into
Kurunthogai by a poet named Pooriko.
Kurunthogai consists of short
verses ranging from four to eight. The themes involve love and romance and
hence classified as ”agam” (அகம்) literature, a literary genre that
discusses love while maintaining anonymity of the parties involved. Tamils gave
importance to privacy even centuries before.
All the poems except the first which
glorifies God, are on love. It is fascinating to know from these poems as how
love was handled in a subtle and gentle way .Most of these poems are written in
a dramatic style with a hero ( thalaivan ), heroine ( thalaivi ) and her
friend ( tholhi ) as the main characters. Love is depicted in an interesting
manner with a deep meaning in such short stanzas from four to eight lines. Ancient
Tamils saw love in two ways. Kalaviyal means love before marriage and Karpiyal
referred to love after marriage. The love poems were on either one of the two.
In those days the lover has to go to faraway lands for trade and this resulted
in separation. The pangs of the lovers
during separation are also depicted in many of these poems. From these Sangam
songs it is clear that the ancient Tamils honoured and encouraged love marriage
and love was considered sacred by both the lovers.
Kurunthogai abounds with poems where the
reader only overhears what the characters say to each other, to themselves, or
to the moon. A poem of this tradition implies, evokes,enacts a drama in a
monologue. In one poem , a girl in love consoles her poor heart which longs for
her lover. Another famous poem tells the qualities of the lover by the heroine
( thalaivi ) to her friend ( thozhi ) who rebukes him for delaying the
marriage. They were in love for some time already. Her friend is worried that
the lover is delaying the marriage and talks ill of him .
A.K.Ramanujan has this to say of the
best of the Aham poems:
" In their antiquity and in their
contemporaniety, there is not much else in any Indian literature equal to these
quiet and dramatic Tamil poems. In their values and stances they represent a mature
classical poetry: passion is balanced by courtesy, transparency
by ironies and nuances of design,
impersonality by vivid detail, leanness of line by richness of implication.
These poems are not just the earliest evidence of Tamil genius. The Tamils in
all their 2000 years of literary effort wrote nothing better “
http://tharanimainthan.blogspot.com/ My Literary World The Glory of Tamil Literature
Kuruntokai annotation
Kurunthogai an ancient Tamil literature being one among the eight anthologies belongs to SANGAM period.
This anthology having 401 poems composed by 205 different poets belongs to B.C. period.
This work is also called Kurunthogai Naanuuru means anthology of 400 short poems.
An additional poem on prayer is added to the 401during the period of its compilation.
All the poems except two (307 and 391) are composed with prosody-feet (lines) between 4 and 8. The exceptional poems flow with 9 feet. Hence the excess two (402 – 400) are to be considered.
Puurikko, a king of PUURI country compiled these poems round about 3rd century A.D. There are 10 poems left without the author-name.
During the compilation or latter of one or two centuries an annotation on context of each poem was given. In addition a relevant strand-name has been inserted to each poem.
This work has the credit that all the poems except 165 have been referred by ancient commentators of ancient works than other poems in anthologies have.
Peraasiriyar, a commentator belongs to 13th century wrote a commentary for the first 380 poems. A commentary on the left out 20 poems was written by Naccinaarkkiniyar of next century.