Page:The Tamils Eighteen Hundred Years Ago.djvu/158

 CHAPTER X.

Many of the poems of this period are still extant in a complete form. The most popular of these poems and one which has exercised the greatest influence on succeeding generations is the Muppâl or Kural composed by Valluvar. Very little authentic is known of the life of Tiruvalluvar: but he is generally believed to have been a native of the ancient town of Mailapur which is now a suburb of the town of Madras. He went to Madura with his great work to submit it for the approval of the Pandya and his college of poets. Some of these poets were natives of Madura, while others hailed from Uraiyur and Kavirip-paddinam in the Chola kingdom, from Chellur in the Kongu-nâd, from Venkatam in the Thondai-nâd and from other parts of Tamilakam. There was in that conclave of poets Poothan-chenthanar, author of the small poem Iniya-nârpatu: there was Nallâthanar, author of the moral epigrams called Tirikadukam; there was Nallanthuvanar who compiled the Kalith-thokai; there was Iraiyanar who wrote the Akapporal or grammar of erotic poetry; there was Kapilar to whom we owe the charming little poems, Kurinjip-paddu and Inna-narpatu; there was Mankudi-maruthanar who addressed the ode Maduraik-kanchi to the Pandyan king Nedunj-cheliyan, victor of Alankânam; there was the learned Nakkirar who has left us the beautiful idylls, Nedu-nal-vdai and Thirumurukârruppadai; there was the profound Buddhist scholar Cheethalaich châthanar, who composed the interesting epic Manimekalai; there were besides, others who were styled professors of medicine, of astrology or of literature, but whose works have not come down to us. In this galaxy of the eminent poets and scholars of the period and in the presence of the Pandya Ugrap-peru-valuthi, the greatest patron of letters in the Tamil-land, Valluvar must have stood with an anxious heart when he submitted his work for their criticism. The Muppâl consisted, as implied by its name, of three parts which treated of virtue, wealth and love. It was a code of morals expressed in poetical aphorisms. Though a firm believer in the tenets of his own religion the Nigrantha faith, the author appears to have been a freethinker and held that true wisdom is the science of happiness. “To receive charity is bad