View source for Ten Idylls

{{Short description|Anthology of ten long Tamil poems}}
{{distinguish|Pathitrupathu}}
{{Sangam literature}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}}
{{Use Indian English|date=August 2020}}

The '''Ten Idylls''', known as '''Pattuppāṭṭu''' ({{langx|ta|பத்துப்பாட்டு}}) or '''Ten Lays''', is an [[anthology]] of ten longer poems in the [[Sangam literature]] – the earliest known Tamil literature.<ref name="johnson1" />{{sfn|Kamil Zvelebil|1973|pp=28–29}} They range between about 100 and 800 lines, and the collection includes the celebrated Nakkīrar's ''[[Tirumurukāṟṟuppaṭai]]'' (lit. "Guide to Lord Murukan").<ref name="johnson1">{{cite book|title= A Dictionary of Hinduism|author= W. J. Johnson| publisher= Oxford University Press|url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100311537 | year=2009|isbn= 978-0-19861-0250}}</ref> The collection was termed as "Ten Idylls" during the colonial era, though this title is considered "very incorrect" by Kamil Zvelebil – a scholar of Tamil literature and history. He suggests "Ten [[Lai (poetic form)|Lays]]" as the more apt title.{{sfn|Kamil Zvelebil|1973|pp=28–29, 56}} Five of these ten ancient poems are lyrical, narrative bardic guides (''arruppatai'') by which poets directed other bards to the patrons of arts such as kings and chieftains.{{sfn|Kamil Zvelebil|1973|pp=56–58}} The others are guides to religious devotion (Murugan) and to major towns, sometimes mixed with akam- or puram-genre poetry.<ref name="johnson1" />{{sfn|Kamil Zvelebil|1973|pp=56–58}}

The ''Pattuppāṭṭu'' collection is a later dated collection, with its earliest layer composed sometime between 2nd and 3rd century CE, the middle between 2nd and 4th century, while the last layer sometime between 3rd and 5th century CE.{{sfn|Kamil Zvelebil|1973|pp=41–43 with Chart 4}}

==The collection==
According to Zvelebil, the ''Pattuppāṭṭu'' compilation is as follows:{{sfn|Kamil Zvelebil|1973|pp=29, 63}}

{| class="wikitable" align=center style = " background: transparent; "
  |+ ''Ten Lays or Ten Idylls''{{sfn|Kamil Zvelebil|1973|pp=29, 63}}
|-style="text-align: center;"
  | width=120px style="background: #ffad66;" | Poem
  | width=150px | Poem title's meaning
  | width=40px | Author
  | width=40px | Dedication / Focus
  | width= 50px | Lines in poems
  | width= 50px | Meter
|-style="text-align: center;"
  | width=120px | ''Tirumurukāṟṟuppaṭai''
  | width=160px | "Guide to Lord Murugan"
  | width=40px | Nakkīrar
  | width=40px | Murugan
  | width= 50px | 312
  | width= 50px | Akaval
|-style="text-align: center;"
  | width=120px | ''[[Poruṇarāṟṟuppaṭai]]''
  | width=120px | "Guide for the war bards"
  | width=40px | Mutattamakkanniyar
  | width=40px | Karikal
  | width= 60px | 248
  | width= 50px | Akaval, some vanci
|-style="text-align: center;"
  | width=120px | ''Ciṟupāṇāṟṟuppaṭai''
  | width=120px | "Guide to bards with small lutes"
  | width=40px | Narrattanar
  | width=40px | Nalliyakkotan
  | width= 60px | 296
  | width= 50px | Akaval
|-style="text-align: center;"
  | width=120px | ''Perumpāṇāṟṟuppaṭai''
  | width=120px | "Guide to bards with large lutes"
  | width=40px | Uruttiran Kannanar
  | width=40px | Tontaiman Ilantiraiyan
  | width= 60px | 500
  | width= 50px | Akaval
|-style="text-align: center;"
  | width=120px | ''Mullaippāṭṭu''
  | width=160px | "Song about the forest (life)"
  | width=40px | Nappitanar
  | width=40px | Anonymous
  | width= 50px | 103
  | width= 50px | Akaval
|-style="text-align: center;"
  | width=120px |''Maturaikkāñci''
  | width=160px | "Reflection on Maturai"
  | width=40px | Mankuti Marutanar
  | width=40px | Netunceliyan
  | width= 50px | 782
  | width= 50px | Vanci, some akaval
|-style="text-align: center;"
  | width=120px | ''Neṭunalvāṭai''
  | width=160px | "Good long northern wind"
  | width=40px | Nakkirar
  | width=40px | Netunceliyan
  | width= 60px | 188
  | width= 50px | Akaval
|-style="text-align: center;"
  | width=120px | ''Kuṟiñcippāṭṭu''
  | width=160px | "Song about the hills"
  | width=40px | Kapilar
  | width=40px | Anonymous
  | width= 50px | 261
  | width= 50px | Akaval
|-style="text-align: center;"
  | width=120px | ''Paṭṭiṉappālai''
  | width=160px | "Poem about the separation and the city"
  | width=40px | Uruttiran Kannanar
  | width=40px | Karikal
  | width= 60px | 301
  | width= 50px | Vanci (153), akaval (138)
|-style="text-align: center;"
  | width=120px | ''Malaipaṭukaṭām''
  | width=160px | "Poem of the sound pertaining to the mountains"
  | width=40px | Perunkunrur, Perunkaucikanar
  | width=40px | Nannan
  | width= 50px | 583{{refn|group=note|Zvelebil states it has 583 lines.{{sfn|Kamil Zvelebil|1973|p=59}}{{sfn|JV Chelliah|1946|pp=283–284}} Other scholars such as Fred Clothey state that the ''Malaipaṭukaṭām'' has many more lines.<ref name="Clothey2019">{{cite book|author=Fred W. Clothey|title=The Many Faces of Murukan: The History and Meaning of a South Indian God. With the Poem Prayers to Lord Murukan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PC2aDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA34 |year=2019| publisher=Walter De Gruyter| isbn=978-3-11-080410-2|page=34}}</ref> According to Chellaih, the poem has 763 lines.{{sfn|JV Chelliah|1946|pp=325}}}}
  | width= 50px | Akaval
|}

==Inscriptions==
Two [[Shaivite]] [[Hindu]] temple inscriptions have been discovered in [[Tamil Nadu]] which allude to and quote lines from the ''Pattuppāṭṭu'' collection.<ref name="Wilden2014p15"/> The first found in one of the inscriptions at [[Veerateeswarar temple, Thiruvathigai|Veerateeswarar temple]] is dated 1012 CE and attributed to [[Rajaraja I]]. The inscription is in the form of an ''Pattuppāṭṭu arruppatai'' in the same meter as those found in ''Pattuppāṭṭu'', and alludes to the poet [[Kapilar]].<ref name="Wilden2014p15"/> The second inscription is found in Rishabeshwarar temple in [[Chengam]]. Its author and patron are unknown, but palaeographically from the 12th-century [[Chola]] period. The inscription quotes lines from this collection and mentions the title ''Mali-katam-pattu'' (an anagram of ''Malaipaṭukaṭām''). These inscription show that the collection of these poems were an integral part of the Shaiva tradition literature and revered in the context of their temples.<ref name="Wilden2014p15">{{cite book|author=Eva Maria Wilden|title=Manuscript, Print and Memory: Relics of the Cankam in Tamilnadu|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KuPmBQAAQBAJ |year=2014|publisher=Walter De Gruyter|isbn=978-3-11-035276-4|pages=15–16 with footnote 39}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author= R Nagaswamy|year= 2004|title= South-Indian Horizons, Felicitation Volume for François Gros|editor1= Jean-Luc Chevillard|editor2=Eva Wilden| isbn= 2-85539-630-1 |publisher = IFP-EFEO| pages= 487–494}}</ref>

==Publication==
[[U. V. Swaminatha Iyer]] rediscovered the palm-leaf manuscripts of the ''Pattuppāṭṭu'' along with other Sangam literature in Shaiva monasteries during the late 19th century.<ref name=takahashi1>{{cite book|author=Takanobu Takahashi|title=Tamil Love Poetry and Poetics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wgCHuVGyZoEC|year=1995|publisher=BRILL Academic |isbn=90-04-10042-3|pages=1–3 with footnotes}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Kamil Zvelebil|author-link= Kamil Zvelebil|editor=Jan Gonda|title=Handbook of Oriental Studies: Tamil Literature|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Kx4uqyts2t4C |year=1975|publisher=BRILL Academic|isbn=90-04-04190-7|pages=108–109 with footnote 129}}</ref> The Ten Idylls were published in 1889. Over time, additional manuscripts – suggesting some early rediscoveries were partially damaged and incomplete – were discovered in temples, monasteries and private collections in India. Eva Wilden has compiled and published a catalog of important manuscripts of ''Pattuppāṭṭu'' preserved in major libraries.<ref>{{cite book|author=Eva Maria Wilden|title=Manuscript, Print and Memory: Relics of the Cankam in Tamilnadu |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=KuPmBQAAQBAJ |year=2014 |publisher= Walter de Gruyter|isbn=978-3-11-035276-4|pages=74–87, 90–93}}</ref>

==Translations==
* Pattupattu – Ten Tamil Idylls by J. V. Chellaih (1946)
* Ancient Tamil Classic Pattuppattu in English (The Ten Tamil Idylls) by A. Dakshinamurthy (2012)
==See also==
* [[Hindu texts]]
* [[Sangam literature]]

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

===Bibliography===
{{ref begin|30em}}
*{{cite book|author= JV Chelliah|title= Pattupattu - Ten Tamil Idylls (Tamil Verses with Englilsh Translation)| year= 1946|url = https://archive.org/details/PattupattuTenTamilIdylls_20180715/page/n1| publisher= Tamil University (1985 print)}}
* A. Dakshinamurthy, Ancient Tamil Classic Pattuppattu in English (The Ten Tamil Idylls), Thamizh Academy, SRM University, 2013. 
* {{cite book |author=Edward Jewitt Robinson |title=Tamil Wisdom: Traditions Concerning Hindu Sages and Selections from Their Writings |year=2001 |publisher=Asian Educational Services |location = New Delhi}}
* Mudaliyar, Singaravelu A., Apithana Cintamani, An encyclopaedia of Tamil Literature, (1931) - Reprinted by Asian Educational Services, New Delhi (1983)
* {{cite book|title=Tamil Literature|last=Pillai|first=M. S. Purnalingam|year=1994|pages=115|publisher=Asian Educational Services|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QIeqvcai5XQC&pg=PA115|isbn=81-206-0955-7}}
* {{cite book|title=The archaeology of seafaring in ancient South Asia|last=Ray|first=Himanshu Prabha |year=2003|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=iHHzP4uVpn4C |isbn=9780521011099}}
* Selby, Martha Ann (2011) Tamil Love Poetry: The Five Hundred Short Poems of the Aiṅkuṟunūṟu, an Early Third-Century Anthology. Columbia University Press, {{ISBN|9780231150651}}
*{{cite book|author=Takanobu Takahashi|title=Tamil Love Poetry and Poetics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wgCHuVGyZoEC|year=1995|publisher=BRILL Academic|isbn=90-04-10042-3}}
*{{cite book|author=Eva Maria Wilden|title=Manuscript, Print and Memory: Relics of the Cankam in Tamilnadu|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KuPmBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA75|year=2014|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=978-3-11-035276-4}}
* {{cite book|author=Kamil Zvelebil|title=The Smile of Murugan: On Tamil Literature of South India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=degUAAAAIAAJ|year=1973|publisher=BRILL|isbn=90-04-03591-5}}
* {{cite book|title=Companion studies to the history of Tamil literature|last=Zvelebil|first=Kamil|author-link=Kamil Zvelebil|year=1992|pages=73|publisher=BRILL|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qAPtq49DZfoC&pg=PA73|isbn=90-04-09365-6}}
{{refend}}{{Hindu deities and texts|state=autocollapsed}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ten Idylls}}
[[Category:Sangam literature]]
[[Category:Partially lost Tamil literary works]]
[[Category:Tamil Hindu literature]]