Muthollāyiram
Muthollāyiram is a rare collection of 108 ancient charming poems about the Chēra, Chōla and Pāndiyan kings of ancient Tamil Nadu. Its authorship has not been established. Considering the style, all the poems appear to have been written by one author. There must have been 2700 poems originally. The kings are not named, but addressed by their titles, which are specific to the three great kings. It was written after the Sangam era. The language indicates that the poems must have been written right after the Sangam poems. Tamil scholar T.V. Sadasiva Pandarathar assigned it to the 6th century A.D. This collection has both Akam and Puram themes. The Akam theme is about young women falling in love with the kings on seeing the royal procession and describing their love feelings. It appears to be the forebear for the later ‘ulā’ poems where young women pined for the kings, when the kings went on processions through town, seated on their elephants or horses. The Puram themes are about the battle elephants, battles, armies and victories of the king.
Muthollāyiram is set in venpa meter, which has strict prosodic conventions. A venpa is a quatrain verse with three lines of four feet each and the last line of three feet, with a formulaic ending.
These poems were recovered from Purathirattu by Ra. Raghava Iyengar who edited and published them in 1905. T.K. Chidambaranatha Mudaliar who was drawn by the beauty of Muthollāyiram made them popular. There is an invocation poem, 60 poems on the Pāndiyan king, 46 on the Chōla king and 23 on the Chēra king. The poems describe the king’s drums, horses, elephants, titles, flags etc. The vocabulary is classical, and the poems are exquisite.
This site has my translations of the surviving Muthollāyiram poems. These are delightful poems. I hope you enjoy them.
If you want to learn Sangam poems, please go to http://www.learnsangamtamil.com.
Nandri,
Vaidehi
My sites:
1. http://www.learnsangamtamil.com.
2. பாண்டிக்கோவை – https://pandikkovai.wordpress.com
3. திருக்குறள் – https://thirukkuralinenglish.wordpress.com
4. பதினெண்கீழ்க்கணக்கு அக நூல்கள் – https://pathinenkeelkanakku.wordpress.com (திணைமாலை நூற்றைம்பது, திணை மொழி ஐம்பது, ஐந்திணை எழுபது, ஐந்திணை ஐம்பது, கார் நாற்பது, கைந்நிலை)
5. Tagore’s Gitanjali translation – https://gitanjaliintamil.wordpress.com
Muthollaayiram Tamil Poems 