Tolkappiyam

(“On Ancient Poetry”), an ancient Tamil treatise on grammar and poetics. Its earliest versions date from the first century B.C., and its final version, from the fourth and fifth centuries A.D.

The Tolkappiyam is the earliest extant Tamil treatise. It contains 1,276 sutras (precepts) and consists of three parts: the “Book on Letters, ” the “Book on Words, ” and the “Book on [Poetic] Content.” The Tolkappiyam borrowed extensively from Sanskrit sources, but it also contained original ideas. The third book drew on the Tamil system of poetic canons. This system was based on a five-way classification of poetic themes and on the division of poetry into akam (“the inner”), that is, love poetry, and puram (“the outer”), that is, poetry about all other subjects, but mainly war.