Perunthogai

The Sangam Literature contains many anthologies compiled by ancient scholars, such as the Eight Anthologies comprising poems penned by more than 500 authors, preserving numerous literary treasures from the Antiquity that would have otherwise been lost to the modern reader. However, unfortunately, the same was not the case with several post-Sangam texts, and many were lost in time. Even with the Sangam texts, despite these efforts, the biographical details of most of the ancient Tamil poets, except that of well-known poets such as Sathanar and Kapilar, remain cloudy. After a long hiatus, an anthological work named Tamil Navalar Charithai was compiled between the 16th and 18th centuries, which records rare details about medieval poets such as Koothar and Kambar. However, this work was able to cover only a meager number of the vast literary ocean of the ancient Tamil land, and several poems still remained at large. In the early 20th century, M. Raghava Iyenger began to compile these stand-alone poems from various sources including verbal sources from various scholars; ancient commentaries to works from the Antiquity such as the Tolkappiyam, Yaaparungalam Kaarigai, and Veera Choliyam; various commentaries to ancient and medieval works; and unnamed and unpublished works such as Bharatham, Thagadur Yathirai, and Muthollaayiram Aasiriyamaalai. In all, he compiled about 3,500 stand-alone verses under five sections, namely, Invocation to God, Virtue, Wealth, Love, and Appendix. In 1936, he published the first part containing 2,214 verses in three parts, namely, Invocation to God, Virtue, and Wealth.[1]

• Tamil literature