The Purathinai (External) Disciplines of Tolkappiyam in the Purananuru

Abstract

Grammar comes from literature, just as oil is extracted from sesame seeds. Grammar is defined based on the literature that has emerged. Tolkappiyar speaks of the seven purathinai disciplines in parallel with the seven agattinai disciplines. The way of life of the people of the Sangam age was a mixture of Akam and Puram. The purpose of this study is to understand the superior way of life of the people of the Sangam age through the seven external disciplines laid down by Tolkapiyar. A closer look at each and every act of the Tamils of the Sangam age through the Purananuru, which is the literature for the seven-sided morality of Tolkapiyar, shows that the people of the Sangam age fully understood the life, enjoyed the life, and lived an impeccable, high, and heroic life without blemish. The purpose of this study is to understand the life values of the people of the Sangam age, such as the events of the war between kings, the relationship between kings and poets, the honourable valour of the kings, the education of women and their political acumen, the activities of the humanist poets who maintained a warless peace, and the generosity of the kings, based on the purathinai and faculties of the Tolkapiyam.