Out of 1330 couplets of Thiruvalluvar, 250 have been devoted exclusively to deal with the private life of a man and a woman, before and after they get nuptially united. These 250 couplets constituting the ‘காமத்துப்பால்’ is a treatise on the communion of the body and the heart of the young lover and the loved resulting in a beautiful work of perennial value, both as a piece of literature and as a practical guide to young couples.

In this lesson, we tell you in brief how the traditional literary conventions in the Tamil compositions on private life have been adhered to in the காமத்துப்பால் of திருக்குறள். Each of the couplets is in the form of an utterance (கூற்று) either by the lover (தலைவன்) or by his sweetheart (தலைவி) or by the confidant of the sweetheart (தோழி), Almost each couplet is a little ‘drama’ in itself.