INTRODUCTION

Tiru Avvai Duraiswami Pillai of the Annamalai University is well Known as the modern commentator on Sangam works. He now gives the world of Tamil Scholars his commentary on Patirruppattu.

Patirruppattu is the only available source book of ancient Cera history. Among all the Sangam works this is unique in being a collection of the poems on Ceras. Ten great poets had sung the greatness of ten great cera kings. Unfortunately of the hundred verses, the first ten and the last ten, probably singing the glories of Utiyan and Yanaikkan Mantaram Ceral Irumporai respectively, are missing. There were two ruling Cera families that of Utiyan and that of Antuvan, the former being the senior and the main Cera line of Vanchi; the latter being the Irumporai line of Tondi. The second Ten and the third Ten belong to the two sons of Uthiyam viz., Imaya Varamban Netun CeralAthan and Palyanaic-celkezhu Kuttuvan. The fourth, the fifth and the sixth Tens relate respectively to the sons of Netun CeralAthan viz. Kalamkay-K-Kanni Nar Muti-c-ceral. katal Pirakkottiya Cemkuttuvan and Atukot-Pattu-c-ceralAthan. The rest of the book relate to the Irumporai family; the VII Ten belongs to Selvakkatunko Vazhi Athan, the VIII Ten to Perum Ceral Irumporai the conqueror of Thakatur and the IV Ten to Ilam Ceral Irumporai, the son, the grandson and the great grandson respectively of Antuvan Ceral.

Various places of importance, the great chiefs and chieftains, the foreigners like Yavanas, the warfare and important battlefields, the fivefold classification of the country and other geographical details are all alluded to in this anthology. The poets of this anthology and the literary patronage of the Ceras are not myths. Paranan Kannam Kannan Katu, Vezhakkadu (Umbarkadu) and Kakkaiyur, still existing in Malayalam country, bear testimony to the conferment of Jaghirs on the poets Paranar, Kumattur Kannanar and Kakkai-p-Padiniyar by the Cera kings, Cenkuttuvan, Imayavaramban Netum CeralAthan, and Atukotpattu-c-Ceral Athan respectively.

This book is important as revealing the culture, the custom and practice, the political and military life of the Tamil land, of the first few centuries of the Christian era. It is interesting to note that the conception of the fundamental unity of India, from Himalayas to