capitals of old were situated mostly on the banks of rivers in the plains. The Tamils recognized that harlotry was a feature more of cities than of villages. Since marital infidelity was the chief cause of discord in the harmony of love, this region was taken to designate all the unpleasant aspects of family life, aspects, which nevertheless, brought about a renewal of love. No season of the year was allotted to it in particular as misunderstandings between husband and wife might occur in any or every part of the year. Periods of the day were, however, prescribed for marutam poems, namely, sunrise, and the hours immediately preceding sunrise when the birds commence to chirp and all creation begins to stir.¹⁹ The reason given for the congruity of these hours in akam poems of the marutam class is that these are the hours when infidel husbands sneak into their homes.

The puram counterpart to marutam is Uliñai. It denotes the military movement by which soldiers surround a city and attack the wall defences. The movement got its name from the wreath worn by the army. It was made of the flowers of the oerva lanatar consisting of "garland shoots". This seems to have been worn as a sign of derision, implying the worthlessness and weakness of the fort they went to seize.²⁰

On the other hand, those who were besieged, wore the flowers of the nocci (vitex nirgundi) of pale-bluish colour and pleasant fragrance. Poets have sung of this flower with a great liking, praising it as a flower to designate the "virgin ramparts", virgin because scaled by no enemy. Here is a free translation by Dr. Pope of a poem regarding the nocci:

Since cities were mostly situated in the riverine plains, uliñai was appropriately made parallel to the marutam region, and

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