Akanaṉūṟu

Akananuru ( _ta. அகநானுறு), a classical Tamil poetic work, is the seventh book in the Sangam literature anthology Ettuthokai. It contains 400 "Akam" (subjective) poems dealing with matters of love and separation. Other names for "Akananuru" include "Neduntogai" or "Nedunthokai" ("the long anthology"), "Ahappattu", "Ahananuru", and "Agananuru".cite web
url = http://acharya.iitm.ac.in/mirrors/vv/literature/tlang.html
title = The Tamil language: A brief history of the language and its literature
author = C. V. Narasimhan
publisher = Indian Institute of Technology Madras]

Authors

As many as 145 poets are said to have contributed to Akananuru collection. Perunthevanaar, who translated the Mahabharatham into Tamil, is one of the authors.

Rudrasarman compiled this anthology at the behest of the Pandya king Ukkiraperuvazhuthi.

Date

It is highly likely that the poems in Akananuru collection were prevalent independently before they were collected and categories in this present form. The anthology is dated to around the first and the second century C.E. The poems probably are of a much earlier date.

Poetic characteristics

This book comes under the "Akam" (subjective) category in its subject matter. Ancient Tamil poems was categorised into the broad categories of "Akam"(அகம்) - Subjective, dealing with matters of the heaqrt and human emotions, and "Puram" (புறம்) - Objective, dealing with the tangibles of life such as war, politics, wealth, etc. The poems of this anthology are of the "Akaval" meter.

In the poems on Akam, the aspects of love of a hero and a heroine are depicted. The story of love is never conceived as a continuous whole. A particular moment of love is captured and described in each poem as the speech of the hero or the lady-companion or somebody else.

Akananuru contains 401 stanzas and is divided into three sections
# "Kalintruyanainirai" (களிற்றுயானைநிறை), 121 stanzas
# "Manimidaipavalam" (மணிமிடைபவளம்), 180 stanzas
# "Nittilakkovai" (நித்திலக்கோவை), 100 stanzas

Notes

References

* Mudaliyar, Singaravelu A., Apithana Cintamani, An encyclopaedia of Tamil Literature, (1931) - Reprinted by Asian Educational Services, New Delhi (1983)
* http://www.tamilnation.org/literature/