Among the classical literary corpus in Tamil, Kalittokai has a unique standing, marked by certain distinctive features which are important to literary and cultural historians as much as to a classical researcher. The verses of this anthology have line lengths ranging from 11 to 75 entitling it to a relatively fuller representation of mutalporul (landscape and time) and karupporu (physical features of the given landscape) with the attendant expansive portrayal of uripporul, the theme of human sexual love. Consequently, Kalittokai is endowed with a massive body of imagery, containing a whole complex of images in each poem, one piled upon another, much larger than most epic similes across the languages. Most of these images are conceived figuratively in the form of similes, mostly tropes rather than rhetorical figures. We must also make a weighty mention of the frequent occurrence of inset similes, ullurai and iraicci, in kali verses which are surely a sui generis contribution of classical Tamil to what Ezra Pound calls the 'poetry of indirection'. This character, among others, renders Kalittokai as the 'delight of the learned' and as the pride of classical Tamil creativity. Kalittokai then has an indisputable claim to be considered a supreme achievement of the classical Tamil mind, besides earning it a significant place among the books of the ancient world. The article at the end, "Imagery in Kalittokai" by Prof. P. Marudanayagam, a great comparatist in Tamil (Look at his voluminous books Tolkappiyam: A Comparative Study; Tirukkural: A Comparative Study; Kampan: A Comparative Study), should reinforce this claim in its characteristic overarching, scholarly way.
Another unique feature of Kalittokai is that most of its verses have four structural constituents, viz. taravu (the first member, strophe), talicai (the middle member, antistrophe), taniccol (detached word), and curitakam (the final member, epode). Each of these members being important for the total meaning of the poem as well as for metrical unity as they are, I am happy that Dr. V. Murugan has largely succeeded in bringing all these four constituents to bear on the semantic structure of his translation. I must also make a particular mention of Dr. Murugan referencing the thematic contexts of the verses to the relevant theoretical conventions contained in Tolkappiyam akam poetics, which resoundingly attests to the vibrant continuity of akam tradition over centuries, and which goes far beyond T.S. Eliot's conceptualization of tradition and individual talent on the one hand and his enunciation of a classic on the other.
Kalittokai is important to us for the following reasons as well: Poetic exemplifications of kaikkilai (unrequited sexual passion) (verses 55, 56, 57, 99) and peruntinai (abnormal sexual passion) (verses 61, 137-146) occur in this composition only. Similarly, bull capture occurs in Kalittokai only in all its linguistic and conceptual splendour (in mullaikkali verses). Again, Kalittokai marks an absorbing blend of what Tolkappiyar calls valakkaru (worldly usage) and ceyyularu (literary usage), spoken language and written language, as also what Mikhail Bakhtin calls high and low forms of culture (verses 111, 115). Kalittokai also has a relatively pronounced preponderance of Aryan influence in terms of religious beliefs, rites and rituals (verses 117, 138, 139).
Central Institute of Classical Tamil gratefully acknowledges the contributions of the editor and the four translators V. Murugan, Vaidehi Herbert, Sriskandarajah and K.Sivasubramani.
Classical (Cankam) Literature in Tamil
Tamil is one of the primary classical languages of the world, among which it has the unique distinction of being a classical tongue with an unbroken tradition of literary creativity and popular speech for well over two and a half millennia. The carliest extant work in Tamil is Tolkappiyam, a comprehensive text of linguistics (theoretical and applied) and poetics, which cannot be dated "later than the third century before Christ (Thani Nayagam, Landscape and Poetry p.3), whose content presupposes the existence of a flourishing literary culture for at least three to four centuries preceding the date of its composition (Thani Nayagam, Journal of Tamil Studies, Sep. 1972:62). The literature of this period has come down to us in eight anthologies of verses (called Ettuttokai) and ten long poems (called Pattuppattu), which are
Ettuttokai
1 Narrinai
2 Kuruntokai
3 Ainkurunuru
4 Patirruppattu
5 Paripatal
6 Kalittokai
7 Akananuru
8 Purananuru
Pattuppattu
1 Tirumurukarruppatai
2 Porunararruppatai
3 Perumpanarruppatai
4 Cirupanarruppatai
5 Mullaippaattu
6 Maturaikkanci
7 Netunalvatai
8 Kurincippattu
9 Pattinappalai
10 Malaipatukatam
These two corpuses, composed over an extended span of six centuries roughly between 700 B.C and A.D. 300, comprise 2381 verses running into 26,350 lines composed by 473 poets belonging to diverse geographical regions, backgrounds and occupations, so exceptionally diverse that R. Balakrishnan calls caikam literature "National Literature of India" (Journey of a Civilization: Indus to Vaigai 2019, p.501) The length of each poem varies from a minimum of 3 lines to a maximum of 782 lines. Given the fact that these poems had remained uncollected over a considerable length of time and that they, when collected, were arguably subjected to a process of selection and ordering on the basis of various criteria, some literary and some others non-literary, the actual number of poems produced during the classical milieu (popularly known as cankam period) must have been much larger. Again, as Thani Nayagam emphasizes in all his writings, the fact that Tolkappiyar consciously and repeatedly makes references to his indebtedness to earlier traditions and authorities points to an incomparably prolific output prior to what are extant today.
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