have always feasted on sweets and rice and flesh fried in ghee (at thy palace) will never quit thy side! Give up thy peaceful habits and start like the hooded white serpent (springing on its enemy) with sparkling eyes and forked tongue. Let thy victorious chariot proceed against the fortresses of thy rival kings, and the whole of this sea-girt earth shall be thine ! Every time I strike my war- drum with the short stick with trinkling bells tied to it, thy foes shall tremble !“ [1]
Iraiyanâr (A.D. 100-130) author of a grammar of errotic poetry called Iraiyanâr-Akapporul. In later periods the author’s name was confounded with that of Siva and his insignificant treatise of sixty Sutras was considered the incomparable production of the god Siva![2]
Paranar (A.D. 100-130). Like most of the minstrels of this period he appears to have travelled through the Chera, Chola and Pandyan kingdoms, visiting the mansions of petty chiefs as well as the courts of kings. He refers to a confederacy of nine princes, most probably, Kurumbas, defeated by Karikal-Chola who had invaded their territories with a large army[3] and to the defeat of Arya kings by Chenkudduva-Chera, the grandson of Karikal Chola.[4] He praises the valor and munificence of Thittan, king of Uraiyur,[5] of Uthiyan, chief of Pali, where gold mines were worked[6] and of Thithiyan, chief of the Pothya hill, who defeated the Kosar.[7] Ten stanzas composed by him in praise of the Chera king Chenkudduva, form part of the Pathirrup-pattu. The poetess Auvaiyar states that he was present when Kovalur, the capital of Kari, was stormed by Neduman-Anchi chief of the Athiyar, and sang the praises of the victor; but the verses uttered by him on the occasion are not now extant.[8] The following is a translation of one of the stanzas sung
