Kur̲untokai: text, transliteration and translations in English verse and prose

Kuṟuntokai is an akam anthology compiled on the basis of the metre and length of the poems. There are three metres used in the ‘Eight Anthologies’ and the poems using āciriyappā metre are divided into three anthologies on the basis of the number of lines in the poems. Kuṟuntokai is an anthology of 401 poems that are between four and eight lines in length. However, there is one poem of nine lines. There are 205 poets represented in the anthology. Its kaṭavuḷ vāḻttu, the invocatory verse, is not numbered. This may be due to the inclusion of Kuṟuntokai 307 which transgresses the length of verses in this anthology as it is the only poem containing nine lines. Kuṟuntokai is accompanied by a note giving a tradition as to its compiler. The note says that the anthology was made by Pūrikkō about whom nothing is known. There is a tradition embodied in two verses of unknown date and authorship that Nacciṉārkkiṉiyar wrote a commentary on 20 poems of Kuṟuntokai. This is no longer extant. There is also a reference that Pērāciriyar commented upon a part of Kuṟuntokai which is also lost. Kuṟuntokai was first printed in 1915 in the edition of T. C. Arankacami Ayyankar, and it was edited with his own full commentary by U. V. Caminata Iyer in 1937. It was reprinted in 1947 and is the standard edition at present. Poems of Kuṟuntokai are accompanied by colophons that are similar to those accompanying all akam verses giving the author’s name, and the occasion of the poem. Poems appropriate to all the five tiṇais of normal love occur in Kuṟuntokai. No particular sequence or thought pattern is adopted in this anthology, and no attempt to group the poems of any one poet together is noticeable. Poems appropriate to anyone tiṇai are not classified together. Kuṟuntokai verses exercise economy, restraint and balance throughout. The love lyrics portray a single intense feeling, and their short structure renders them self-contained. The poems are stately and elegant and because of their fine qualities and short structure, most of them have been profusely quoted by latter-day commentators to elucidate and illustrate their viewpoint. Professor S. Vaiyapuri Pillai observes that about a thousand quotations have been taken from this work. U. V. Caminata Iyer says that there are only 165 poems of this work that have not been quoted by commentators.