TolkAppiyam

[N. Ganesan]

 A tolkAppiyam poruL atikAram sUttiram says:

" nATaka vazakkin2um ulakiyal vazakkin2um
 pATal cAn2Ra pulan2eRi vazakkam
 *kaliyE paripATTu Ayiru pAvin2um*
 uriyatu Akum en2man2Ar pulavar. "

This tol. rule essentially says love poems must be written
in either kali or paripATTu meter and this custom is followed by
poets before him.

This contradicts with S. Vaiyapuri Pillai's theory that
tol. was written after Sangam poetry were composed.

In Sangam poetry, majority of older love-akam poems extant today
are in akaval/aaciriyam meter, NOT in kali or paripATal.
The paripATal we have is on Tirumaal (VishNu) and Murukan (Skanda),
one of the earliest bhakti texts of India, but they are not love
poems. kalittokai is also later compared to other sangam
love poetry.

Regards,
N. Ganesan