Critical Studies of the PattuppaaTTu (an ancient Tamil anthology)

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I have read the full text of PattuppaaTTu ("Ten Songs"), an ancient Tamil anthology, and made a tentative Japanese translation and notes. On the basis of the reading, I could find that the so-called guidebooks (aaRRuppaTai) were not for bards, as traditionally maintained, but for ordinary people, and other works contained in the anthology also have the same nature. During the course of the study, I got a new idea as to "oral" culture, which leads me clear views on how poets-bards composed poems and how and where poems were recited. Orality is an inseparable issue from literacy. In this connection, I have found reliable evidence that letters were widely used in ancient Tamil society, at the latest, in the 3rd century CE.