TNPSC Daily Notes: Sitrilakkiyam — The 96 Prabandhams of Tamil (Parani, Ula, Kalambakam, Thoothu, Pillaithamizh, Kuravanji) | சிற்றிலக்கியம் — தமிழின் 96 வகைப் பிரபந்தங்கள் — 25 October 2026

What Sitrilakkiyam Is

Tamil literary tradition divides its poetry into two broad families. Perilakkiyam covers the great works of scale — the five major epics, the Sangam anthologies, the devotional canon. Sitrilakkiyam, literally “small literature”, covers short works built around a single theme, a single hero or a single occasion. The word “small” refers only to length, never to quality: some of the most technically demanding poetry in Tamil belongs to this family, because each form carries a fixed set of rules the poet must satisfy exactly.

These forms are counted traditionally as ninety-six, and are therefore called the 96 Prabandhams (தொண்ணூற்றாறு வகைப் பிரபந்தங்கள்). Their grammar is not found in Tolkappiyam or Nannool but in a separate class of texts called Pattiyal works — Panniru Pattiyal, Venbap Pattiyal, Navaneethap Pattiyal and Chidambarap Pattiyal. A Pattiyal text tells the poet which metre a given prabandham must use, how many verses it must run to, and what sequence of sections it must follow. For the examination, remember the pairing clearly: Pattiyal is to Sitrilakkiyam what Tolkappiyam is to Sangam poetry.

Parani — The War Poem

The Parani is the martial prabandham. Convention requires its hero to have slain a thousand elephants in a single battle before he is worthy of one. A striking peculiarity is that a Parani is named after the defeated enemy or the battlefield, not the victor. The earliest examples date to the eleventh century.

The supreme example is Kalingathupparani, composed by Jayamkondar, the court poet of Kulothunga Chola I. It commemorates the Chola invasion of Kalinga in 1110 CE, fought under the general Karunakara Thondaiman, against Anantavarman Chodaganga. The poem runs to thirteen padalams. It opens with Kadaithirappu — a lover knocking at the door, asking the women within to rouse themselves — then moves to the praise of Kali and her attendant spirits, a passage of Indrajalam (conjuring), the genealogy of the Chola kings, the hungry goblins pleading before Kali, and at last the battle itself. Other Paranis worth remembering are Thakkayagapparani by Ottakoothar, Iranyavathaip Parani, Kanjavathaip Parani and Mohavathaip Parani.

Ula and Kalambakam

An Ula describes a king or a deity riding in procession through the streets, and the women of seven ages — Pethai, Petumbai, Mangai, Madanthai, Arivai, Therivai, Perilampen — who lose their hearts at the sight. It is composed in the kalivenba metre. Moovarula by Ottakoothar, who served three generations of Chola rulers, sings of Vikrama Chola, Kulothunga Chola II and Rajaraja Chola II — which is why Ottakoothar is called Kavichakravarthi.

Kalambakam means literally “a mixture”. The poet mixes many metres and both aham and puram themes within a single work. Nandikkalambakam, on the Pallava king Nandivarman III, is the classic instance, and tradition holds that the king died as the final verse was recited. Thiruvarangakkalambakam and Kulothunga Cholan Kalambakam are other examples.

Thoothu, Pillaithamizh, Kuravanji and Pallu

In a Thoothu, the pining lover despatches a messenger — the heart, a bee, a swan, a cloud or a koel — to the beloved or to God. Nenjuvidu Thoothu by Umapathi Sivachariyar and the anonymous Thamizh Vidu Thoothu are standard texts.

Pillaithamizh imagines a god, a saint or a patron as an infant and praises him or her through ten paruvams of ten verses each, one hundred verses in all. The first seven — Kappu, Senkeerai, Thaal, Sappani, Muththam, Varanai, Ambuli — are common to both sexes. For a boy the last three are Chirril, Chirupparai, Chiruther; for a girl, Ammanai, Neeraadal, Oosal. Meenakshi Ammai Pillaithamizh by Kumaraguruparar, written at the request of Thirumalai Nayak of Madurai, is the acknowledged masterpiece; Kulothunga Cholan Pillaithamizh by Ottakoothar is the earliest surviving one.

Finally, two forms carry ordinary people into literature. The Kuravanji is a dance-drama in which a hill-woman, the Kurathi, reads the heroine’s palm and foretells her union with the hero, while her husband the Kuravan snares birds. Thirukkutrala Kuravanji by Thirikooda Rasappa Kavirayar is the finest. The Pallu, flourishing between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, depicts the labour, quarrels and customs of the Pallar farming community; Mukkoodal Pallu of the seventeenth century is its best-known specimen. Together they make Sitrilakkiyam the most socially varied body of writing in classical Tamil.