Aintinai Elupatu, also known as Ainthinai Ezhupathu, is an ethical poetic work of didactic nature in Tamil language which belongs to the Patinenkilkkanakku anthology of Ethical Tamil Literature. Patinenkilkkanakku (Pathinenkilkanakku) is a compilation of 18 poetic works in Tamil which were composed in the period after the Sangam age, between 100 CE and 500 CE. Aintinai Elupatu was composed in the post-Sangam age equivalent to between 100 CE - 500 CE. The literary work contains seventy poems and was composed by the Tamil poet Muvathiyaar. The didactic poetic work of Tamil literature is well known for its manner of composition and its articulacy, graceful and simple presentation. The literary work of Aintinai Elupatu or Ainthinai Ezhupathu has several didactic and ethical messages which were the major features of that epoch.
The poetic work of Aintinai Elupatu is approved as text for schools in the state of Tamil Nadu in India. The verses of Aintinai Elupatu are wonderful in the application of similes that assist to inform about the moral codes along with the use of basic examples from every day life.
Composition of Aintinai Elupatu
Aintinai Elupatu (Ainthinai Ezhupathu) is a poetic anthology of ethical Tamil poems that was composed by the renowned poet Muvathiyaar, who held from the Tamil country. This post Sangam work is one of the 18 minor literary works in Tamil which are comprised in the Patinenkilkkanakku collection. The various hymns in Aintinai Elupatu were composed in the Akam or Agam tradition of Tamil literature from Sangam age, which relates to the internal or subjective concepts and themes. The Akam tradition used in the Sangam literature refers to the various subject matters that are linked with the intangible concepts of life such as human emotions and feelings, love, disagreement between lovers, separation, desire to meet lover etc.
The poems in the anthology series narrates five distinctive Tamil landscape established in poetic works of Sangam literature, which are called Thinai in Tamil. These landscapes illustrate the over all notion of the literary work. The poems of Aintinai Elupatu or Ainthinai Ezhupathu are categorised into fourteen poems for each of the five Thinais or landscape of Sangam literature. These vividly describe the circumstances, situations and emotions specific to each of the landscapes or Thinais. The five Thinais or landscapes found in poems of Sangam literature are Paalai (parched land), Neithal (seashore), Marutham (farmland), Mullai (forest) and Kurinji (mountains).
