# Puram

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{{Short description|Classic poetry genre}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}}
{{Use Indian English|date=August 2020}}
'''''Puram''''' ({{indic|lang=ta|indic=புறம்|trans=puṟam}}, ''Lit.'' exterior) is one of two genres of [Classical Tamil poetry](/source/Sangam_literature). The concept of the lifestyle of human beings falls in two categories: personal and public. The genre dealing with poems about love affairs is called ''[Akam](/source/Akam_(poetry))'' (அகம்), while ''Puram'' concerns many subjects including wars, kings, poets and personal virtues.<ref name="EBNarrLit">{{cite web | url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/556016/South-Asian-arts/65174/Narrative-literature | title="South Asian arts" | publisher=[Encyclopædia Britannica](/source/Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica) | year=2014 |access-date=7 December 2014}}</ref>

''[Tolkāppiyam](/source/Tolk%C4%81ppiyam)'', the earliest work of Tamil grammar and literature available in Tamil, divides each genre into seven strands ([Thinai](/source/Thinai)), comparing and connecting the two categories of lifestyle.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.cse.iitk.ac.in/users/amit/books/hart-2002-four-hundred-songs.html | title=The Four Hundred Songs of War and Wisdom: An Anthology of Poems from Classical Tamil, the Purananuru | publisher=Columbia University Press | access-date=15 April 2014}}</ref>

Works in the ''Puram'' genre reflect on different people's lifestyles, especially that of kings. The works identify personal names, unlike in the ''Akam'' genre.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aex_vpsu3gwC&pg=PA111 | title=The Courts of Pre-colonial South India: Material Culture and Kingship | publisher=[Routledge](/source/Routledge) | author=Howes, Jennifer | year=2002 | pages=111 | isbn=978-0-7007-1585-5}}</ref> Because they include the names of kings, poets, and places, Tamil literary scholars consider them a historical record.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=veSItWingx8C&pg=PA72 | title=Songs of Experience: The Poetics of Tamil Devotion | publisher=[Indiana University Press](/source/Indiana_University_Press) | author=Cutler, Norman | year=1987 | pages=72 | isbn=978-0-253-35334-4}}</ref>

== See also ==
* [Sangam literature](/source/Sangam_literature)

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==
*{{Citation | last=Peterson | first=Indira Viswanathan | author-link=Indira Viswanathan Peterson | title=Poems to Siva: The Hymns of the Tamil Saints | publisher=[Motilal Banarsidass](/source/Motilal_Banarsidass) | year=1991 | isbn=978-8120807846}}

== External links ==
* [http://www.tamilnation.co/literature/anthologies.htm Eight Anthologies: 'Puram' Poetry]

{{Tamil language}}

Category:Tamil poetics
Category:Sangam literature

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