ஐங்குறுநூறு

The Ainkurunuru is one of the Eight Anthologies (Eṭṭuttokai) of classical Tamil Sangam literature. Its five books each gather one hundred short akam poems around a different tiṇai: a landscape, season, time, natural world, and condition of love held together as one poetic field.

The Good Works Translation is arranged in five parts:

1. Part I — Marutam: The Agricultural Plain (poems 1–100)
   Marriage, infidelity, jealousy, accusation, and reconciliation among paddy fields and river-fords.

2. Part II — Neytal: The Seashore (poems 101–200)
   Waiting, separation, and the ache of the absent beloved along the coast. Poems 129 and 130 are lost from the surviving tradition.

3. Part III — Kuriñci: The Mountain (poems 201–300)
   Secret love and union amid mountain paths, waterfalls, millet fields, and midnight meetings.

4. Part IV — Pālai: The Wasteland (poems 301–400)
   Departure, dangerous journeys, separation, endurance, and the long road home.

5. Part V — Mullai: The Forest (poems 401–500)
   Patient waiting, the monsoon's promise, the warrior's return, and reunion.

Together, the five parts present every extant poem under the collection's traditional numbering, with the two lost poems marked in place. Each part includes its English translation, contextual notes, and the Tamil source text from Project Madurai edition pmuni0028.