Singapore University of Social Sciences

In Tamil, Prosody dealing with metre and versification is considered as a branch of grammar. In Tamil prosody holds a very prominent position. There are different forms of poetry in Tamil literature such as Akaval, Kalippa, Venba, Viruttam, Paripatal, and Pannatti. Over the years, many other types of poetical compositions have come into existence, but the traditional poetic forms have remained most popular amongst renowned poets and scholars. This course exposes students to: Akaval, Kalippa,Virutham and Venba. A poem based on any of these varieties must follow certain linguistic and poetic rules of form, e.g., it should contain certain number of lines, and all the lines should consist of exactly the same number of cirs as the initial or end line.