Two prominent translators present the first complete English-language edition of one of India’s greatest works of classical literature: the Purananuru. This anthology of four hundred poems
composed by more than 150 poets in old Tamil - the literary language of ancient Tamilnadu - was compiled between the first and third centuries C.E. before Aryan influence had penetrated the
south; it is thus a unique testament to pre-Aryan India.
Reflecting accurately and profoundly the life of southern India 2,000 years ago, the Purananuru is immensely important both as a literary work and as a guide to the development of South Asia’s
history, culture, religion, and linguistics. One of the few classical Indian works that confronts life without the insulation of a philosophical facade, making no basic assumptions about karma
and the afterlife, the Purananuru has universal appeal. The poems face the world as a great and unsolved mystery, delving into living and dying, despair, love, poverty, and the change able
nature of existence.
