Siruppanchamulam is a Tamil

Tamil language

Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...

 poetic work of didactic nature belonging to the Pathinenkilkanakku

Pathinenkilkanakku

Pathinenkilkanakku is a collection of eighteen poetic works created during the 'post Sangam period' . The poems of this collection differ from the earlier works under the Pathinenmaelkanakku collection , which are the oldest surviving Tamil Poetry. The poems are written in the Venpa meter and are...

anthology of Tamil literature

Tamil literature

Tamil literature refers to the literature in the Tamil language. Tamil literature has a rich and long literary tradition spanning more than two thousand years. The oldest extant works show signs of maturity indicating an even longer period of evolution...

. This belongs to the 'post Sangam period' corresponding to between 100 – 500 CE. Siruppanchamulam contains 100 poems written by the poet Kariyaasaan. He was probably a Jain by religious persuasion. This and the fact that he was a student of one Makkayanaar is known from the introductory poem of this book. The poems of Siruppanchamulam are written in the Venpa

Venpa

Venpa is a form of classical Tamil poetry. Classical Tamil poetry has been classified based upon the rules of metric prosody. Such rules form a context-free grammar. Every Venpa consists of between two to twelve lines....

 meter.

Siruppanchamulam uses the analogy of the traditional herbal medicine, which uses the roots of the five herbs kandankatthiri (a plant of the nightshade family – Solanum

Solanum

Solanum, the nightshades, horsenettles and relatives, is a large and diverse genus of annual and perennial plants. They grow as forbs, vines, subshrubs, shrubs, and small trees, and often have attractive fruit and flowers. Many formerly independent genera like Lycopersicon or Cyphomandra are...

 xanthocarpum), siruvzhuthunai, sirumalli, perumalli, and nerunji (a thorny prostrate plant – Tribulus terrestris

Tribulus terrestris

Tribulus terrestris is a flowering plant in the family Zygophyllaceae, native to warm temperate and tropical regions of the Old World in southern Europe, southern Asia, throughout Africa, and Australia. It can thrive even in desert climates and poor soil...

) to cure certain maladies. Siruppanchamulam similarly uses five different maxims

Maxim (philosophy)

A maxim is a ground rule or subjective principle of action; in that sense, a maxim is a thought that can motivate individuals.- Deontological ethics :...

to illustrate correct behaviour.

The following poem lists the five things, namely, a chaste girl, the humility of the learned, friendly neighbouring countries, benevolent kings under whose reign there are timely rains and loyal assistants as sweet as ambrosia.

கற்புடைய பெண் அமிர்து, கற்று அடங்கினான் அமிர்து

நற்புடைய நாடுஅமிர்து - நற்புடைய

மேகமே சேர்கொடி வேந்து அமிர்து, சேவகனும்

ஆகவே செய்யின் அமிர்து.