The Ten Idylls, known as Pattuppāṭṭu (Tamil: பத்துப்பாட்டு) or Ten Lays, is an anthology of ten longer poems in the Sangam literature – the earliest known Tamil literature. They range between about 100 and 800 lines, and the collection includes the celebrated Nakkīrar's Tirumurukāṟṟuppaṭai (lit. "Guide to Lord Murukan"). The collection was termed as "Ten Idylls" during the colonial era, though this title is considered "very incorrect" by Kamil Zvelebil – a scholar of Tamil literature and history. He suggests "Ten Lays" as the more apt title. Five of these ten ancient poems are lyrical, narrative bardic guides (arruppatai) by which poets directed other bards to the patrons of arts such as kings and chieftains. The others are guides to religious devotion (Murugan) and to major towns, sometimes mixed with akam- or puram-genre poetry.
The Pattuppāṭṭu collection is a later dated collection, with its earliest layer composed sometime between 2nd- and 3rd-century CE, the middle between 2nd- and 4th-century, while the last layer sometime between 3rd- and 5th-century CE.
Accoring to Zvelebil, the Pattuppāṭṭu compilation is as follows:
|Poem||Poem title's meaning||Author||Dedication / Focus||Lines in poems||Meter|
|Tirumurukāṟṟuppaṭai||"Guide to Lord Murugan"||Nakkīrar||Murugan||312||akaval|
|Poruṇarāṟṟuppaṭai||"Guide for the war bards"||Mutattamakkanniyar||Karikal||248||akaval, some vanci|
|Ciṟupāṇāṟṟuppaṭai||"Guide to bards with small lutes"||Narrattanar||Nalliyakkotan||296||akaval|
|Perumpāṇāṟṟuppaṭai||"Guide to bards with large lutes"||Uruttiran Kannanar||Tontaiman Ilantiraiyan||500||akaval|
|Mullaippāṭṭu||"Song about the forest (life)"||Nappitanar||anonymous||103||akaval|
|Maturaikkāñci||"Reflection on Maturai"||Mankuti Marutanar||Netunceliyan||782||vanci, some akaval|
|Neṭunalvāṭai||"Good long northern wind"||Nakkirar||Netunceliyan||188||akaval|
|Kuṟiñcippāṭṭu||"Song about the hills"||Kapilar||anonymous||261||akaval|
|Paṭṭiṉappālai||"Poem about the separation and the city"||Uruttiran Kannanar||Karikal||301||vanci (153), akaval (138)|
|Malaipaṭukaṭām||"Poem of the sound pertaining to the mountains"||Perunkunrur, Perunkaucikanar||Nannan||583[note 1]||akaval|
Two Shiva Hindu temple inscriptions have been discovered in Tamil Nadu which allude to and quote lines from the Pattuppāṭṭu collection. The first found in one of the inscriptions at Veerateeswarar temple is dated 1012 CE and attributed to Rajaraja I. The inscription is in the form of an Pattuppāṭṭu arruppatai in the same meter as those found in Pattuppāṭṭu, and alludes to the poet Kapilar. The second inscription is found in Rishabeshwarar temple in Chengam. Its author and patron are unknown, but palaeographically from the 12th-century Chola period. The inscription quotes lines from this collection and mentions the title Mali-katam-pattu (an anagram of Malaipaṭukaṭām). These inscription show that the collection of these poems were an integral part of the Shaiva tradition literature and revered in the context of their temples.
UV Swaminatha Aiyar rediscovered the palm-leaf manuscripts of the Pattuppāṭṭu along with other Sangam literature in Shaiva monasteries during the late 19th-century. The Ten Idylls were published in 1889. Over time, additional manuscripts – suggesting some early rediscoveries were partially damaged and incomplete – were discovered in temples, monasteries and private collections in India. Eva Wilden has compiled and published a catalog of important manuscripts of Pattuppāṭṭu preserved in major libraries.
- Pattupattu – Ten Tamil Idylls by J. V. Chellaih (1946)
- Ancient Tamil Classic Pattuppattu in English (The Ten Tamil Idylls) by A. Dakshinamurthy (2013)
- W. J. Johnson (2009). A Dictionary of Hinduism. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19861-0250.
- Kamil Zvelebil 1973, pp. 28–29.
- Kamil Zvelebil 1973, pp. 28–29, 56.
- Kamil Zvelebil 1973, pp. 56–58.
- Kamil Zvelebil 1973, pp. 41–43 with Chart 4.
- Kamil Zvelebil 1973, pp. 29, 63.
- Kamil Zvelebil 1973, p. 59.
- JV Chelliah 1946, pp. 283–284.
- Fred W. Clothey (2019). The Many Faces of Murukan: The History and Meaning of a South Indian God. With the Poem Prayers to Lord Murukan. Walter De Gruyter. p. 34. ISBN 978-3-11-080410-2.
- JV Chelliah 1946, pp. 325.
- Eva Maria Wilden (2014). Manuscript, Print and Memory: Relics of the Cankam in Tamilnadu. Walter De Gruyter. pp. 15–16 with footnote 39. ISBN 978-3-11-035276-4.
- R Nagaswamy (2004). Jean-Luc Chevillard; Eva Wilden (eds.). South-Indian Horizons, Felicitation Volume for François Gros. IFP-EFEO. pp. 487–494. ISBN 2-85539-630-1.
- Takanobu Takahashi (1995). Tamil Love Poetry and Poetics. BRILL Academic. pp. 1–3 with footnotes. ISBN 90-04-10042-3.
- Kamil Zvelebil (1975). Jan Gonda (ed.). Handbook of Oriental Studies: Tamil Literature. BRILL Academic. pp. 108–109 with footnote 129. ISBN 90-04-04190-7.
- Eva Maria Wilden (2014). Manuscript, Print and Memory: Relics of the Cankam in Tamilnadu. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 74–87, 90–93. ISBN 978-3-11-035276-4.
- JV Chelliah (1946). Pattupattu - Ten Tamil Idylls (Tamil Verses with Englilsh Translation). Tamil University (1985 print).
- A. Dakshinamurthy, Ancient Tamil Classic Pattuppattu in English (The Ten Tamil Idylls), Thamizh Academy, SRM University, 2013.
- Edward Jewitt Robinson (2001). Tamil Wisdom: Traditions Concerning Hindu Sages and Selections from Their Writings. New Delhi: Asian Educational Services.
- Mudaliyar, Singaravelu A., Apithana Cintamani, An encyclopaedia of Tamil Literature, (1931) - Reprinted by Asian Educational Services, New Delhi (1983)
- Pillai, M. S. Purnalingam (1994). Tamil Literature. Asian Educational Services. p. 115. ISBN 81-206-0955-7.
- Ray, Himanshu Prabha (2003). The archaeology of seafaring in ancient South Asia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521011099.
- Selby, Martha Ann (2011) Tamil Love Poetry: The Five Hundred Short Poems of the Aiṅkuṟunūṟu, an Early Third-Century Anthology. Columbia University Press, ISBN 9780231150651
- Takanobu Takahashi (1995). Tamil Love Poetry and Poetics. BRILL Academic. ISBN 90-04-10042-3.
- Eva Maria Wilden (2014). Manuscript, Print and Memory: Relics of the Cankam in Tamilnadu. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-035276-4.
- Kamil Zvelebil (1973). The Smile of Murugan: On Tamil Literature of South India. BRILL. ISBN 90-04-03591-5.
- Zvelebil, Kamil (1992). Companion studies to the history of Tamil literature. BRILL. p. 73. ISBN 90-04-09365-6.