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Contents: 1. Introduction: The Historical Setting. 2. The Literature in Tamil from the Early Age to the Medieval Period. 3. Tamil Poetry through the Eyes of the Europeans: The Discovery, the Description and the Western Chronology, 1547-1731. 4. The Travel of Tamil Palm-Leaf and Paper Manuscripts to Paris, Copenhagen and Halle, 1714-1801. 5. The New Forms and Styles of Tamil Poetry and the Wandering Hindu Poets, 16th-18th Centuries. 6. The Literary Contours of Tamil Puranams and the Religious Identity, 16th-19th Centuries. 7. The Rapid Expansion of Thalapuranam Poetry in Tamil and the Changing Form and Function, 16th-19th Centuries. 8. The Hindu Madams, the Ascetics and the Production of Tamil Poetry 17th-18th Centuries. 9. The Kings, Poets and the Changing Facets of Tamil Social Poetry, 16th-18th Centuries. 10. The Poets, Islamic Literature in Tamil and the European Description, 1572-1800. 11. The Jesuits, Lutheran Missionaries and Tamil Christians: From Poetical Manuscripts to Printing, 1715-1900. 12. Conclusion. Select Bibliography. Index.

The book examines how the Tamil poets gradually began to turn their attention away from praising kings, chieftains, ruling elites besides on gods and goddesses. It explores how the bards composed ulaa, pillaithamizh, maalai, sathagam, agaval, kalampagam, kovai and toothu poetry in the early modern age. The poets concentrated on the country’s ordinary people. New genres like virali vidu thoothu emerged and laid social focus on depicting the lives of the Brahmins, dancers and prostitutes. Puranams and thalapuranams came to grow into prominence and popularity by encouraging the pilgrims. The study also examines how Tamil Christian poetical religious works composed saw the light of printing. They reported the untouchability, superstitions, bribe and corruption and other social evils present in Tamil society. This volume covering wide ranging aspects is an invaluable guide for understanding the radical and manifold changes in the Tamil poetical scene after the advent of the Europeans and beyond.