xvii Eyil Rātal: The practice of capturing the enemy fortress was a universal antecedent to a major conflict. The ideal method in literary convention in this regard is for a king to strike terror in the enemy and make him flee by the noise of the war drum without there being any necessity for the shedding of blood. Kotěra. Maram: The techniques of the cavalry in action are signified by this concept. Yanai Maram : The action of the tuskers in battles must have kindled poetic imagination to the extent of its becoming a a popular motif in Puram poetry dealing with kings, Kalam : If is the battle field. The battle fields were to the Tamils places of great inspiration. The weird, bloody chaos which is ordinarily associated with a battlefield is not what classical Tamil poetry would say of a battle field. It was where true heroisin and chivalry were evidenced in unmistakable terms by the gushing wounds on the breasts of the warriors, it was where the highest ethics of war would be illustrated by the postures of the dead. The battlefield was developed into a favourite theme fit for lengthy treatment only from the nucleus of this classical motif. The later Parami whose best example is the Kalinkattu-p-parami of Jayañkontán was a poem of the grim battle field at the end of the war. It is not a poem of lament, but a song of victory, The Parari idea is to be traced to this early literary convention. Pakai-p-pitlam Palitial : This is by way of impressing on the obstinate vassals the consequences of insubordination and defaulting in the payment of tributes. Wenzi : This is the achievement of the ultimate goal of fighting. Victory in its true sense in Tamil was not the fulfilment of a spirit of revenge, it was not sense of relief as a result of the destruction of the foe. It was a realization that the war had been just, that clean methods of warfare pursued and the ethics of war had not been transgressed. Heroism was not restricted in its application to the deeds of one's own side. A heroic act of the §
