முதுமொழிக்காஞ்சி

Mutumoḻikkāñci

The Ancient Sayings Kāñci · One hundred verses of old truth

One hundred kāñci verses by Maturai Kumaraṉār, from the Patiṉeṇkīḻkaṇakku anthology. Each verse takes an ancient saying — a mutumoḻi, an old truth drawn from nature or human experience — and presents it in the kāñci mode: the poetic register of impermanence, clear-eyed acceptance, and the steady duty of the living.

Unlike the crisp list-works of the Patiṉeṇ — Tirikkaṭukam's triplets, Ēlāti's sweetness, Nāṉmaṇikkaṭikai's gems — Mutumoḻikkāñci works through imagery and analogy: the natural world observed, and from that observation, a truth distilled. It is the most lyrical of the anthology's ethical works.

100

Verses

Kāñci

Mode

Kumaraṉār

Author

c. 1st–5th

Century CE

Mutumoḻi (முதுமொழி) means an ancient saying — a proverb, an old truth, a word that has been proven by time. Kāñci (காஞ்சி) is a classical Tamil poetic mode meditating on the transience of all things — not with despair, but with the clear acceptance of one who has seen much and still finds duty possible. Each verse of Mutumoḻikkāñci presents one such old truth: the core saying is shown at the head of each verse.

முதுமொழிக்காஞ்சி

The Hundred Verses