Most of ancient Tamil literature was in the form of poetry and sung as music. Prose is relative recent in Tamil literature. The earliest surviving works of paththu paattu (Ten songs) and ettu thogai (eight anthologies) were themselves set to music.

The Changam literature like Silappadikaram were retained for generations in the form of music and poetry. There is ample evidence that the azhvaar pasurams in Tamil, were originally sung as music, unlike being recited like vedic manthrams, as today.

There is an abundance of Tamil compositions with deep meanings and intriguing play of words by kAraikkAl ammaiyAr (400 AD), Gnana Sambandhar (635-651 AD.)and thiru naavuk karasar (appar) (580-661 AD. thEvaaram), sundara murthy (9th century thEvaaram), maaNikka vaachakar (10th century thiruvaachakam) and various other saiva siddhars like thirumoolar and other naayanmar poet saints.

Many of the tEvAram tunes have been preserved to this date due to the services of the Odhuvaars attached to temples.

Andal, a well known tamil lady poet has composed 173 Tamil songs which express love and passion for the almighty. King Thirumangai mannan (azhvaar) composed 1360 Tamil songs with a sense of rhythm particularly suitable for dance. They also contain an ocean of details about the life in the country and the language of his time. Other azhvars composed 2700 Tamil Compositions. Originally sung as music. Recently there is renewed interest to revive this musical tradition.

We believe that the reseach articles on tamil music would help any new Tamil Music lover to understand the basics in the Tamil Music system. While we enjoy presenting these facts to Tamil Music lovers, we believe that, the readers would give their suggestions or corrections to be made in this article to the attention of the author. This will definitely would help in the improvisation of this article in particular and information of Tamil Music in General.