Abstract:
The work, Muthumozhikkānji was comprised in the collection of eighteen lesser works (patiṇ̱eṇkḹḻkkaṇakkunūlkal)
emerged in the post Sangam period (period for moral works). It could not be denied the fact that influence of
Jainism and Buddhism in the period in which Mudhumozhikkānji emerged in Tamil Nadu. Sangam literature
reveals the influence of Vedic culture, a part of Hinduism, among Tamils in the Sangam period. It is worthy to
note that Tamils' independent and unique ethical values had not only been articulated by Sangam literature and
but also been narrated by the post-Sangam period literature. In this background, ethical views and ideas of
Mudhumozhikānji get momentum. This research aims to determine what religious and philosophical ideas have
influenced the ethics of Muthumozhikkānji in the period in which many religious-philosophical schools of thought
spread in Tamil Nadu. From the beginning, there is a continuous process of dialectic logic, spiritualism vs.
materialism as thesis and anti-thesis in Indian philosophical thoughts. To discover what is the position of
Muthumozhikkānji on this dialectic process is another significant objective of the research. Apart of this,
identifying proto-Vedic and anti-Vedic ideas and finding hierarchical differences between domestic life and
ascetic life in Muthumozhikkānji are also objectives of this study. Interestingly, Muthumozhikkānji narrates more
materialistic ideas than spiritual ones, and it articulates the significant ethical virtues of Sangam Tamils and
utters the influence of Buddhism in the text. It is noteworthy that Muthumozhikkānji narrates ethical thoughts and
ideas based on reason and real, which existed in the post Sangam period. It could be found that Muthumozhikkānji
tries to reduce hierarchical differences and gaps between domestic and ascetic life. More than one different
edition of muthumozhikkānji, literary sources of ethics, Sangam and Post -Sangam literature, Indian
Philosophical sources, and online sources were used in this study
