Acharakkovai shows influences of Sanskrit literature and hence believed to be of a later period than the other poems in the Pathinenkilkanakku anthology.
[1] The work has 100 stanzas in venpa meter and is a collection of moral exhortations, ritual observances and customs that are considered proper and correct.
[4] One should feed everyone during marriages, festivals and parental rituals (48); greet everyone heartily (31), never walk between Brahmins or deities, or between lamps and persons (31, 36).
While bathing one must now swim, spit into water (14, 35, 36) and one should not see his reflection in water, scratch ground (13), not wear others' soiled slippers or clothes (12, 36), wear two garments while coming out of bath with one garment (11), not sleep opposite to door step (22, 45), nor facing north or midway point (30), use of both hands while providing drinks to elders (28), extinguish fire with water during the day (33), bow towards one sneezes (31), spitting or passing motion in various places (32), not to excrete facing south during the day or north during night (33), not pass motions imagining one is facing all ten directions (34).
[4] The notion of untouchability seems to have emerged in the Sangam period itself with references from the work indicating water touched by pulaiyar being considered unfit for consumption of higher caste.