Pre Historic and Historic Period Earliest to 300 BC

1. Pre Historic and Historic PeriodEarliest to 300 BC Sangam Age 300 BC – 300 AD

2. The history of Tamil Nadu goes back to the early stone age. The region of Tamil Country has been under continuous human habitation since prehistoric times.

4. Pre-Historic Period • Till the second century B.C., the upland portions of the peninsula with the Kaveri delta as the nuclear zone were inhabited by people who are called megalith builders. • They are known not from their actual settlements which are rare, but from their graves called megaliths. • These are called megaliths because they were encircled by big pieces of stone which contained not only skeletons of the buried people but also pottery and iron objects.

6. Cont… • However compared to the number of agricultural tools that were buried, those meant for fighting and hunting is larger in number. • It shows that megalithic people did not practice an advanced type of agriculture. The megaliths are found in all upland areas of the peninsula, but their concentration seems to be in eastern Andhra and in Tamil Nadu. • Their beginnings can be traced to circa 1000 B.C., but in many cases the megalithic phase lasted from about the fifth to the first century B.C. The Cholas, Pandyas and Keralaputras (Cheras) mentioned in the Asokan inscriptions were probably in the late megalithic phase of material culture. By the third century B.C., the megalithic people had moved from the uplands into fertile river basins and reclaimed marshy deltaic areas.

7. Cont… • Under the stimulus of contact with the elements of material culture brought from the north to the extreme end of the peninsula by traders, conquerors and Jaina, Buddhist and some Brahmana missionaries, they came to have social classes, they came to practice wet paddy cultivation and founded numerous villages and towns. • Cultural and economic contacts between the north and the Deep South known as Tamilakam or Tamizhakam became extremely important from the fourth century B.C. The route to the south called the Dakshinapatha was valued by the northeners because the south supplied gold, pearls and various precious stones. • Flourishing trade with the Roman Empire contributed to the formation of the three states respectively under the Cholas, Cheras and the Pandyas. These southern kingdoms would not have developed without the spread of iron technology which promoted forest clearing and plough cultivation.

9. The Sangam Age • The Sangam Age in Tamil country is significant and unique for its social, economic, religious and cultural life of the Tamils. • There was an all round development during this period. • The Sangam literatures as well as the archaeological findings reveal these developments.

10. 'Sangam' is the Tamil form of Sanskrit word "Sangha" meaning a group of persons or an association. • The Tamil Sangam was an Academy of poets and bards, who flourished in three different periods and in different places under the patronage of the Tamil kings. • According to tradition, the first Sangam was founded by Sage Agastya and its seat was at Thenmadurai (South Madurai).

11. The seat of the second Sangam was Kapatpuram, another capital of the Pandyas. It was attended by several poets and produced a large mass of literature, but only Tolkappiyam (the early Tamil grammar) has survived. • The seat of the third Sangam was the present Madurai. It has also produced vast literature, but only a fraction of it has survived. It is this fraction which constitutes the extant body of Sangam literature. • The Age of the Sangam is the age to which the Sangam literature belonged. The Sangam literature constitutes a mine of information on conditions of life around the beginning of the Christian era.

12. Sangam Polity • From the earliest times Tamilaham had known only three major kingdoms – the Cheras, the Cholas and the Pandyas. The Pandyas were first mentioned by Megasthenes, who says that their kingdom was celebrated for pearls. • He also speaks of its being ruled by a woman, which may suggest some matriarchal influence in the Pandya society. In the Major Rock Edict II Asoka mentions of the three kingdoms – Pandyas, Cholas and Cheras as neighbours. • The Hathigumpha inscription of Kharavelea contains the early epigraphic reference to the kingdoms of the Tamil country, where he is said to have destroyed a confederacy of Tamil states – Tramiradesa Sanghatam. However, the chief source for the Sangam period is the Sangam literature.

14. The Sangam literature speaks highly of three South Indian kingdoms- Chola, Pandya and Chera. • The three ancient kingdoms of the Cholas, the Pandas and the Chera combined with were known as Tamilakam, or the Tamil realm.

16. The Three Sangam Kingdoms

17. Flag

18. Kingdoms with flags

19. The Cholas • The homeland of the Cholas was the Kaveri delta and the adjoining region of modern Tanjore and Tiruchirappalli. • They were the first to acquire ascendancy in the far south with kaveripattanam, or Puhar as their capital. Its ugly capital was UraiyurTowards the beginning of the fourth century A.D. the power of the Chola's big gain to decline mainly because of the rise of Pallavas on one hand and the continuous war waged by the Pandyas and the Cheras on the other.

20. Cont… • It seems that in the middle of the second century B.C. a Chola king named Elara conquered Sri Lanka and ruled over it for nearly 50 years. • A firmer history of the Cholas begins in the second century A. D. with their famous king Karikala which means, ‘The man with the charred leg.’ • He was a contemporary of the Chera king PerunjeralAdan. Karikala was a very competent ruler and a great warrior.

21. Cont… • He defeated the Chera king Perunjeral. One of his early achievements was the victory at Venni, 15 miles to the east of Tanjore; his victory meant the breakup of the widespread confederacy that had been formed against him. • He founded Puhar and constructed 160 km of embankment along the Kaveri River. This was built with the labour of 12,000 slaves who were brought as capitves from Sri Lanka. Puhar was a great centre of trade and commerce, and excavations show that it had a large dock. The Cholas maintained an efficient navy.

22. Cont… • Under Karikala’s successors the Chola power rapidly declined. Two sons of Karikala ruled from two different capitals – the elder from Uraiyur and the younger one from Puhar. The last great Chola ruler after Karikala was Nedunjelian who successfully fought against the Pandyas and the Cheras both, but was ultimately killed in battle. • Their two neighbouring powers, the Cheras and the Pandyas, extended at the cost of the Cholas. What remained of the Cholas power was almost wiped out by the attacks of the Pallavas from the north. • The fortunes of the Cholas suffered a serious setback, when, according to a tradition recorded in Manimekalaia good part of the port town of Puhar was engulfed by the sea in terrific tidal waves, during the reign of the later Chola king Killivalavan.

24. The Pandyas • The ancient kingdom of the Pandas, with its capital at Madurai, compromised the modern districts of Madura, Ramnad, Tirunelveli and southern parts of Travancore. • The Pandyas were first mentioned by Megasthanese. According to the Magasthanse, the kingdom was once ruled by a woman. • According to Asoka edicts, the Pandyas were independent people living beyond the South than border of the Maurya Empire. • The greatest Pandya king was Nedunchezhian who defeated the Chera and Cholas.

25. Cont… • The earliest known Pandyan ruler was Mudukudumi who is mentioned in the Sangam text as a great conqueror. The most reputed Pandyan ruler was Nedunjhelian, who ruled from Madurai and was a great poet. • According to Silappadikaram, Nedunjhelian, in a fit of passion, ordered without judicial enquiry the execution of Kovalan who was accused of theft of the queen’s anklet. When Kovalan’s wife proved her husband’s innocence, the king was struck with remorse and died of shock on the throne. • The Pandyan kings profited from trade with the Roman Empire and sent embassies to the Roman emperor Augustus. The Pandyan port Korkai was a great centres of trade and commerce, another port was Saliyur. The brahmanas enjoyed considerable influence, and the Pandya kings performed Vedic sacrifices in the early centuries of the Christian era.

28. The Cheras • The earliest reference to the Chera (Keralaputra) kingdom cards in the Ashokan inscriptions. • It compromised the mordern districts of Malabr, Cochin and Northern Travancore. Its Capital was Vanji. • The greatest Chera king was Senguttuvan, the red or good Chera. He is credited with having invaded the north and crossed the river Ganga.

29. The Cheras • The Chera or the Kerala country was situated to the west and north of the land of the Pandyas. • It included the narrow strip of land between the sea and the mountains and covered portions of both Kerala and Tamilnadu. • In the early centuries of the Christrian era, the Chera country was as important as the country of the Cholas and the Pandyas. It owed its importance to trade with the Romans. • The Romans set up two regiments at Muziris identical with Cranganore in the Chera country to protect their interests. It is said that they also built there a temple of Augustus.

30. The history of the Cheras was marked by continuous fight with the Cholas and the Pandyas. One of the earliest and better known Chera rulers was Udiyanjeral (A.D. 130). The titles Vanavaramban and PerunjaranUdiyan are applied to him by the poet Mudinagarayar in Puram. • The son of Udiyanjeral was NedunjeralAdan who won a naval victory against some local enemy on the Malabar Coast, and took captive several Yavana traders. He won victories against seven crowned kings, and thus reached the superior rank of the adhiraja.

31. He was called “Imayavaramban”, he who had the Himalayas as his boundary’. He fought a war with the contemporary Chola king in which both the monarchs lost their lives and their queens performed Sati. • According to the Chera poets their greatest king was Senguttuvan, the Red or Good Chera. He routed his rivals and established his cousin securely on the throne. It is said that he invaded the north and crossed the Ganga. But all this seems to be exaggerated. Pattini cult, that is the worship of Kannagi as the ideal wife, was started by him.

32. Senguttuvan was succeeded by his half-brother PerunjeralAdan (180 A.D.), who was a contemporary of the great Chola monarch Karikala. We learn from the poems Puram and Aham, that while fighting against the Cholas in the battle of Venni, PerunjeralAdan received a wound in the back and expiated the disgrace by starving himself to death on the battlefield. • After the second century A.D. the Chera power declined, and we have nothing of its history until the eighth century A. D. The fame of the Cheras lies in the liberal patronage to Tamil poets and promo­tion of trade with Romans. The Chera had a number of good ports along the western coast such as Tondi and Musiri or Muziris (Muziris was a great centre of Indo-Roman trade). The capital of the Cheras was Vanji.

36. Period of Sangam literature • The earliest script that the Tamils used was the Brahmi script. It was only from the late ancient and early medieval period, that they started evolving a new angular script, called the Grantha script, from which the modern Tamil is derived. • Some of the contents of the Sangam literature are corrobo­rated by the writings of some Greek and Roman classical writers of the first and second century A. D, leading us to fix the period of Sangam age roughly between third century B.C. to third century A.D. • So most of the Sangam literature also must have been produced during this period. The Sangam literature was finally compiled in its present form in circa A.D. 300-600.

37. Sangam Literature • According to Prof. K.A. NilakantaSastri, the Sangam literature which combines idealism with realism and classic grace with indigenous industry and strength is rightly regarded as constituting the Augustan age of Tamil literature. It deals with secular matter relating to public and social activity like government, war charity, trade, worship, agriculture etc. • Among the poets and thinkers of the Sangam age Tolkappiyar, Tiruvalluvar, lllangoAdigal, SittalaiSattanar, Nakkirar, Kapilar, Paranar, Auvaiyar, MangudiMarudanar and a few others are outstanding. Sangam literature consists of the earliest Tamil works (such as the Tolkappiyam), the ten poems (Pattupattu), the eight anthologies (Ettutogai) and the eighteen minor works (Padinenkilkanakku), and the three epics. The chief merits of the sangam works is their absolute devotion to standards and adherence to literary conventions.

38. Earliest Tamil Works • Tolkappiyam is the oldest extant Tamil grammar written by Tokkappiyar (one of the 12 disciples of Saint Agastya.) • It is divided into three major parts, each consisting of nine iyals (sub-parts) and has a total of 1612 sutras. • Other earliest Tamil works were the Agattiyam (a work on grammar of letters and life) by Saint Agattiyar, Pannirupadalam and the Kakkipadiniyam.

39. Ten Poems (Pattupattu) • Murugarruppadai (by Nakkirar), Sirupanarruppadai (by Nattattanar), Perumbanarruppadai, Maduraikkanji (by MangudiMarudam), Pattinappalai (by Kannan), and other works, come in this category. • The poetry in the Pattupattu was divided into two main groups: • Aham (deals with matters strictly limited to one aspect of subjective experience viz., love) and • Puram (deals with matters ca­pable of externalization or objectification).

40. Eight Anthologies Ettutogai • 1. Aingurunuru, compiled by GudalurKilar, consists of 500 erotic poems. • 2. Agananuru, compiled by Rudrasarman, consists of love poems. • 3. Narrinai comprises 400 short poems on love. • 4. Kurunttogai has 400 love poems. • 5. Purananuru consists of 400 poems in praise of kings. The Nandas and Mauryas are referred in one of the poems. • 6. Kalittogaicomprises love poems. • 7. Paripadal has 24 poems in praise of gods. • 8. Padirrupattu is a short collection of 8 poems in praise of the Chera Kings. The eight anthologies (Ettutogai) also are in two groups, the Aham and the Puram.

41. Eighteen Minor Works (Padinenkilkanakku) • These works are called ‘minor works’ because the poems in these are shorter in form than those in the Ettutogai and Pattuppattu. • The most important among these are the Tirukkural by Tiruvalluvar (known as the Bible of Tamil Land’, it is a compound of the Dharmasastra, the Arthasastra and the Kamasutra), the Naladiyar, the Palamoliby Munnururai Araiyar, the Acharakkovaietc.

42. The Epics • The epics Silappadikaram (The Jewelled Anklet) and Manimekalai belong to the early centuries of the Christian era. • 1. Silappadikaram was written by Mango Adigal (grandson of Karikala, the great Chola King) in the second century A.D. It is a tragic story of a merchant, Kovalan of Puhar who falls in love with a dancer Madhavi, neglecting his own wife, Kannagi, who in the end revenges the death of her husband at the hands of the Pandyan King and becomes a goddess. • It marks the beginning of Kannagi cult or Pattini cult that is worship of Kannagi as the ideal wife. There is also a reference to the Ceylonese king Gajabahu being present on the occasion of the installation of a Kannagi temple, the Goddess of Chastity, by Chera king Senguttuvan.

43. Cont… • 2. Manimekalai was written by poet Sattanar. It is the story of Manimekalai, the daughter of Kovalan, and Madhavi of the earlier epic. The main aim of this epic seems to be to expound the excellence of the Buddhist religion through the medium of the travails of Manimekalai consequent on the loss of the city of Puhar when the sea eroded into the coast. This epic is the only important ancient work which gives glimpse of the development of the fine arts in the Sangam age. • In both these epics, a good deal of social and historical information is found • 3. SivagaSindamani, written by Tiruttakkadevar a Jaina ascetic, is the story of Sivaga or Jivaka

44. Sangam Administration • The king was the very centre and embodiment of administration. He was called Ko, Mannam, Vendan, Korravan or Iraivan. Though hereditary monarch was the prevailing form of government, dis­puted successions and civil wars were not unknown. The court of the crowned monarch was called avai. • The ideal of the ‘conquering king’ (Vijigishu) was accepted and acted on. The King’s birthday (Perunal) was celebrated every year. Kings assumed several titles. For example, the Pandyas were known as Minavar, Kavuriyar, Panchavar, Tennar, Seliyar, Marar, Valudi.etc the Cholas called them­selves Sennis, Sembiyas, Valavan and Killi, and the Cheras had titles like Vanavar, Villavar, Kudavar, Kuttuvar, Poraiyar and so on.

45. Cont… • The royal emblem of the Pandyas was the carp (fish), the bow of the Cheras and of the Cholas was the tiger. The sabha or manram of the king in the capital was the highest court of justice. The king was assisted by a large body of officials, who were divided into five assem­blies: • (1) Amaichchar or ministers, • (2) Purohitas or priests, • (3) Senapati or military commanders, • (4) Dutar or envoys and • (5) Arrar or spies.

46. Provincial and Local Administration • The entire kingdom was called mandalam. The Chola mandalam, Pandya mandalam and the Chera mandalam were the original major mandalam. Below the mandalam was a major division, nadu (province). The ur was a town which was variously described as a big village (perar), a small village (sirur) or an old village (mudur). Pattinam was the name for a coastal town and Puharwas the harbour area. • The administration of nadus was generally carried on by hereditary chiefs. The village was the fundamental unit of administration which was administered by local assemblies called manrams.

47. Revenue administration • The commonest and possibly the largest source of revenue was land-tax called Karai, but the share of the agricultural proudce, claimed and collected by the king,is not specified. The ma and veli was the measure of land and kalam as measure of grain. A well-known unit of territory yielding tax was a variyam (Vari meant tax) and an officer in-charge of collecting the tax from that unit of land was called a Variyar. • Tributes paid by the feudatories and war booty (irai) constituted a considerable part of royal resources. Trade local and long-distance, constituted a very important source of royal revenue. Tolls and custom duties were ulgu or sungum. The duties to be paid to the king were generally known as Kadamai or Paduvadu.

48. Military Administration • Apparently out of the taxes collected from the peasantry, the state maintained a rudimentary army and it consisted of chariots drawn by oxen, of elephants, cavalry and infantry. Elephants played an important part in war. Horses were imported by sea into the Pandyan kingdom. • The institution of virakkal or nadukul (hero-stone), which was a practice of erecting monuments for the dead soldiers and worshiping them, was prevalent at that time. The institution of Kavalmaram or Kadimaram was also prevalent. Under it, each ruler had a great tree in his palace as a symbol of power.

49. Society • Tolkappiyam refers to the five-fold division of lands – Kurinji (hilly tracks), Mullai (pastoral), Marudam (agricultural), Neydal (coastal) and Palai (desert). The people living in these five divisions had their respective chief occupations as well as gods for worship. • Kurinji – chief deity was Murugan – chief occupation, hunting and honey collection. • Mullai – chief deity Mayon (Vishnu) – chief occupation, cattle-rearing and dealing with dairy products. • Marudam – chief deity Indira – chief occupation, agriculture. • Neydal – chief deity Varunan – chief occupation fishing and salt manufacturing. • Palai – chief deity Korravai – chief occupation robbery.

50. Social Divisions • The Tamil society during the Sangam period was broadly divided into several groups. In the beginning of the Sangam Age, the Tamil society was not organized on the basis of the Vedic caste system, namely Brahmanas, Kshatriyas, Sudras. However, the earliest of the Sangam literature, Tolkappiyam refers to the four divisions prevalent in the Sangam society namely, Anthanar, Arasar, Vaislyar and Vellalar, it may be said that this classification roughly corresponds to the Vedic Social division. • Another Sangam work, Purananuru mentions the names of ancient Tamil tribes such as Thudiyan, Pannan, and Kadamban. These divisions indicate the complex social structure prevalent in the Sangam Age.