Sangam Literature and Society

At a Glance

• Meaning Assembly of Tamil poets at Madurai
• Compiled About AD 300 to 600
• Groups Narrative and didactic
• Epics Silappadikaram and Manimekalai
• Script Tamil Brahmi
• Exam link UPSC Prelims, Ancient History: Post-Mauryan Period and Early South India

Where Does It Fit?

This is the ninth topic of the category on the post-Mauryan period. The previous topic covered the three early kingdoms, and this one covers their literature and society. The next topic covers crafts, commerce and urban growth. Previous topic: Sangam Age – The Three Early Kingdoms of the Deep South. Tamil, the language of this literature, is among the languages in Eighth Schedule: Languages Recognized by the Constitution (22 Languages).

What Is Sangam Literature?

In short: poems composed under royal patronage at Madurai form the main record of the early Tamil country.

All that is known about the life of the early Tamils comes from Sangam literature. The Sangam was a college or assembly of Tamil poets, held probably under the patronage of chiefs or kings. We know neither the number of Sangams nor how long they lasted. A Tamil commentary of the middle of the eighth century says that three Sangams lasted 9990 years with 8598 poets and 197 Pandya kings as patrons, which is a wild exaggeration. All that can be said is that a Sangam was held under royal patronage at Madurai. The literature was compiled about AD 300 to 600, though parts look back to at least the second century AD; another account dates it from the third century BCE to the third century CE. It divides roughly into two groups: the narrative Melkannakku, or eighteen major works, consisting of eight anthologies and ten idylls, and the didactic Kilkanakku, or eighteen minor works. Besides these there are the Tolkappiyam, a work on grammar and poetics, and the Tirukkural, on philosophy and maxims. The twin epics Silappadikaram and Manimekalai were composed about the sixth century.

What Do the Texts Reveal About Society?

The narrative texts are heroic poetry in which heroes are glorified and wars and cattle raids are frequent, which suggests the early Tamils were primarily pastoral. Traces of early megalithic life appear: hoes and sickles but no ploughshares, and iron tools meant mainly for war and hunting. The texts say a dead hero is reduced to a piece of stone, similar to stone circles over megalithic graves, and this may have led to the later hero stones called virarkal for those who died fighting for cattle. They also describe state formation, with an army of warrior groups and a rudimentary taxation system and judiciary, as well as trade, merchants, craftsmen and farmers, and towns such as Kanchi, Korkai, Madurai, Puhar and Uraiyur, with Puhar the most important. Greek and Roman accounts and excavations confirm the references. The didactic texts, many written by brahmana scholars, belong to the early centuries AD and lay down codes for kings and various social groups, categories which became possible only after the fourth century when brahmanas increased under the Pallavas; they refer to village grants and to kings descended from solar and lunar dynasties. The epics, composed about the sixth century, throw light on social and economic life up to then. The political background is in Sangam Age – The Three Early Kingdoms of the Deep South.

What Do the Texts Say on Religion, Inequality and Writing?

Income from trade, booty and agriculture enabled the king to maintain professional warriors and to reward poets and priests, who were largely brahmanas. Karikala is said to have given a poet 1,600,000 gold pieces, which seems exaggerated. The captains of the army received the title enadi at a formal ceremony. The rich lived in houses of brick and mortar and the poor in huts, and the texts show sharp inequality, though the acute caste distinctions of later times did not exist in the early Sangam age. Brahmanical influence was confined to a small part of Tamil territory and to the upper levels of society. Kings performed Vedic sacrifices, but the chief local god of the hilly region was Murugan, later called Subramaniya, and worship of Vishnu is also mentioned. The megalithic practice of providing for the dead continued, with paddy offered to the dead, and cremation was introduced while inhumation continued.

The art of writing was known to the Tamils before the Christian era. Over seventy-five short inscriptions in the Brahmi script, dating about the second to first centuries BC, have been found in natural caves, mainly around Madurai, and they give the earliest form of Tamil mixed with Prakrit words. They relate to the time Jaina and Buddhist missionaries came. Inscribed potsherds also show Tamil at the beginning of the Christian era. As an analytical point, Sangam literature is a major source, but its compilation was late and brahmana editors shaped parts of it, so historians cross-check with archaeology and Greek and Roman accounts. The trade side is in Indo-Roman Trade and Maritime Contacts, and later religious change in Brahmanisation, Land Grants and Peasant Protest in the Peninsula.

Why Is This Topic Important?

• Source of early Tamil history Primary corpus
• Classification Frequent Prelims theme
• Social history Classes and inequality

What Came Next?

The next topic describes crafts, commerce and urban growth between 200 BC and AD 250. Next topic: Milinda Panho Guilds Shrenis; at least two…">Crafts, Commerce and Urban Growth (200 BC to AD 250).

Key People and Terms

• Sangam Assembly of Tamil poets
• Virarkal Hero stone
• Tolkappiyam Tamil grammar
• Kilkanakku Minor didactic works
• Melkannakku Major narrative works
• Enadi Title of army captains

Exam Corner

Mains Angle

Questions ask about Sangam literature as a source. These points add depth.

• Texts Two groups
• Society Classes
• Limits Late compilation