Introduction
The Sangam literature — produced by successive academies of poets under the patronage of the Pandyan kings — remains our single richest source for the political, social, economic, and religious history of early Tamilakam. Spanning grammar treatises, anthologies of short odes and long idylls, didactic verse, and the celebrated “twin epics” of Silappadikaram and Manimekalai, this vast corpus of over 30,000 lines, composed by hundreds of poets across several centuries, offers an unparalleled window into a society balancing indigenous belief with newly arriving Vedic, Buddhist, and Jaina influences. For UPSC History Optional aspirants, understanding the Sangam academies, the corpus of surviving works, and the religious and cultural life these texts describe is fundamental to the study of early South India.
What Was the Sangam?
- The term “Sangam” literally means “confluence.” In the context of early South Indian history, however, the term can be rendered in English as an assembly, college, or academy of learned people, held under the patronage of the Pandyan kings, who were great lovers of literature and the fine arts.
- The Sangam was a voluntary organisation of poets, comparable to a Round Table Conference, admitting only genuine, authentic poets to its ranks. This academy or assembly of learned people, including the Sangam poets, produced literary works of exceptionally high quality.
Chronology of the Sangam Age
- There is considerable scholarly controversy regarding the chronology of the Sangam Age, owing mainly to a lack of unanimity concerning the age of the Sangam works themselves, which remain of great historical value for the study of the period.
- On the basis of the composition of Sangam literature, K.A.N. Sastri traces the Sangam Age to the period 100–250 CE.
- According to tradition, the Tolkappiyam is the oldest of the extant Tamil works; M. Arokiaswami holds that since Tolkappiyar, its author, flourished sometime in the fourth or third century BCE, the same date can be assigned to this literary work.
- The “sheet anchor” of Sangam chronology lies in the fact that Gajabahu II of Sri Lanka and Cheran Senguttuvan of the Chera dynasty were contemporaries — a fact confirmed by the Silappadikaram, as well as the Dipavamsa and Mahavamsa.
- Roman coins issued by Roman emperors of the first century CE have also been found in plenty at various sites across Tamil Nadu.
- The most probable date of Sangam literature has therefore been fixed between the third century BCE and the third century CE, on the basis of literary, archaeological, and numismatic evidence.
The Tradition of the Three Sangams
- According to Tamil legend, there existed three Sangams (academies of Tamil poets) in ancient Tamil Nadu, popularly called the Muchchangam.
- The traditional accounts of the Iraiyanar Ahapporul mention that three Sangams (I, II, and III) were held, flourishing over 9,990 years at frequent intervals, and attended by 8,598 scholars.
- The sage Agastya was the founding father of these academies, which were patronised by 197 Pandyan kings; all three Sangams were held in the Pandyan capital, and flourished under royal Pandyan patronage.
- The first Sangam, held at Then Madurai, was attended by gods and legendary sages, though no literary work from this Sangam survives.
- The second Sangam, held at Kapadapuram, saw all its literary works perish except for the Tolkappiyam.
- The third Sangam, at Madurai, was founded by Mudathirumaran, and attended by a large number of poets who produced voluminous literature — though only a fraction of this has survived. These surviving Tamil literary works remain invaluable sources for reconstructing the history of the Sangam Age.
- According to tradition, of the three successive Sangams, the first two belong to prehistory; the date of the third Sangam can be established with far greater probability, generally taken to fall within the first two centuries of the Christian era, and probably the century immediately preceding it.
- The age of Tolkappiyar is believed to fall within the second Sangam era, while the third Sangam era coincides with the Indo-Roman trade of contemporary Imperial Rome — a dating based on the evidence available in the accounts of Greek writers of the time, which contain several references to overseas trading activity between the Mediterranean world and the Tamil region, corroborated by the Sangam literature itself.
- The third Sangam thus witnessed the production of numerous works that survive to this day.
- In the beginning, admission to the Sangam was by co-option; later, it was said to be determined by a miraculous contrivance of Lord Shiva, who served as the permanent president of this august body.
The Corpus of Sangam Literature
- The Sangam works contain a mine of information for the study of the early history of Tamilakam, reflecting matters of great historical importance.
- The corpus of Sangam literature includes the Tolkappiyam, the Ettutogai, the Pattuppattu, the Pathinenkilkanakku, and the epics — chiefly the Silappadikaram and Manimekalai.
Tolkappiyam
- The Tolkappiyam was authored by Tolkappiyar, and is the earliest of the Tamil literary works, probably composed during the second Sangam (other Sangam poetry is said to have been produced during the period of the third Sangam).
- It is fundamentally a work on Tamil grammar, but it also provides valuable information on the political and socio-economic conditions of the Sangam period.
The Ettutogai (Eight Anthologies)
- The Ettutogai, or Eight Anthologies, consists of eight works: the Aingurunuru, Narrinai, Aganaanuru, Purananuru, Kuruntogai, Kalittogai, Paripadal, and Padirruppattu.
The Pattuppattu (Ten Idylls)
- The Pattuppattu, or Ten Idylls, comprises ten descriptive poems:
- Thirumurugarruppadai — a devotional poem on Lord Muruga.
- Porunararruppadai — sings the praises of Karikala, the great Chola king.
- Sirupanarruppadai — deals with the generous nature of Nalliyakkodan, who ruled over part of the Chola kingdom.
- Perumpanarruppadai — describes Tondaiman Ilantiraiyan and his capital, Kanchipuram.
- Mullaippattu.
- Nedunalvadai — deals with Talaiyalanganattu Nedunjeliyan, the great Pandyan king.
- Maduraikkanji — likewise deals with Talaiyalanganattu Nedunjeliyan, the great Pandyan king.
- Kurinjippattu — portrays the hilly regions and hill life.
- Pattinappalai — sings the praises of Karikala, the great Chola king.
- Malaipadukadam — refers to the chieftain Nannan, and to music and songs used to encourage the army, and to celebrate a king’s victory in war.
- Both the Ettutogai and Pattuppattu were divided into two main groups: Aham (love) and Puram (valour).
The Pathinenkilkanakku (Eighteen Minor Works)
- The Pathinenkilkanakku contains eighteen works, mostly dealing with ethics and morals — a form of didactic literature.
- The most important among them is the Tirukkural, authored by Thiruvalluvar, composed mostly in stanzaic form, with stanzas ranging from two to five lines.
- The length of a poem was one of the most important criteria for classification into these three broad divisions.
- The poems of the “Eight Collections” run from three to thirty-one lines, whereas in the “Ten Songs,” the shortest poem runs to 103 lines, and the longest to 782 lines.
The Five Epics
- The “Five Epics” (or “five great poems”) include the Jivakachintamani, Silappadikaram, Manimekalai, Valayapathi, and Kundalakesi — all assigned much later dates; of these, the last two are no longer extant.
Silappadikaram and Manimekalai: The Twin Epics
- Of the three “great poems” that survive to us, the Silappadikaram and Manimekalai are called the “twin epics,” since they together form a continuous story narrating the tale of a single family: Kovalan (the rich merchant prince of Puhar), Kannagi (Kovalan’s chaste wife), Madhavi (the dancer with whom Kovalan lived in wedlock), and Manimekalai, the child of this union.
- Ilango Adigal was the author of the Silappadikaram; within the epic itself, Ilango is mentioned as the brother of the reigning Chera king, Senguttuvan.
- The Manimekalai was written by Sittalai Sattanar, mainly to propound Buddhist doctrine among the Tamils.
- Both the Silappadikaram and Manimekalai also provide valuable information on Sangam polity and society.
Dating and Scope of the Sangam Corpus
- Modern scholarship reserves the term “Sangam Literature” for only those works composed in verse (prose being of much later origin) — comprising the Ettutogai (Eight Collections), Pattuppattu (Ten Songs), and Pathinenkilkanakku (Eighteen Minor Works), judged to have been produced, in that order, during the period 150–250 CE.
- These poetical works describe the social, religious, economic, and political conditions of Tamilakam, with a particular focus on cities such as Madurai, Puhar (Poompuhar/Kaveripattinam), Vanji (Karur), and Kanchi.
- While the individual poems within these three groups may have been produced within the first three centuries of the Christian era, they were very probably collected and arranged in their present order at a considerably later date.
- The Sangam collections, as they exist today, consist of 2,279 poems of varying length, from three lines to about 800 lines.
- Some of these works are attributed to a single author, while others, such as the Naladiyar, contain the contributions of many poets. In total, the surviving Sangam poetry runs to more than 30,000 lines, composed by 473 poets (besides 102 remaining anonymous) — of these poets, nearly 50 were women.
- These works reflect a fairly advanced material culture, and also show that, by the Sangam Age, Tamil as a language had attained maturity, becoming a powerful and elegant medium of literary expression.
- The Sangam poems fall into two broad varieties, though scholars have further subdivided them by subject matter — the short ode and the long poem.
- For a historian, the short odes are generally of greater value than the long lyrics, though the historical worth of these sources is, in general, independent of their length.
Religious Development
- The literary evidence presents a picture of elaborate religious development during the Sangam Age.
- The faiths of Brahmanism, Jainism, and Buddhism coexisted in the Tamil region during this period — Buddhism and Jainism entered the region in the first centuries of the Christian era, while the Brahmanical sects of Shaivism and Vaishnavism were likewise well-known religions of the time.
- The advent of Vedic peoples, and the interaction of their faith with that of the Tamils, is well reflected in the Sangam works.
- The Silappadikaram mentions the “triple sacred fire,” the “twice-born nature,” the “six duties,” and other ideas associated with the Brahmanas.
Deities
- The five important deities associated with the different types of land, as recorded in the Tolkappiyam, were:
- Kurinji (hilly tracts) — chief deity Murugan, associated occupations hunting and honey-collection; the worship of Muruga is mentioned in the Pattinappalai, where he is described as the son of Shiva.
- Mullai (pastoral lands) — chief deity Mayon (Vishnu), associated occupations cattle-rearing and dairy work.
- Marudam (agricultural lands) — chief deity Indra, associated occupation agriculture; Indra was worshipped as the rain god, with a festival celebrated annually in his honour.
- Neydal (coastal tracts) — chief deity Varuna, associated occupations fishing and salt manufacture.
- Palai (desert) — chief deity Korravai, associated occupation robbery.
- Besides these deities, Lakshmi (goddess of prosperity), Baladeva, Kaman (god of love), the moon-god, the sea-god, and other divinities were also worshipped.
Ghosts and Spirits
- The people of the Sangam Age also believed in ghosts and spirits — the Silappadikaram mentions the “bhuta,” and the same text also refers to minor deities, such as the guardian deities of Madurai and Puhar.
- Many believed in demons residing in trees, on battlefields, and in burning ghats, “drinking blood and combing their hair with hands soaked in blood.” They also believed in village gods, totemic symbols, and bloody sacrifices offered to appease ferocious deities.
Burial Ritual
- The Tamils of the Sangam Age believed in a form of ritual uncleanliness surrounding occasions of birth and death.
- The dead were disposed of either by cremation, burial, or by being left in the open for vultures or jackals; burning grounds, where different kinds of spirits were believed to dwell, are mentioned in the Manimekalai.
Animism
- Animism is clearly reflected in the Sangam tradition of worshipping deities believed to reside in trees, streams, and hilltops.
Dead Heroes
- The dead heroes, satis, and other martyrs of Sangam society were themselves deified.
Cult of the Goddess Pattini
- Later tradition credits the Chera king Senguttuvan with playing an important role in establishing the cult of the goddess Pattini (Kannagi, deified as the epitome of the chaste wife).
Advent of Buddhism and Jainism
- The advent of Buddhism and Jainism in the first centuries of the Christian era influenced the philosophical thought of the Tamils during the Sangam Age.
- These ideologies placed knowledge before matter — the Buddhists and Jains called on people to look towards the world beyond matter.
- Many scholars have argued that the two great epics of the period reflect this divide: the Silappadikaram was Jain, while the Manimekalai was Buddhist.
Patronage of Jainism
- Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions record the excavation of caves for Jaina monks and nuns by kings, chieftains, and many others.
- A second-century CE inscription at Pugalur records the construction of a rock shelter for a Jaina monk, on the occasion of the investiture ceremony of the Chera prince Ilankatunko.
- Two early second-century BCE Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions from Mangulam record gifts made to Jaina monks by a subordinate and a relative of the Pandya king Nedunjeliyan.
Shaivism and Vaishnavism
- The term “Shaivism” is mentioned only in the Manimekalai. Though Shiva as a deity is not directly named in other texts, he is referred to through his attributes, such as “the ancient first Lord,” “the Lord with the blue, beautiful throat,” and “the god under the banyan tree.”
- In early times, both Shaivism and Vaishnavism thus seem to have existed in the Tamil region only in principle, and not yet by name.
- Though the Tolkappiyam refers to the god Muruga (son of Shiva) and Mayon (an earlier name for Vishnu), there is no clear, explicit reference to Shaivism and Vaishnavism as distinct sects — it appears the transition of these cults into two separate sects was still taking place during the Sangam Age.
- The Chola king Senganan is described in legend as devoted to Shiva, and as having fed the two warring armies on the eve of the Mahabharata war.
Temple Worship
- The more sophisticated aspect of Sangam religion was the worship of gods and goddesses in temples.
- Temples dedicated to Shiva, Muruga, Baladeva, Vishnu, Kaman, and the moon-god are all clearly mentioned in various Sangam texts; the Manimekalai refers to a very large brick structure called the Cakravahakottam.
- In many cases, however, as is true even today, deities were simply set up under trees. The method of worship generally consisted of dancing, and offering flowers, rice, and meat to the gods.
- The Silappadikaram mentions stone images of gods — an observation corroborated by the archaeological discovery of a lingam dating to the centuries BCE, identified by T.A. Gopinatha Rao.
Beliefs and Omens
- The Sangam Age people also believed in dreams, and in the influence of planets on human life; certain ominous signs were popularly observed.
- For example, the cawing of a crow was considered an omen of an eagerly awaited guest’s arrival — the Kuruntogai mentions that the crow was considered a good harbinger, and was fed with rice and ghee.
- Sneezing, by contrast, was held to be inauspicious.
Fine Arts
- Poetry, music, and dancing were popular among the people of the Sangam Age; liberal donations were given to poets by kings, chieftains, and nobles alike, and the arts of music and dance were highly developed.
- Dancing was performed by the Kanigaiyar; Koothu was the most popular form of entertainment among the people.
- Women amused themselves with religious dances, playing dice, and varippanthu (cloth ball); playing on swings made of palmyra fibres was common among girls.
- The Narrinai refers to games played with decorated dolls, while the Kuruntogai mentions children playing with toy carts and with sandcastles built on the seashore.
- The Sangam poems mention various kinds of dances — the Silappadikaram mentions eleven kinds of dances, divided into seven groups, and also provides minute detail about music.
- There are further references to various musical instruments, such as drums, flutes, and the yal, sold in shops at Puhar and Madurai.
Drama
- The performing arts also included the art of drama — these dramas were mostly religious in character, though sometimes they were enacted to commemorate a great event or person.
Bards
- Bardism, and the system of wandering minstrels travelling from place to place with their musical instruments, singing the glory of a person or a great event, commanded great popularity during the Sangam Age.
- The royal courts were crowded with singing bards, called Porunar, Panar, and Viraliyar — all experts in folk songs and folk dances.
- Initially, the bard (porunar) functioned as an individual whose role was to whip up the martial spirit of soldiers engaged in war, and to sing of their victory once the battle was won.
- Their activities, however, were not confined to encouraging soldiers on the battlefield alone — they also carried messages from the battlefield to the people back home. They enjoyed high respect in society, and were even honoured by kings.
- Besides the porunar, there were the panar, who performed for the common people.
Conclusion
The Sangam corpus — from the grammatical foundations of the Tolkappiyam, through the anthologies of the Ettutogai and Pattuppattu, to the didactic Pathinenkilkanakku and the twin epics of Silappadikaram and Manimekalai — offers an unmatched record of early Tamil society, composed by hundreds of poets, including some fifty women, under the patronage of successive Sangam academies. Woven throughout this literature is a religious world in genuine transition: indigenous deities of hill, forest, and sea coexisting with newly arriving Vedic, Buddhist, and Jaina influences, and a flourishing culture of music, dance, and bardic performance that bound poet and patron in bonds of loyalty and mutual dependence. For UPSC History Optional aspirants, the Sangam literature remains an indispensable primary source — one that, read alongside the sparse archaeological and epigraphic record, allows the political, social, and religious history of early Tamilakam to be reconstructed with genuine confidence.
