The Tamil literature encompasses a wide a collection of literary works that originated from a tradition spanning more than two thousand years in South India. It also portrays the history of Tamil Nadu, with its social, economic, political and cultural trends of various periods.
Tamil is one of the oldest Dravidian languages of Indian subcontinent. The Tamil writing system evolved from the Brahmi script. The scriptures in Tamil are written mostly as religious texts of Sangam period and a few in post Sangam period. The contributors to the Tamil literature are mainly from Tmil speaking people of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Eelam Tamils from Sri Lanka, as well as the Tamil diaspora.
The Sangam literature
The early Sangam literature, dated before 300 BCE, is one of the most renowned epic poetries of Tamil literature and contains anthologies of many Tamil poets depicting various aspects of life, including love, war, social values and religion.
Scholars consider this Tamil tradition-based chronology as ahistorical as well as mythical. The sangam period and literature originated in South India and lasted between the period 3rd century BCE to 3rd century CE. Most scholars suggest the historical Sangam literature era, also called the Sangam period, spanned from c. 300 BCE to 300 CE, while others variously place this early classical Tamil literature period a bit later before 300 CE.
According to Kamil Zvelebil, a Tamil literature and history scholar, the most acceptable range for the Sangam literature is 100 BCE to 250 CE, based on the linguistic and text references. Tamil tradition holds the earliest Sangam poetry to be older than twelve millennia. Modern linguistic scholarship places the poems between the first century B.C.E. and the third century C.E. The age of Sangam is established through the correlation between the evidence on foreign trade found in the poems and the writings by ancient Greek and Romans such as Periplus.
The sangam literature is historically known as ‘the poetry of the noble ones’.
It is believed that Sangam literature originated in three chankams, or literary academies, in Madurai, India, from the 1st to the 4th century BCE. The Tamil tradition and legends link it to three legendary literary gatherings around Madurai and Kapaṭapuram and the first lasted over 4,440 years, the second over 3,700 years, and the third over 1,850 years.
The Sangam age is considered by the Tamil people as the golden era of the Tamil language. During this period, the Tamil country was ruled by the Cheras, Pandyas, and the Cholas.
Many of the original literature works of Sangam period is lost. The available literature from this period has been broadly divided in antiquity into three categories based roughly on chronology. These are: The Major Eighteen Anthology Series comprising the Ettuthokai (Eight Anthologies) and the Pattupattu (Ten Idylls) and the Five Great Epics. Tolkaappiyam, a commentary on grammar, phonetics, rhetoric, and poetics, is dated from this period.
These were composed in three successive poetic assemblies (Sangam) that were held in ancient times on a now vanished continent far to the south of India. It is believed that a significant amount of literature could have preceded Tolkappiyam, as grammar books are usually written after a literature has existed for a long period.
The poems of Sangam literature mostly are discussing two main topics: those of the first five collections are on love (akam), and those of the next two are on heroism (puram), including the praise of kings and their deeds. Paripatal, the eighth collection, contains poems of both types.
Post Sangam period works of Tamil literature
Later, at the end of Sangam period many great tamil epics were written including Cilappathikaram,Manimeghalai ,Civaka cintamani ,Valayapathi and Kundalakesi.
Manimegalai and Kundalakesi are Buddhist religious works. Civaka cintamani and Valayapathi are Tamil Jain works. Cilappathikaram does not implicate any religious views and it is written in monologue style of Sangam literature.
The ‘Tirukkuraḷ ‘written during this period is a collection of aphorisms depicts topics such as love, kingship, and ethics. It is a work that has had great influence on Tamil culture and life. It is usually attributed to the poet Tiruvalluvar , who is thought to have lived in the 6th century, though some scholars assign an earlier date (1st century bc).
The Tirukkural consists of 133 sections of 10 couplets each are divided into three books: aram (virtue), porul (government and society), and kamam (love). The first section opens with praise of God, rain, renunciation, and a life of virtue. It then presents a world-affirming vision, the wisdom of human sympathy that expands from one’s family and friends to one’s clan, village, and country. The porul section projects a vision of an ideal state and relates good citizenship to virtuous private life. The kamam section addresses both “secret love” and married love; the section on married love is written as a dialogue between husband and wife.
From the 6th to 12th century CE, the Tamil devotional poems written by Alvars (sages of Vaishnavism) and Nayanmars (sages of Shaivism) and, heralded the onset of great Bhakti movement which later spread to the whole Indian subcontinent.
In the post Sangam period the early epics and moral literature, authored by Vaishnavite, Shaivite, Ajivika; probably written by Jain and Buddhist authors and poets lasting up to the 5th century CE. Original scriptures of Ajivika seems to be lost .The Ajivika school of philosophy is known for its doctrine of fate or Niyati.That is the followers believed that every happenings of past,present and future are preordained and a function of cosmic principles. This philosophy was prominent in Mauryan empire of Bindusara in the 4th century. It reached Tamil speaking areas in 14th century CE.
During the medieval era some of the grandest of Tamil literary classics like Kambaramayanam and Periya Puranam were authored and many poets were patronized by the imperial Chola and Pandya empires.
The later medieval period saw many assorted minor literary works and also contributions by a few Muslim and European authors.
References
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sangam_literature
- https://www.britannica.com/art/Sangam-literature
- https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tamil-language
- https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Tamil_literature
- https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tirukkural