Tamiḻ is one of the oldest classical, regional languages, the history of which could be traced to earlier than the 2nd or 3rd century BCE. From then on, it had a continuous development through the centuries. However, it had some specific characters that dominated certain stages of history, based on which they were divided into specific periods. The following periods are thus classified:
Saṅgam Poems - up to the 2nd Century CE
Epic poems - 2nd to 4th Century
Bhakti poems - 5th to 10th Century
Mediaeval poems - 11th to 16th Century
Colonial poems - 17th to 20th Century
Modern poems - later half of 20th Century
2.1. Saṅgam Poems
There existed an association of Tamiḻ Poets in the Court of the Pāṇḍyā ruler of Madurai, who would assemble and evaluate the poems to assign classical status. This is an extraordinary literary association known in India that functioned vigorously and hence the poems that were collected into anthologies are called Saṅgam poems. Several hundred poems have come down to this day with well-defined themes and rhythms and grouped into various books. There are two broad divisions, one dealing with love emotions of different situations, of men and women and their aspirations, affections separation, etc., well articulated. Several hundred poems belong to this category called aham poetry. The second group of poems deals with heroism, liberality, war, conquests, and so on which are called the external life of man, called puṟam.
Most of these are short poems varying from four lines to about 20 lines each, collected into eight books called Eṭṭuttokai, but there are a few which are long poems that run from 300 to four hundred lines as well consisting of ten books Pattu-pāṭṭu. In addition, there are other groups of ten poems each, “Patiṟṟup-pattu” on ten Cērā rulers which give historical information about their exploits. These are called short and long poems as well.
2.2. Classifications
Two broad categories of classical Tamiḻ poems are:
aham poems
puṟam poems
both of which are included in a collection of 8 books (Eṭṭuttokai: Eight anthologies).
Other anthologies in Saṅgam literature are:
Ten long poems, Pattup-pāṭṭu (Ten long poems)
Ten anthologies of Ten poems each called Patiṟṟup-pattu - “Ten tens”.
Each ten deals with one Cērā King, sung by one poet each, but only eight tens have survived. The other two have not survived but are known through citations.
These are well-structured poems conforming to a set of grammatical rules and so are creative poems looking almost like historical narratives, but are poems utilizing some well-known historical events and weaving poetic images. These were sung by as many as two hundred or more poets ranging from Kings to common men and there were many outstanding women poets among them, one Auvaiyār being the most celebrated poet known for her moving poems.
The following are some of the names of Saṅgam poets.
Paraṇaṉ
Brahmaṉ
Damōdaraṉ
Kaṇṇaṉ (Kṛṣṇaṉ)
Kausikaṉ
Nāgarājaṉ
Vālmiki
Bhāradvājaṉ
Cattaṉ
Gautamaṉ
Kapilaṉ
Mārkaṇḍeyaṉ
Rudraṉ
The names of these poets and others show that by the time of the Saṅgam age, the Indian country had integrated a cultural knit into one homogenous group. Some poets were called Vaṇiga, some were Kings, and some Pārppāṉ (Brāhmaṇas) besides other castes. So, the caste system was well woven into the Tamiḻ group.
As mentioned these poems deal with heroism, liberality, wars, birth, and death rites, wise counsels, of elders, and the duties of the kings and families. They give the definition of the boundaries where Tamiḻ was spoken like Tiruppati in the north (called then as Tiru-vēṅkaṭam) and Kanyākumari in the south and skirted by the sea on the East (called Vaṅgak-kaṭal) and West ancient sea (but now called Arabian sea). They also speak of the land where classical Tamiḻ was spoken and some regions where more colloquial Tamiḻ was spoken. Secondly, the poems speak of Jambudvīpa meaning India, starting from the Himālayas (Imayam) in the north and the Kanyākumari region. There was a belief that a large part of land beyond Kanyākumari went under the Sea. Evidently, this preserves a memory going back to the remote antiquity of some land engulfed by the sea.
The poems tell us, that the social system of fourfold castes was well established and the Vedic sacrifices were common along with local faith. The worship of the dead was very popular and the king had Brahmins as their preceptors and venerated them. The worship of Indra, Varuṇa, Viṣṇu, Śiva, Murugā, Skandā, Durgā, Kṛṣṇa, Rāma, and Balarāma and others were well established and also the Purāṇic legends were well known. Both internal trade and external International trade were well known, particularly the Roman trade was frequently mentioned. As a result, there was also some artistic tradition of the West mingling with the local art tradition.
According to literary tradition, the Pāṇḍyā rulers established the Saṅgam Assembly to study and patronize Tamiḻ language and literature. However, they claim that they were taught Tamiḻ from Agastya who is called the Tamiḻ sage. Another point that they encouraged was the translation of the Mahābhārata into Tamiḻ frequently referred to among the great contributions of the ancestors of the Pāṇḍyās.
Besides these poems, two other distinct poems require our attention. One is called Paripāṭal, originally thirty poems were included in this group but some have not survived. These are grouped into three major classifications: these are long poems with each group centered on one theme. One group deals with Kṛṣṇa/Viṣṇu and his exploits, the second deals with Muruga/Kumāra, and the third deals with water sports centered around a river named Vaikai that runs skirting the city of Madurai, the capital of the Pāṇḍyās. A point of great interest is that Muruga appears as a symbol of love than Kṛṣṇa, who is portrayed more as a hero. All legends connected with Kṛṣṇa and Muruga are known to the Saṅgam poets and so it reveals the Early Purāṇic religion as the religion of the Tamiḻs.
There is another group called Kalit-tokai which is meant for dance. There is every reason to believe that all these Saṅgam poems were meant for dance recitals in which the dancers Bāṇaṉ and Virali played an important role.
2.3. The Grammar - Tolkāppiyam
The other significant work of the early Saṅgam period is the Grammatical work Tolkāppiyam by Tolkāppiyar. He was a student of Agastya and was an extraordinary Scholar who conducted extensive research in ancient texts, particularly on Tamiḻ grammar, and consulted a Scholar named Atamkōṭṭu Ācāṉ who was the chief judge in the court of the Pāṇḍyā King Nilam-taru-tiruvil Pāṇḍyaṉ. This teacher cum priest was a great Scholar of the four Vedas and an expert in Dharma-śāstra - the law books. After meeting the points raised by this teacher, Tolkāppiyar composed this Tamiḻ Grammar which shows there was considerable interaction between the Vedic tradition and the earliest Tamiḻ Grammatical tradition. Tolkāppiyar’s work is divided into mainly three parts:
1. Script and phonetic system 2. Words and 3. Meanings
Each of these parts is further subdivided into many chapters. Under the part “script” (eḻuttu), Tolkāppiyar shows the use of the prevalent script (Brāhmi) and also directs the student to refer to the Vedic system, for some phonetic intonations. In the third part “Meaning” (poruḷ) he deals with aham, puṟam divisions of poetry, different marriage customs, and poetic conventions as well.
One of the chapters called meypāṭu is of particular interest as it deals with realizations of aesthetic joy, derived from poetry and visual arts. These include what is known as Rasa theory to Sanskrit Grammarians. In this chapter, he deals with,
