Tinai
Also called: Thinai, Five landscapes · Topic: Human Geography: Nature, Scope and Approaches · NCERT: Class 6, Ch 3 "Landforms and Life"
Meaning
Tinai are the five landscapes named in ancient Tamil Sangam poetry, such as the Tolkappiyam. Each landscape goes with its own way of life:
- Kurinji: mountains, with hunting and gathering
- Mullai: forest and pasture, with herding
- Marutam: farmland, with agriculture
- Neytal: the coast, with fishing and salt-making
- Palai: dry land, with raiding and travel
The Tinai show that people in early India already saw a clear link between land and human life. This is the main idea of human geography.
Example
The Nilgiri hills of Tamil Nadu fit Kurinji. The Kaveri delta's rice fields fit Marutam. The Coromandel coast, with its fishing villages and salt pans, fits Neytal.
Related concepts
- Human geography
- Friedrich Ratzel
- Ellen Churchill Semple
- Paul Vidal de la Blache
- Organic analogy in geography