Tamil Sangams

Also called: Three Sangams · Topic: Sangam Age and Early South India · NCERT: Beyond NCERT

Meaning

The Tamil Sangams (also called the Three Sangams) were, according to later Tamil tradition, three assemblies of poets held one after another under the patronage of the Pandya kings of the Madurai region. Only the poems linked to the third Sangam survive. These surviving poems are what we call Sangam literature.

This matters for two reasons. The tradition gives its name to a whole age of south Indian history, the Sangam Age (c. 300 BCE – 300 CE). The surviving poems are also the principal source on chiefs, society and economy of early Tamilakam.

Explanation

What the word means

• Sangam comes from the Sanskrit word sangha, meaning "association" or "coming together" [1].
• In this context it means an assembly of poets [1].
• Tradition says the poems were produced in three literary academies (sangams), linked with Madurai [1].
• Madurai was the base of the Pandyas, who are praised in the earliest Tamil poetry [1]. This is why the Sangams are linked with Pandya patronage (royal support for poets).

The three Sangams in tradition

• The story comes from much later Tamil writers. It is a legend, not a recorded event.
• First Sangam: said to have met at an old Madurai (Then Madurai, "southern Madurai") that was later swallowed by the sea.
• Second Sangam: said to have met at Kapatapuram, which was also lost to the sea.

• Third Sangam: said to have met at present-day Madurai.

• According to tradition, the works of the first two Sangams were lost. Only works of the third Sangam survive.

• Historians treat the dates and lengths of reign in this story as legend. The huge time spans it gives cannot be proved.

What survived: the Sangam corpus

• The surviving works are anthologies (collections of poems written by many different poets).
• Ettuttokai = the eight anthologies of poetry, compiled together with a grammar text [1].
• The poems fall under two themes:
• Akam (the "inner" theme): love. Love fills the first five collections [1].

• Puram (the "outer" theme): war and public life, including praise of kings. Heroism fills the next two collections [1].

• Tolkappiyam is a book of grammar and rhetoric (the art of good speech and writing) [1].

• Other famous Tamil works studied with this tradition:
• Tirukkural, by Tiruvalluvar, on ethics and right conduct.
• Silappadikaram and Manimekalai, the Tamil epics.

Results: why the tradition still matters

• It gave a name to an age. "Sangam Age" is the standard label for early Tamil history.
• It preserved a huge body of evidence. Besides love and war, the poems describe political organisation, social structures and economic activities, "with great skill and delicacy".
• It shows royal patronage of literature. Kings rewarded poets, and poets praised kings. This is why historians read the poems carefully: they are praise-poetry.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: NCERT dates Sangam literature to c. 300 BCE – 300 CE. Britannica places the surviving output in the 1st to 4th century CE [1]. Use the NCERT dates in the exam [1].
• Region: Tamilakam, the ancient Tamil country. It covered Tamil Nadu plus parts of present-day Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.
• Dynasty and place: the Pandyas, based at Madurai in south-central Tamil Nadu [1]. The other two great houses praised in the poems were the Cheras (Malabar Coast) and the Cholas (Thanjavur and the Kaveri valley) [1].
• How we know about the Sangams:
• The three-Sangam story itself comes only from later literary tradition. No inscription records these assemblies.
• The poems are checked against outside evidence:
  • Ashoka's inscriptions, which name the Cholas, Pandyas, Keralaputras and Satiyaputras as peoples beyond his empire.
  • Megasthenes, the Greek writer at the Mauryan court.
  • The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, a Greek merchant handbook written c. 40–70 CE, which names Muziris, Korkai, Poduca and Sopatma [3][4].
  • Excavations at Kodumanal, Adichchanallur and Keezhadi (Vaigai basin) [2][5].

Don't confuse with

• Buddhist or Jain sangha — a sangha is a community of monks. A Tamil Sangam is an assembly of poets. Both words come from the same Sanskrit root [1].
• Sangam Age vs Sangam literature — the Sangam Age is the historical period (c. 300 BCE – 300 CE). Sangam literature is the body of poems that survives from it.
• Tamilakam vs Tamil Nadu — the Sangam poets' world, Tamilakam, was bigger than today's Tamil Nadu. It included parts of Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.
• Tolkappiyam vs Tirukkural — Tolkappiyam is the grammar text [1]. Tirukkural is Tiruvalluvar's work on ethics. Exam questions often swap them.

Prelims Hooks

• Sangam comes from Sanskrit sangha = "association". Here it means an assembly of poets, traditionally linked with Madurai under the Pandyas [1].
• Tradition: three Sangams. The first was at old (southern) Madurai, the second at Kapatapuram and the third at Madurai. Only third-Sangam works survive.
• Ettuttokai = the eight anthologies [1].
• Akam = love (first five collections). Puram = war and heroism (next two collections) [1].
• Tolkappiyam = grammar and rhetoric [1]. Tirukkural = Tiruvalluvar. Silappadikaram and Manimekalai = the Tamil epics.
• Dates trap: NCERT gives c. 300 BCE – 300 CE, while Britannica gives the 1st–4th century CE [1].

Mains Points

• Legend and history are different things.
• The three-Sangam story comes from later tradition. Its sunken cities and huge time spans cannot be proved.
• The poems themselves are real. They are the main window on chiefs, society and economy in early Tamilakam.

• A good answer separates the myth of the academies from the historical value of the surviving texts.

• Poems should be tested against other evidence.

• The poems were written for patrons, so they tend to praise.
• Historians check them against Ashokan edicts, Megasthenes, the Periplus, and excavations at Kodumanal, Adichchanallur and Keezhadi [2][4][5].

• Where the poems match this outside evidence, as with Pandya pearls and ports like Korkai and Muziris, the poems can be trusted as history [4].

• The Sangams are part of India's literary heritage.

• The tradition shows that kings supported literature in the south from early times.
• Tamil is one of India's oldest literary traditions, separate from Sanskrit.
• The akam–puram division is an early system for sorting poems by theme, and later Tamil literature kept using it [1].

Related concepts

• Tamilakam
• Sangam age
• Sangam literature
• Akam and puram
• Tinai
• Ettuthokai
• Akananuru
• Purananuru
• Pattuppattu
• Kapilar

Read more

• Tamilakam and its sources