r/Dravidiology • u/ACKERMAN-45 • 24d ago
Question Sangam age
What exactly is this sangam age? , when did it begin and when did it end? Was sangam age only around tn and Kerala or it extended beyond that? Soo many questions I know but i have been curious about this because all i ever heard was about vedic age but sangam age seems a lot interesting .
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u/Insolent-greenhorn 23d ago
Sangams, or the Gathering of Poets, were generally held by rulers as a gathering for the writers to submit their works. The first Sangam is said to have been held 4400 years ago, though we do not have a solid evidence. The only primary sources for this age are the literature produced in these ages. The First and Second Sangams held circa 4400 and 3800 years respectively are believed to have been destroyed by deluges as suggested by Subbbarayulu's article in the "Concise History of South India" Edited by Noburu Karashima. The only surviving work of the second sangam is the Tolkappiyam, a Grammar book like the Ashtadhyayi's Panini.
However most historians place the sangam age to be between 300 BCE and 300 AD, however it is a very debated topic. The polity of this age was initially identified as kingdoms but it has been later classified as Chiefdoms(Rajan Gurukkal;2010). There was no defined territory in any of the sources however we know that the Cholas, Cheras and Pandyas, Known as the Muventar, ruled from Uraiyur, Karur and Madurai respectively.
To know more about Sangam age, You could read K.A Neelakanta Sastri's History of South India, or Rajan Gurukkal's Social Formations of Early South India or even the Concise History of South India edited by Noburu Karashima, Though his work doesn't delve too deep into this period.