Agricultural Practices as Gleaned from the Tamil Literature of the Sangam Age (2016)
Srinivasan, T. M. (Author)
Indian Journal of the History of Science
Volume: 51
Issue: 2A
Pages: 167-189
The most significant source material for our study is the earliest stratum of Tamil literature of the Sangam age. This is found grouped in two schematic anthologies-Ettutokai (the Eight anthologies) and Pattuppāttu (the Ten Idylls). All these literary works of great merit belong to the first three or four centuries AD.1 To this period of anthologies may be added the Tolkappiyam (1965) a comprehensive work on Tamil grammar by the celebrated author, Tolkāppiyar. Next stratum of Tamil literature is the Padinen-kin-kanakku (the Eighteen didactical texts). Among them, the two most famous and unique works are the Tirukkural [the ‘Sacred’ Kural (Pope, 1886)] and the Naladiyar [Four Hundred Quatrains in Tamil (Pope, 1893)]. Based on these literary works as the main source material, an attempt is made in the following pages to throw light on the salient agricultural practices in ancient Tamilakam.
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