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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
I.
THE AUGUSTAN AGE OF TAMIL LITERATURE.
[AUGUST, 1908.
DREARY as the prospect may well appear to the earnest student of Tamil literary history, as in fact does early South Indian history in general, there has, of late, been brought to light a considerable body of Tamil literature which throws a flood of light upon the much-doubted, though often debated, period when literary activity in Tamil reached its high water-mark. Scholars are much divided in opinion as to the Sangam having ever existed at all, except in the active imagination of later poets and the idle tongue of tradition. This is not strange, considering how much truth is generally overgrown and interwoven with fable and legend. Whether wantonly or otherwise, the truth is very often hidden almost beyond recognition in later literature; and early scholars in modern Indian research have unwittingly contributed their own quota to the very same end. Much has, therefore, even to be unlearnt before making an attempt to learn something about this distant past of the oldest of the Dravidian languages of South India. Even in the traditions handed down to us, much distorted though they are, there are certain cardinal facts and characters standing clearly marked out from the rubbish outgrowths. It will not, therefore, be without interest to attempt to place these facts in the light in which they appear, on an unbiassed and impartial enquiry.
An attempt will, therefore, be made in this paper to set forth the available evidence, literary and historical, which tend towards the following conclusions:
(a) That there was an age of great literary activity in Tamil to warrant the existence of a body like the traditional Bangam.
(6) That the period of the greatest Sangam activity was the age when Senguttuvan Séra was a prominent character in politics.
(e) That this age of Senguttuvan was the second century of the Christian era.
(d) That these conclusions are in accordance with what is known of the later history of South
India.
There are a number of works in Tamil literature of a semi-historical character of a later and of an earlier time; and these alone will be relied upon here, without altogether eschewing tradition of a reliable character, as the sequel will amply shew. So far as tradition is concerned, there had been three Tamil Sangams1 that flourished at or about Madura, and of these the third is all that we can presume to speak about. This Sangam had for its members 49 critics and poets who constituted a board of censors. There were 49 Pandya rulers, among whom were Mudathirumaran and UgraPeruvajudhi who actively patronised the Sangam. This last personage is the sovereign before whom the Kural of Tiruvalluvar received the Sangam imprimatur. It is not out of place to remark here that the author of the Kural was not among the Sangam members, and there were a large number like him at different places, as will appear in the sequel.
Taking this Ugra-Pandyan for reference, a number of poets and kings could be grouped around him from internal evidence of contemporaneity without having recourse to any legends concerning them. But it is first of all necessary to shew that it is probable that Tiruvalluvar was a contemporary of Ugra-Pandyan. Apart from the verse in praise of the Kural ascribed to him, it is a well-known fact that Tiruvalluvar had-a sister by name, or rather title, Avvaiyar. This poetess sings of this same Pandyan and his two friends the Chola Killi, who performed the
1 The poem quoted at page 2, note. Silappadhikaram.
