Overview

Nature in Ancient Tamil Poetry - Sangam literature is the oldest available Tamil writings from ancient South India. These writings are from a period between 400 BC and 200 AD (Zvelebil, K V. 1992. 12 S3). Sangam was an assembly comprising of Tamil scholars and poets which could be regarded as a literary academy. The main literary works of this period is contained in 8 anthologies and 10 Idylls.The Sangam corpus contains 2279 poems in Tamil composed by 473 poets, some 102 of whom remain anonymous. (Sastri, N.K.A. 1958. 110) The literary conventions of this period are contained in Tholkappium (Thol.) which is a work on the grammar and aesthetics of Sangamperiod. The third section of Thol prescribes the aesthetic conventions of Sangam poetry. Though the date of Sangam literature precedes that of Thol, it is generally used a guide book to understand Sangam poetry. (Pillai. V. 1956. 12-14).The poems in the sangam corpus is thematically classified into love poetry ('Aham') and other ('Puram') poetry. The word Aham means inner and Puram means outer. The Aham poetry deals with love between a man and a woman and the related incidences. The Puram poetry deals with heroism, war, personal virtues, glory of kings ect. The field of these Aham and Puram poetry is five landscapes these are: mountainous regions, forests, cropland, seashore and desert. The desert which is parched to a wasteland from mountainous and cropland during summer is not part of the natural landscape of South India. These landscapes are known as thinai in Sangam poetry. Each thinai is named after a flower belonging to that region. For Puram and Aham different sets of flowers assume importance. Each thinai is associated with different human emotions or activities.

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