Sangam literature
The Sangam literature (Tamil: சங்க இலக்கியம், caṅka ilakkiyam), historically known as 'the poetry of the noble ones' (Tamil: சான்றோர் செய்யுள், Cāṉṟōr ceyyuḷ),[1] connotes the early classical Tamil literature and is the earliest known literature of South India. The Tamil tradition and legends link it to three legendary literary gatherings around Madurai and Kapāṭapuram: the first lasted over 4,440 years, the second over 3,700 years, and the third over 1,850 years.[2][3] Scholars consider this Tamil tradition-based chronology as ahistorical and mythical.[4] Most scholars suggest the historical Sangam literature era, also called the Sangam period, spanned from c. 300 BCE to 300 CE,[2][5][6] while others variously place this early classical Tamil literature period a bit later and more narrowly but all before 300 CE.[7][8][9] According to Kamil Zvelebil, a Tamil literature and history scholar, the most acceptable range for the Sangam literature is 100 BCE to 250 CE, based on the linguistic, prosodic and quasi-historic allusions within the texts and the colophons.[10]
The Sangam literature had fallen into oblivion for much of the second millennium of the common era, but were preserved by and rediscovered in the monasteries of Hinduism, near Kumbakonam, by colonial-era scholars in the late nineteenth century.[11][12] The rediscovered Sangam classical collection is largely a bardic corpus. It comprises an Urtext of oldest surviving Tamil grammar (Tolkappiyam), the Ettuttokai anthology (the "Eight Collections"), the Pathuppaattu anthology (the "Ten Songs").[13] The Tamil literature that followed the Sangam period – that is, after c. 250 CE but before c. 600 CE – is generally called the "post-Sangam" literature.[8]
This collection contains 2381 poems in Tamil composed by 473 poets, some 102 anonymous.[13][14] Of these, 16 poets account for about 50% of the known Sangam literature,[13] with Kapilar – the most prolific poet – alone contributing just little less than 10% of the entire corpus.[15] These poems vary between 3 and 782 lines long.[12] The bardic poetry of the Sangam era is largely about love (akam) and war (puram), with the exception of the shorter poems such as in Paripaatal which is more religious and praise Vishnu and Murugan.[2][16][17] The Sangam literature also includes Buddhist and Jainist epics.[18]
Sangam literally means "gathering, meeting, fraternity, academy". According to David Shulman, a scholar of Tamil language and literature, the Tamil tradition believes that the Sangam literature arose in distant antiquity over three periods, each stretching over many millennia.[19] The first has roots in the Hindu deity Shiva, his son Murugan, Kubera as well as 545 sages including the famed Rigvedic poet Agastya. The first academy, states the legend, extended over four millennia and was located far to the south of modern city of Madurai, a location later "swallowed up by the sea", states Shulman.[19][20] The second academy, also chaired by a very long-lived Agastya, was near the eastern seaside Kapāṭapuram and lasted three millennia. This was swallowed by floods. From the second Sangam, states the legend, the Akattiyam and the Tolkāppiyam survived and guided the third Sangam scholars.[19][20]
A prose commentary by Nakkiranar – likely about the eighth century CE – describes this legend.[21] The earliest known mention of the Sangam legend, however, appears in Tirupputtur Tantakam by Appar in about the seventh century CE, while an extended version appears in the twelfth-century Tiruvilaiyatal puranam by Perumparrap Nampi.[3] The legend states that the third Sangam of 449 poet scholars worked over 1,850 years in northern Madurai (Pandyan kingdom). He lists six anthologies of Tamil poems (later a part of Ettuttokai):[21]
These claims of the Sangams and the description of sunken land masses Kumari Kandam have been dismissed as frivolous by historiographers. Noted historians like Kamil Zvelebil have stressed that the use of 'Sangam literature' to describe this corpus of literature is a misnomer and Classical literature should be used instead.[3] According to Shulman, "there is not the slightest shred of evidence that any such [Sangam] literary academies ever existed", though there are many Pandya inscriptions that mention an academy of scholars. Of particular note, states Shulman, is the tenth-century CE Sinnamanur inscription that mentions a Pandyan king who sponsored the "translation of the Mahabharata into Tamil" and established a "Madhurapuri (Madurai) Sangam".[22][note 1]
According to Zvelebil, within the myth there is a kernel of reality, and all literary evidence leads one to conclude that "such an academy did exist in Madurai (Maturai) at the beginning of the Christian era". The homogeneity of the prosody, language and themes in these poems confirms that the Sangam literature was a community effort, a "group poetry".[24][note 2] The Sangam literature is also referred sometimes with terms such as caṅka ilakkiyam or "Sangam age poetry".[3]
The works of Sangam literature were lost and forgotten for most of the 2nd millennium. They were rediscovered by colonial-era scholars such as Arumuka Navalar (1822–1879), C.W. Damodaram Pillai (1832–1901) and U. V. Swaminatha Aiyar (1855–1942).[50]
Arumuka Navalar from Jaffna first inaugurated the modern editions of Tamil classics, publishing a fine edition of Tirukkuṟaḷ by 1860.[51] Navalar – who translated the Bible into Tamil while working as an assistant to a Methodist Christian missionary, chose to defend and popularize Shaiva Hinduism against missionary polemics, in part by bringing ancient Tamil and Shaiva literature to wider attention.[52] He brought the first Sangam text into print in 1851 (Tirumurukāṟṟuppaṭai, one of the Ten Idylls). In 1868, Navalar published an early commentary on Tolkappiyam.[53]
C.W. Damodaram Pillai, also from Jaffna, was the earliest scholar to systematically hunt for long-lost manuscripts and publish them using modern tools of textual criticism.[54] These included:
Aiyar – a Tamil scholar and a Shaiva pundit, in particular, is credited with his discovery of major collections of the Sangam literature in 1883. During his personal visit to the Thiruvavaduthurai Adhinam – a Shaiva matha about twenty kilometers northeast of Kumbhakonam, he reached out to the monastery head Subrahmanya Desikar for access to its large library of preserved manuscripts. Desikar granted Aiyar permission to study and publish any manuscripts he wanted.[12] There, Aiyar discovered a major source of preserved palm-leaf manuscripts of Sangam literature.[12][55] Aiyar published his first print of the Ten Idylls in 1889.
Together, these scholars printed and published Kalittokai (1887), Tholkappiyam, Nachinarkiniyar Urai (1895), Tholkappiyam Senavariyar urai (1868), Manimekalai (1898), Silappatikaram (1889), Pattuppāṭṭu (1889), Patiṟṟuppattu (1889). Puṟanāṉūṟu (1894), Aiṅkurunūṟu (1903), Kuṟuntokai (1915), Naṟṟiṇai (1915), Paripāṭal (1918) and Akanāṉūṟu (1923) all with scholarly commentaries. They published more than 100 works in all, including minor poems.
Modern musical renditions[edit]
The first music album on Tamil Sangam poetry titled Sandham: Symphony Meets Classical Tamil by Composer Rajan Somasundaram in collaboration with Durham Symphony, featured in Amazon's Top#10 'International Music albums' category in July 2020 and was called "A Major event in the world of Music" by The Hindu Music review.[84]
Sangam poems are often quoted and paraphrased in modern Tamil cinema.[85][86]