Tamil Sangams - Sangam Literature

Sangam Literature

The earliest extant works of Tamil literature date back to the period between 300 BCE and 200 CE and deal with love, war, governance, trade and bereavement. The literature of this period has been referred to as The Sangam literature and the period in which these works were composed is referred to as the Sangam period, alluding to the legends. Although the term Sangam literature is applied to the corpus of the earliest known Tamil literature, the name Sangam and the legend were probably from a much later period.

An accurate chronological assessment of literary works has been rendered difficult due to lack of concrete scientific evidence to support conflicting claims. Undue reliance on the Sangam legends has thus culminated in controversial opinions or interpretations among scholars, confusion in the dates, names of authors, and doubts of even their existence in some cases. The earliest archaeological evidence connecting Madurai and the Sangams is the 10th century Cinnamanur inscription of the Pandyas.