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 THE SANGAM LITERATURE The Sangam literature explains the early history of Tamilakam (the entire Tamil region), which is of immense historical importance. Tolkappiyam, a discourse by Tolkappiyar on Tamil semantics and syntactics, that is evidently composed during the second Sangam, is the oldest extant literary work in Tamil. Now, the research ers use the term 'Sangam Literature' for only those works in verse (prose is of much later origin), which are controlled in the academic and literary compositions, like the Ettuthogai (Eight collections), Pattupattu (Ten village songs) and Pathinenkil- kanakku (The Eighteen Minor Works), which are believed to have been produced during the period 150-250 CE. The recurrently called 'Five Epics' (the five great poems) which entailed of Jivaka Chintamani, Silappadikaram, Manimekalai, Va- layapathi and Kundalakesi are dispensed on much later dates. Of these, the last two are not extant. So, of the three 'great poems' that we no

 THE SANGAM AGE The period between the third century BC to third century AD in South India (the areas of modern Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh) is known as Sangam Period.  It has been named after the Sangam academies held during the period of three great dynasties of Cheras, Cholas and Pandyas. It flourished under the royal patronage of the Pandya kings of Madurai. At the Sangams, eminent scholars assembled and functioned as the board of censors and the literary works were compiled in the form of anthologies. These literary works were the earliest specimens of Dravidian literature. According to the Tamil legends, there were three Sangams (Academy of Tamil poets) held in the ancient South India popularly called Muchchangam. -Mythologically the first Sangam is believed to be held at Madurai, attended by Gods and legendary sages. No literary work of this Sangam is available. - The second Sangam was held at Kapatapuram and the only text during this Sangam that survived w

 Bindusara (297 BCE-272 BCE) Chandragupta's son and successor Bindusara, identifiable with Amitrochades/Amitrochates of the Greek accounts (the name possibly corresponds to his epithet Amitraghata or a slayer of foes, suggesting his invincible military prowess), is not known to have made fresh conquests, nor lost any territory, implying thereby that he maintained intact the expansive realm. Early Tamil poets of the South mention Mauryan chariots thundering across the land, their white pennants brilliant in the sunshine. Some scholars have suggested that this reference to Mauryan expansion in the Deccan could only have taken place during the reign of Bindusara. To Bindusara goes the credit of continuing the dynastic policy of maintaining friend- ly diplomatic relations with Seleucid rulers of West Asia. Bindusara had contacts with Antiochus I, the Seleucid king of Syria whose ambassador, Deimachus, was said to have been at the Mauryan court. Bindusara was interested in the Ajivika s

  Chandragupta Maurya (321-297 BCE)   Mahavamsa refers to the early life of Chandragupta Maurya . His mother, after the death of her husband sought shelter in Pushpapura (Kusumpura-Pataliputra) where she gave birth to him. He was brought up first by a cowherd and then by a hunter in a village. The child showed promise right from his childhood. He towered over his friends when he played the role of the king with them. This attracted the notice of Chanakya, i.e., Kautilya, who once happened to pass through that village. The latter took him away to the city of Taxila. The new mentor gave him a thorough grounding in certain aims and objectives and, the most important was that he must rid the country of the hated rule and tyranny of the Nanda king, who had insulted Chanakya. The Nanda ascendancy was not only regarded as 'unlawful' and 'irreligious because of their origin, but also it was equally despised for the wickedness of the disposition of its rulers and the forcible