The Tamil states grew wealthy from sea trade routes that connected India to the West (including the Roman Empire which sought peppers, indigo, cotton and pearls from South India) and South East Asia. Southern India during the turn of the Christian era was a confederation of states (the Pandya, the Cheras and the Cholas) which were continually warring and trading with one another. The Tamil tradition is classical not only in the sense that it is ancient (dating its earliest poetry back to the 100 BCE to 200 CE), but in that it constitutes the foundation of an entire tradition that continues without a break to the present.Įarly classical Tamil literature was written in a society that recalls Italy during the Renaissance. Most histories of classical Indian civilization, however, focus on the Sanskrit literary tradition to Tamil’s neglect.īoth traditions, I argue, are integral to our understanding of classical Indian literature. Like the classical Western tradition, the classical Indian tradition has two classical languages: Sanskrit and Tamil.
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