Social and Cultural History of Tamil Nadu (from earliest times to 1536 A.D.)

1. Social and CulturalHistory of Tamil Nadu(from earliest times to 1536 A.D.) S. Manikandan

2. Sources • Chronology • Geographical Settings of Tamil Country

3. Sources

4. Three type: • Archaeological Sources • Literary Sources and • Oral Sources

5. Archaeological Sources • Archaeology, or archeology, is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. • The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, and cultural landscapes. • Archaeology can be considered both a social science and a branch of the humanities.

6. Archaeological Sources • Material remains • Coins • Inscriptions

7. Sources Archaeological Sources Material Remains

8. Rock Art (Paintings)

9. Archaeological Sources • Coins • - Study of coins is called Numismatics

10. Archaeological Sources • Inscriptions • - Study of Inscription s is called Epigraphy

11. Estampage

12. Script on Pottery

13. Method of Collecting Archaeological Evidence • Exploration Method • Excavation Method

14. Layer of soil formation

15. Exploration Method

16. Habitation Mound

17. Burial Site

18. Coirn Circle with Cap Stone

19. Hero Stones

20. Excavation Method

21. Trenches

22. Antiquities

23. Potteries

24. Literary Sources • Source literature is a term with different meanings. Literature (understood as printed texts) is one kind of information source. • In a way, all literature is a kind of source literature. It might, for example, be cited and used as sources in academic writings.

25. Literary Sources • Palm Leaves • Animal Skin • Clothes • Records • Books

26. Palm Leaves • the leaf or frond of a palm tree, especially that of a fan palm, used in making fans, hats, thatch, mats, etc.

27. Animal skin • A hide or skin is an animal skin treated for human use.

28. Clothes • items worn to cover the body.

29. Records • a thing constituting a piece of evidence about the past, especially an account kept in writing or some other permanent form.

30. Text Books • a written or printed work consisting of pages glued or sewn together along one side and bound in covers.

32. Oral Sources Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews.

33. Oral Sources • Ballads • Folksongs • Stories

34. Ballads a poem or song narrating a story in short stanzas. Traditional ballads are typically of unknown authorship, having been passed on orally from one generation to the next.

35. Folksongs a song that originates in traditional popular culture or that is written in such a style.

36. Stories an account of imaginary or real people and events told for entertainment.

37. Three Level of Sources • Primary sources • Secondary sources • Tertiary sources

38. Primary sources • Primary sources allow researchers to get as close as possible to original ideas, events and empirical studies as possible. • Such sources may include expositions of creative ideas, first hand or contemporary accounts of events, publication of the results of empirical observations or studies, and other items that may form the basis of further research. • Examples include: • Novels, plays, poems, works of art, popular culture • diaries, narratives, autobiographies, memoirs, speeches • Government documents, patents • Data sets, technical reports, experimental research results

39. Secondary sources • Secondary sources analyze, review or restate information in primary resources or other secondary resources. • Even sources presenting facts or descriptions about events are secondary unless they are based on direct participation or observation. • Moreover, secondary sources often rely on other secondary sources and standard disciplinary methods to reach results, and they provide the principle sources of analysis about primary sources. • Examples include: • Biographies • Review articles and literature reviews • Scholarly articles that don't present new experimental research results • Historical studies

40. Tertiary sources • Tertiary resources provide overviews of topics by synthesizing information gathered from other resources. • Tertiary resources often provide data in a convenient form or provide information with context by which to interpret it. • Examples include: • Encyclopedias • Chronologies • Almanacs • Textbooks

41. Context determines whether a source is primary, secondary or tertiary. • Sources that are normally considered to fit into one category may sometimes be used as another. • For example, encyclopedias are normally used as tertiary resources, but a study of how encyclopedias have evolved through time would probably use them as primary sources. • Each discipline has its own set of standards for what counts as a primary source.

42. Chronology Timeline of Tamil Country

43. The entire range of the human history of Tamil Country from pre-historic times to c. 16th c. CE has considered here. • Tamil Country is recognized as a complex region with diverse physical, social and cultural components. • For the sake of convenience, the area covered by the two present-day linguistic states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala is taken as the macro-region of South India. • Nevertheless, the boundaries cannot be treated as rigid and fixed in tracing human development. • Moreover, due to the vastness of the study area, the historical characteristics of the region are bound to vary from area to area at sub-regional level.

44. Cont… • Considered at the macro-regional level, the history of Tamil Country is broadly divided into seven periods based on salient technological, social and cultural features. • Though there would be some overlapping among the different continuous periods at both the macro-regional and sub-regional levels, this periodization is necessary to understand the cumulative historical changes. • The time divisions are only indicative and they do not mean that there was a sudden shift from one culture (or way of life) to another; it only implies the advent of a new culture.

45. Chronology of Social and Cultural History of Tamil Country • Period I - 1 myr BCE – 3000 BCE • Period II - 3000 BCE - 1000 BCE • Period III - 1000 BCE – 300 BCE • Period IV - 300 BCE – 500 CE • Period V - 500 CE – 900 CE • Period VI - 900 CE – 1300 CE • Period VII - 1300 CE – 1600 CE

46. (c.1 myr-3000 BCE) (c.3000-1000 BCE) (c.1000-300 BCE) (c.300 BCE-500 CE) (c.500-900 CE) (c.900-1300 CE) (c.1300-1600 CE) Period I Period II Period III Period IV Period V Period VI Period VII 2017 2017 2 3 4 1 5 6 7 Today Historic Period Pre – Historic Period

47. Geographical Features of Tamil Nadu

48. Tamil Nadu • Situated in the Southern part of the country, Tamil Nadu is one of the most well known and important states in India. • Andhra Pradesh forms the Northern border for it, whereas Karnataka and Kerala lie on its northwest and west respectively. • Two water bodies that enclose the state on the southern and the eastern sides are the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal respectively. • In fact, geometrically, Tamil Nadu touches the extreme southern tip of the Indian Peninsula. The total area of the state is 1,30,058 square km. Chennai, earlier known as Madras, is the capital of Tamil Nadu which is the fourth largest city in India with an area of approximately 175 square km.

50. Outline of Map of Tamil Nadu