The End of the Sangam Period

300–400 CE

The Sangam period comes to a close in southern India. A gradual shift in the political economy of the southern tip of the peninsula begins to take place, with the spread of agriculture and irrigation, the migration of Brahmin groups, and increasing elite support for Vedic and Puranic worship. Royal culture, hitherto centred on individual heroic lines, is increasingly codified in Puranic terms, through the control of fertile territory and the patronage of religious elites.

Bibliography

Cutler, Norman. “Three Moments in the Genealogy of Tamil Literary Culture.” In Literary Cultures in History: Reconstructions from South Asia, edited by Sheldon Pollock, 271–322. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2003.

Singh, Upinder. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. New Delhi: Pearson, 2016.