The Sangam Age

In the south, between about the 2nd or 3rd century BCE and the 3rd century CE, three powerful kingdoms rose: the Cheras, the Cholas and the Pāṇḍyas. They often competed for control, while also helping the region's trade and culture grow.

How do we know they were independent of the Mauryas? Aśhoka's empire stopped short of them, and he names them in his edicts, but as neighbours, not as lands he ruled. An emperor wouldn't leave out lands he'd conquered!

Khāravela claimed he defeated an alliance of southern kings. But where that battle was is unknown, and he doesn't seem to have invaded the south. A claim is not the same as proof, and the book says so.

This time had many poets. Their work, together called Sangam literature, gave the whole period its name: the Sangam Age. An age named after its poets, not its kings!

Sangam comes from the **Sanskrit sangha: 'association', 'coming together'. Here it means an assembly of poets**.

Sangam literature is the oldest in south India. It's made of several collections of poems, and historians use it a lot to learn about society and culture back then.

The poems mostly express, with great skill, personal feelings like love, and values like heroism and generosity. They mention three 'crowned kings': the Cholas, Cheras and Pāṇḍyas. Poems about love and courage also show historians what people valued.