What Was the Social Polity of Tamils in South India?

The Tamil society was multiple, plural, tribal and communal. Its primitive practices were totemic. It functioned on the basis of the very ancient social order, beliefs and superstitions. Layer on layer of society had accumulated to form the structure we find in the Sangam period.

The original tribal system which was horizontal and compartmental was influenced by the Varna system which the Aryan immigrants introduced. The result was a combination of the compartmentalization, taboos, etc., of the tribal system and the prestige and exclusiveness based on snob considerations peculiar to the Varna system; this combination created the caste system as we know it in the Tamil country. Non-intermarriage, non- interdining, pollution etc., became decisive attitudes in that society.

The totemic system of pre-Aryan Dravidian society mingled with the gotra structure of Aryan social order and the mutual influence created a series of cultures and counter-cultures. The Todas, the Irulas, the Nagas, the Vedas were all primitive tribes who retired to the interior of forests and tops of hills at the approach of the relatively superior civilization of the Dravidian. A certain amount of isolation among the early groups which settled down in different parts of the Tamil country was due to lack of easy communication and cultural unwillingness to move far away from one’s home.

The major communities were the Kadambas who were pirates, the Kadavar the foresters, the Vedar the hunters, the Idaiyar the cowherds, the Minavas or the Paradavar who were fisherfolk and the Ulavar who were peasant farmers. The lowest among them were perhaps the Kadambas and the highest the Ulavar. The Purananuru I mentions the Tudiyar, the Panar, the Paraiyar and the Kadambar as the four tribes in the Tamil world. The Tudiyar and the Paraiyar were beaters of drums; the Panar were nomadic j bards who made a living by wandering about playing musical instruments.

But these were all martial tribes and their common name was Maravar. These communities are even now not completely divorced from their original habits and military proclivities. Their particular backwardness and bellicosity earned for them the special mention in the Purananuru.

The division of the early Tamil society into Aryan and Dravidian is popular but unscientific if it is meant to convey an ethnic distinction. Aryan and Dravidian strictly speaking represent language groups and not racial groups. But these groups did belong to different cultures. They held divergent value systems and their ways of life were palpably different. It is no doubt true that the Aryans deemed themselves culturally superior and the Dravidians very naturally resented this.

The social composition of the Tamil society as we see it in the Sangam times grew as follows. The earliest social elements consisted of Negroid and Australoid groups with a mixture of another racial stock known as the Nagas. This miscellaneous group received the Dravidian stock which migrated from the eastern Mediterranean regions and was so called because it spoke a Dravidian tongue.

These two elements tended to keep apart from each other but there was the inevitable marginal intermingling. After a few centuries came waves of migrants from North India and this added the third element to evolving Tamil society. After the process of Aryanisation had reached an advanced stage the society was distinguishable by its three major stratifications: (1) those who followed the brahmanical way of life and this included the Brahmins who came from the north and those who among the natives adopted the brahmanical way of life; (2) the non-brahmanical elements among the Dravidian stock, and (3) the three Dravidian groups.

In later times 2 and 3 tended to identify their interests as common and were generally distinct from the first so that by a natural historical process the Brahmin, non-Brahmin division became clear cut from early historical times. Though the Varna system was brought in by the immigrating Brahmins it did not include the Kshatriyas as in the north. The Vaisyas and the Velalas were the merchants and the farmers, the latter not corresponding to the Sudras of the classical Varna system so that the Dvija, non-Dvija difference did not exist in the Tamil country in the same manner in which it did in the north i.e., instead of the Brahmins, the kings and the merchants being Dvijas, here in the

Tamil countries only the Brahmins were the Dvijas; they alone wore the sacred thread, the others who came to wear them later did so by imitation and not by original sanction. The introduction of the Varna system in the south led to two principles in that society: (1) the acceptance of the social superiority of the Brahmin as a social group and (2) the organisation of professions on a hereditary basis.

The Brahmins have been a part of Tamil society at least about five centuries before the Sangam age began. Even the earliest stratum of Sangam literature mentions the Brahmin and mostly approvingly. They themselves contributed not inconsiderably to that literature. Waves of Brahmins, Jainism and Buddhists arrived in the Tamil country during the Mauryan period especially during Asoka’s reign.

The Buddhists came here under royal auspices but the Brahmins were escaping from royal discrimination. That was but the first southward wave. Later waves were due to arrive in the Gupta and post-Gupta periods. The Brahmins were numerically a small group but their religion, philosophy and way of life appealed to a number of people down here and they chose the brahmanical way of life; but it may be surprising how a handful of people could without power or other resources win the support of the kings and chieftains here; for it is known that the rulers in Tamilnad invariably supported the Brahmin immigrant, appointed him as magistrate, minister, Purohita, astrologer and ambassador; and gave him tax-free lands.

It was but natural that the Brahmins who were in a great minority but who aspired to power, status and influence in the society to which they came, and the princes who needed religious and ritual legitimization of their right to rule (for example, by the appropriate formulae on the occasion of the coronation) should have a common interest in supporting each other. This alliance between the two weakened the other sections of society but consolidated the strength of these two.

Though this alliance had been struck we are able to see from the very beginning a certain opposition also to brahmanism.The local wise-men who were threatened to be displaced by the incoming wise-men, namely the Brahmins, naturally entertained a hostility to the latter. The Naladiyar, the Kural and other non-brahmanical sources, to a greater or lesser degree, more frankly politely refer to brahmanical shortcomings and occasionally indulge in ridicule.

One mi supposes that the Arivar referred to in the Tolkappiyam were the Siddhars (i.e., the TR variety among them who later became famous for their systems of literature, medic astrology and religious philosophy); anti-Brahmanism became sharp in its outline with medieval text Kapilar Ahaval. But on the whole the position of the Brahmin was prote his activities encouraged and his way of life praised. The internal differences am brahmanical groups in the Tamil country were due to different waves of Brahmins arrive at different times.

The really ancient Vedic Brahmin was a sacrificing priest with no faith in iconic worship but in Tamilnad the tradition of temple building and idol worship was really ancient and highly respectable. The Brahmin judged by Vedic prescription had no legitimate place in the temple, either as priest or as devotee; but in course of time he brought the temple also under his influence thereby bringing the entire area of religion (except village tribal gods and their worship) under his control.

Apart from the Brahmins there were other men of religion like the Siddhas we referred to above, not to speak of the Jaina and Buddha ascetics. The local ascetics lived apart from society and were the Nittar referred to by Valluvar. They renounced the world but still lingered on to give the lay world the benefit of their wisdom and experience.

The Tamil communities like their ancient counterparts elsewhere in India were distinguished by the profession they pursued. Among these professions agriculture, trade and industry accounted for most of the persons. The peasants, however, were the largest rural community.

There was still a large unidentifiable floating population living on the rest of society and at the receiving end of royal and other munificence. With the coming in of new arts, crafts, professions, etc., new communities also developed all the time increasing the total number of communities in the society.

Megasthenes said there was no slavery in ancient India; but anyway what he said, even if true, would relate only to Magadha. The prevalence of slavery in Tamilnad is attested to by even the most ancient text. The Tamil slave was known as the Adimai literally ‘one who lived at the feet of another’. The Adimai was branded on the chest. Doubtless many serfs living without any right on land and just being maintained by land owners were in a condition bordering on slavery.

The status of woman was clearly one of subordination to man. The humiliating second class position they enjoyed in the domestic set up and the nearly total absence of any position in public life were prescribed as appropriate to them. To a woman her husband was her god. Throughout her life she was subject to the authority of one male or another, first her father, then her husband, and if she survived her husband then her son.

This perpetual minority condition of woman was largely due to the fact that she had no property right. The pin money she got is often misconstrued as property right. But women of those times do not seem to have resented their condition. The value system in regard to women in society was so continuously and completely communicated through religious and other media and the women were exposed so thoroughly to this communication that they came to believe fully in the efficiency of the status quo.

They had no doubts about the correctness of the arrangement and so there was no question of protest or dissent. In fact many women poets joined in the affirmation of women subordination. Subordination of women was but an aspect of the general social philosophy of those times. ‘The willing and the unquestioning submission of wife to husband was of the same order as the attitude of obeisance expected of a sishya towards his guru or the genuflection of a subject to the ruler or in general terms of the creature to the Creator.

No doubt all this was sugar-coated by promising pleasant futures for the present slaves. Women had no claim to the royal throne. They didn’t hold public office. The Tamil Hindu woman like her sisters elsewhere in India belonged to the caste and gotra of her father till marriage and thereafter she assumed those of her husband. There could be but a single partner in life for women while men had a variety of choice. Women remained widows or committed sati. Even marriage was a sacred formality in which the element of love was incidental if at all. Marriage was a sacrament, certainly not a contract.

The condition of a widow was so horrible that most wise widows preferred to commit sati. Sati, however, was not a widespread practice among the lower communities. It was, however, prevalent in the royal families and among the aristocrats. A sati was treated post mortem as almost divine. The classic case of Kannagi earned a temple for her. Theoretically there were eight forms of marriage, i.e., from the most common one of Brahma marriage which consisted in the elders of the two families agreeing to bring about the marriage ritually to one of violent consummation under duress.

The sacred marital thread which the wife wore through her wedded life was a Tali a Dravidian institution like tonsure of the widow. While the condition of a respectable, honorable and virtuous wife was not very enviable, there was a vast crowd of courtesans who led a free, merry and uninhibited life.

The courtesan was much sought after by the men of those times for she was, or was at least expected to be, charming and talented. A typical example of such a courtesan was Madhavi who destroyed the peace of Kananga’s household. In some cities there were suburban areas set apart for the residence of the courtesans.

Non-vegetarianism was the main food habit though the Brahmins and the ascetic orders preferred to be vegetarian. Theoreticians like Valluvar prohibited meat and the alcoholic drink but such prohibitions were usually honored in the breach. The Matiimekalai mentions a solitary instance of cannibalism and the Nagas who indulged in this practice lived in far off islands which did not form part of Tamilnad proper.

The ancient Tamils were clad in meager dress reducing it to the minimum. Most people wore cotton and the aristocrats used silk. Ornaments, however, were profusely worn by men as well as women. Even the Sangam Tamils whose average dress comprised a loin cloth and a towel dropped on their shoulders knew tailoring for even their surgery involved stitching. Ornaments of many kinds of gold and of silver were known and used.

The anklet, the rings, the necklaces, the waistbands and the ear-rings were the common ornaments. But there is no mention of the nose-ring. The Tali was a sacred ornament. The bangles on the wrists and the Tali around the neck were not to be removed by any married woman unless she was a widow. The Tamils were crazy about flowers. Bull-baiting, cock-fight and other rural pastimes were common sources of popular entertainment.

The Tamils believed in pollution or ritual uncleanliness on occasions of birth and death. The dead were disposed of by cremation, by burial or by being thrown to the vultures and the jackals. They believed in dreams and the influence of the planets on human life. They believed in auspicious days and in the auspices.

The cawing of a crow portended the arrival of a guest. If someone sneezed, he was being fondly thought of by some distant person. They believed in and feared ghosts and spirits. Untouchability was practised.

We do not know the population of Sangam Tamilaham. Census of population was not attempted. Their economy was characterised by inequality in wealth among the different sections of society. Agricultural and industrial wealth was the privilege of a few. Prosperity centered round the court. An equitable distribution of available wealth was naturally unknown to them.

It was dominantly agricultural economy and industry was ancillary to it. Industry was confined to carpentry, blacksmithy, goldsmithy etc.; and spinning, weaving, manufacture of salt, building of ships and temples were some of the more important industrial and engineering efforts. Agriculture was an honorable profession, but was pursued in a primitive way.

Property could be transferred by sale or mortgage and these transactions were recorded in registry offices called Avanams. There were market places in big towns. The natural products in the forests and specialised manufactures like the textiles and gold ornaments were exported while wine, glassware and horses were imported. Trade with Rome through Egypt, with Ceylon and with North India was flourishing.