Vanpulam included all the hill slopes, arid plains and pastures which were larger than menpulam which included exclusively the wet-land plains of paddy cultivation. Cultivable tracts in the vanpulam were called enal or punam where millet and gram grew in abundance. It was inhabited by clans of diverse subsistence base such as wild food economy, cattle-keeping and subsistence farming.

On the other hand, the material basis of menpulam was of advanced plough agriculture. Sangam texts refer to ulavar or toluvar as the tillers of menpulam. They knew the technique of harnessing the bullocks (erutu) at their necks with a cross-bar (nukam) to a ploughshare (meli or nanjil) which was iron-tipped for furrowing. Buffaloes (erumai) were also used for ploughing. Tank irrigation (ayam) and minor dam (sirai) irrigation are mentioned.

It is clear that this advanced farming economy of menpulam had produced a surplus large enough to support the variety of artisans and craftsmen. Many of the jobless clans of vanpulam depended on the produce of menpulam as iravar (beggars), kallar (thieves) and panar (the bards). The subsistance farmers of vanpulam came to menpulam for exchanging their hill products for paddy and other goods.

The coastal people came to menpulam to exchange fish and salt for paddy. In short, menpulam was the nerve centre of contemporary economic life. And this is the region; the early Tamil kingdoms were located in-Cholas on the Kaveri, Pandyas on the Tambraparani and Vaigai and Cheras on the Kerala coast.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

Reciprocity was the mode of exchange, though paddy and salt at times served as the leading commodities in the field of exchange. Poems refer to the exchange of goods for goods (notuttal). Kadam or kadan meaning debt is mentioned in the texts. The loan of a commodity to be paid back in the same kind and quantity was in vogue and was called Kurittumaretirppai or kuriyetirppai.

Avanam or angadi were the main organized points of exchange (market place). People from Kurinji had ivory, honey, wild meat, animal skins and bamboo rice for exchange, while those form mullai had dairy products, millet, maze, horse-grain and ragi for exchange.

The coastal people had mainly fish and salt for exchange. Pattanam were the centres of long distance trade. Certain weights of gold known as kaame and kalanju were used as media of exchange in he pattanam, perhaps also in certain higher transactions.

Gift-giving was the institution through which the resources were redistributed. The resources were pooled by the chieftains through plunder which was fundamental to the maintenance of contemporary economy, all beliefs and institutions helped plunder based redistribution function effectively.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

Some of these beliefs use: war begets the chieftain; martyrs would join damsels in the heaven; war as a traditional inspiration of the maravar; martial bravery of the sons as a passion of motherhood; cowardice as ignominious and so on – all glorifying wars. Their ethics (Aram) justified wars and plunders.

The institutionalisation of war is clear from the description of vetcci (cattle raid), karanttai (cattle recovering war), vanji (chieftain’s attack of a territory), kanji (defending war), tumpai (getting ready for war), vakai (the killing of enemies), untattu (social dining and drinking before and after the wars), perumcorruvilavu (grand rice feast) and citucorruvilavu (small rice feast).

In these plunder raids, often cultivated fields (kalani or palanam) and settlements were destroyed and ultimately this resulted in the confinement of advanced farming to small pockets of wet-land in the valleys of Kaveri, Vaigai, Tamraparni and Periyar without any progress till the 7th-8th centuries when Brahmanas began to own large agrarian tracts.