Short notes on the Political History of Sangam Tamils

The political history of the Tamils of the Sangam age came to an end about the middle of the third century AD almost simultaneously with the breakup of the Satavahana Empire.

Just as in the Deccan that breakup was followed by a number of petty successor states about which our knowledge is little (and their own contribution to the development of the polity was also perhaps equally little), in the Tamil country also the passing away of the Tamil kings of the Sangam age was followed by a political chaos.

The ensuing dark period lasted from the middle of the third century to the middle of the sixth century and during this period we hear, however hazily, of some invaders from the northern fringes of Tamilnad who overran the whole of the Tamil country defeating the Chera, the Chola, and the Pandyas and placed themselves in power perhaps in Madurai or in more than one centre in Tamilnad. Their accession to power meant the temporary cessation of Tamil autonomous government.

Their identity

Who were these Kalabhras and whence did they come? Are relevant questions relating to this interregnum but almost invariably answered unsatisfactorily. It has been suggested that they came from the Mysore country; some have said that they were native Velalas of the Tanjore district; some have gone to the fantastic extent of suggesting that they came from the extreme south. The truth of the matter seems to be that the word Kalabhra is a corruption of Kalvar or Kalavar meaning robber bands.

They are described in the ancient Tamil text Ahananuru as residing near Tirupati or Venkatraman and ruled by their own petty chieftains. It looks as if when the Pallavas moved on to Kanchipuram from south-eastern Deccan in the last stages of Satavahana power the Kalvar of the Venkatraman hills were encountered by them and driven southwards. These hordes unable to withstand the Pallavas, however, found the Tamil kings weak enough and fit to be overwhelmed by them.

Egged on by necessity and an innate sense of adventure, these ‘barbarians’ descended on an enfeebled Tamil country. It was enfeebled because it was already losing the lucrative trade with the Roman Empire. The Kalabhras according to legend defeated the three Tamil kings and set up their own government here. Details about their government and names of any of their rulers are not known to us.

The social and political history of the Tamil country when the Kalabhras were ruling here is not even dimly known to us. It may truly be called a dark age from the point of view of our ignorance of the history of that period but there are one or two stray references in epigraphs and literature of a later period which speak about the Kalabhras.

Sources

In Tamil they are known as Kalappalar. A verse in the Tamil grammatical work Yapparungalam refers to an Achyuta Kalappalan who was a great benefactor of Brahmins. The Periyapuramm in the story of Kurruva Nayanar mentions him as a Kalappalar who wished to become the Chola monarch but the priests of the Chidambaram temple would not crown him as he was not a Chola.

The story goes on to say that the Kalappalan was a great Saiva and so Siva intervened on his behalf and persuaded the priests to crown him monarch. An inscription on a pillar in Sentalai speaks of a Perumpidugu Muttariyan who entitled himself Kalvar Kalvan i.e., robber of robbers. Scholars like T.A. Gopinatha Rao equate the Kalabhras with the Muttaraiyars, who in historical times were ruling in the neighbourhood of Tanjore.

There are two sources which specifically speak about the Kalabhra conquest of the Tamil country. One is the Velvikkudi plates of Nedunjadaiyan which say that the Kalabhras who had once uprooted innumerable ancient kings were now destroyed by Kadungon the restorer of the Pandyan authority in Madurai (c. 600).

The other is the Tamil Navalar Charitai which mentions the simultaneous defeat of the Chera, Chola and Pandya by an anonymous Kalabhra. S. Krishnaswami Iyengar rightly identifies the Kalabhras with the Kalvar of the Venkatraman region who were ruled by one Pulli in Sangam times.

He concedes that it is possible that some groups among these Kalvar later on set up small principalities near Tanjore and Kodumbalur as Muttaraiyar chiefs. Some of the Kalabhras seem to have been Jainas and others Buddhists.

Results

The effect of Kalabhra rule on the Tamil country was to have, during a period of three centuries, destroyed the nature of the Tamil society as gleaned from the Sangam literature.

Political confusion introduced by them further weakened the Tamil monarchs and a deeply religious atmosphere came to prevail when the Kalabhra interregnum passed. Religion and Kalabhra invasions together destroyed the Sangam way of life which was largely secular; so that as Gibbon said in the context of the Roman empire one could say of the passing of the Sangam age also that it was due to ‘barbarism and religion’.