Saturday, November 28, 2009

POINTS TO REMEMBER

It is said that the sage Agastya crossed the Vindhyas
in the later Vedic age to aryanise the south.
. The Cholas, Pandyas and Cheras or Keralaputras men­
''ti:oned in the Asokan inscriptions probably represented
the late megalithic culture.
.' Iraiyanar Agoporul makes the earliest reference to the
Sangams.
. The Sangam literature was compiled in circa AD 300-600,
but it discusses the conditions of South India in Be 200­
AD 300.
. Tolkappiyam, the early Tamil grammar, was written in
second Sangam.
. Tirukkural is sometimes called the "Bible of the Tamil
Land".
. Silappadikaram was authored by Ilangovadigal, while
Manimegalai is attributed to the poet Sattan of Madurai. . The Pandyas were mentioned by Megasthenes. . The Chola kingdom in the Sangam Age was situated
between the Pennar and Velar rivers.
. Uraiyur in the Chola kingdom was famous for cotton
trade.
. Karikala, the famous Chola ruler in the Sangam Age,
founded the city of Puhar (Kaveripattanam) and made
it his capital.
. Senguttuvan, the Red or Good Chera, was the greatest
Chera king.
. The Romans, with whom the Cheras had a flourishing
trade, set up two regiments at Muziris (identical with
Cranganore) and built a temple of Augustus there. . In the Sangam Age, land tax was called karai and war
booty was called irai.
. Spices (especially pepper), ivory, pearls, precious stones
and cloth were major items of export of South India
during Sangam Age.
. The ur was a town, pattanam a coastal town, and puhar
a harbour area.
. In the Sangam age, vellalars were rich peasants and
kadaisiyar represented the lowest class.
. Murugan was the chief local god worshipped by the
people of the hilly region. Murugan later came to be
called Subramaniya.
. During Nedumudikilli's rule, the Chola capital, Puhar,
was plundered by sea pirates.
. Nedunjelian, who ruled around AD 240, was the most
prominent of the early Pandyas.
. There were three Sangams: first at Thenmadurai (South
Madurai), the second at Kabadapuram, and the third at
Madurai.
. Caste distinctions were lacking in the Sangam age and
untouchability was not prevalent.
. Puhar or Kaveripattanam (of the Cholas) and Arikamedu and Koshai (of the Pandyas) were major post-towns on the east coast, while Muziris and Tyndis (of the Cheras), Bakare and Neleyndu were important trade centres on the west coast.
. There were three different kinds of chiefdoms in the Sangam Age: (i) kizar (little chiefs, i.e., the headmen of small villages); (ii) velir (bigger chiefs, mostly hill chief­tains), and (iii) vedar (the biggest chiefs).
. Narasimhavarman I was the brightest of the Pallava kings in the seventh century AD. He founded the city of Mahabalipuram. His greatest achievement was the three successive triumphs over the Chalukyan king, Pulakesin II.
. Narasimhavarman II is credited with the building of the
famous Kailasanatha Temple at Kanchi.
. Chinese pilgrim, Hsuan-Tsang, visited Kanchi, the Pallava
capital, during the reign of Narasimhavarman I.
. The Pallava kingdom was annexed by the Chola ruler,
Aditya I in the late ninth century. The Cholas were
feudatories of the Pallavas.

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