16 | Dr. V. Selvakumar | Early Tamil Society literature, epigraphy and archaeology |10 April 2017

The first lecture introduces South India in historical overview. It begins with Neolithic ashmounds and habitations, the earliest agro-pastoral cultures of the Andhra-Karnataka-Tamil Nadu region, with the Iron Age witnessing the construction of numerous burial monuments called megaliths. The early polities and urban centres emerged in this region in the last part of the first millennium BCE. The region was well connected with the Indian Ocean exchange networks. Very early on, because of its coastal landscapes, it developed maritime interactions and processes of urbanization and development in the coastal areas. The medieval period saw the development of political powers and state formation, administrative system, social change and the construction of temples.

The second lecture deals with early society in South India seen through the Tamil texts called Sangam literature. But for them, the lives and thoughts of the vibrant communities of this period would have been lost.

To know more about the speaker, please visit http://iks.iitgn.ac.in/v-selvakumar/