Introduction to Tamil Poetry A. CHIDAMBARANATHA CHETTIAR Tamil Literature may be said to fall mainly into 6 periods :- 1. Sangam Literature (3rd Sangam Literature) - 200 B.C. to 200 A.D. 2. Post-Sangam Literature-200 A.D. to 600 A.D. 3. Early Mediaeval Literature-600 A.D. to 1200 A.D. 4. Later Mediaeval Literature 1200 A.D. to 1800 A.D. 5. Pre-modern Literature-1800 A.D. to 1900 A.D. 6. Modern Literature-1900 A.D. to the present day. In the first period (200 B.C. to 200 A.D.) poets were true to Nature and their poems abounded in descriptions of natural objects and things, perceivec with a keen eye. Some of the ancient descriptions about birds and animals, trees and creepers found in the works of this period accord greatly with what we know of them today after the advent of biological sciences. This speaks for the keen powers of observation and attention to details of the poets of this age. Though prose also should have been composed in this period, such prose compositions have not, however, been handed down to posterity. That there were prose com- positions in that period could be inferred from a rule con- tained in Tholka:ppiam classifying the types of prose compositions into four. The poetical compositions were all collected as several anthologies. The names of these anthologies are given below:- 1. Exțutokai. 2. Pattupattu 3. Padinenkilkanakku
