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  1. Sangam poems are devoid of any reference to material culture.
  2. The social classification of Varna was known to Sangam poets.
  3. Sangam poems have no reference to warrior ethic.
  4. Sangam literature refers to magical forces as irrational.
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1 Answers

Option 2 : The social classification of Varna was known to Sangam poets.

The correct answer is option 2.

Sangan Literature

  • Sangam literature is the name given to the earliest available Tamil literature.
  • The collection of poems known as Sangam literature was produced over six centuries from about 300 BC to AD 300 by Tamils from diverse social backgrounds, although most of the work is believed to have been composed between 100 CE and 250 CE.
  • The word ‘Sangam’ literally means association. Here, it implies an association of Tamil poets that flourished in ancient southern India. 
  • The three chief Tamil kingdoms of this period were the Cheras, the Cholas, and the Pandyas. 
  • In Sangam society, It was during the stimulus of contact with the elements of material culture brought from the north to the extreme end of the peninsula by traders, conquerors and Jaina, Buddhists, and some Brahmana missionaries, that they came to have social classes, and they also came to practice wet paddy cultivation and founded numerous villages and towns.  
  • Sangam poems contain several incidental references to material culture, often as part of the poem’s setting or in similes and allusions. There are references to farming (rice and barley are mentioned), cattle rearing, and fishing. There are also several references to iron. Kuruntokai 16 refers to iron-tipped arrows. Akananuru 72 compares a bear digging out the comb from a termite mound, the front of which is swarming with fireflies glimmering like sparks from beaten metal, to a blacksmith forging iron. Hence statement 1 is incorrect.
  • The Brahmanas came there much later from northern India. But in ancient times, they followed neither the Varna system nor the Ashram system.
  • Broadly speaking, there were chiefly two classes of people in the early Tamil society – those who tilled the land them­selves and those who got it tilled by others. The latter were wealthier and this very fact introduced inequalities in the social system. Gradually, the Varna System also started.
  • The social classification of varna was known to Sangam poets. There is mention of the Arashar (kings), Vaishiyar (traders), and Velalar (farmers). The Brahmanas are also mentioned, some of them closely associated with the courts of kings and patronized by ruling elites. However, the four-fold varna classification had little application to ancient Tamil society. The jati system was not a feature of this society either.  Hence statement 2 is correct
  • Sangam literature which combines idealism with realism and classic grace with indigenous industry and strength is rightly regarded as constituting the Augustan age of Tamil literature. It deals with a secular matter relating to public and social activity like government, war, charity, trade, worship, agriculture, etc.
  • Sangam Poems are pervaded with a warrior ethic. Puram in Sangam literature is the War Poems that deal with the outer life of people. Speak of public celebration of the feats of the heroes even the death of heroes in wars. Hence statement 3 is incorrect.
  • Manimekalai is a Sangam epic composed by Sattanar around 1400 years ago. It describes the story of the daughter of Kovalan and Madhavi. In this epic Magical incidences have been mentioned-"One angel helps her magically disappear to an island while the prince tries to chase her, grants her powers to change forms and appear as someone else. On the island, she receives a magic begging bowl, which always gets filled".
  • Sangam literature reflects a belief in sacred or magical forces called ananku that were supposed to inhabit various objects. The job of carrying out rites and rituals to control the ananku was that of groups such as the pariyans, tutiyans, panas and velans. They were associated with ritualistic singing, dancing, and trances, and with lighting the cremation fire and worshipping memorial stones.  Hence statement 4 is incorrect.
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