Who Were The Sangama?
The Sangama Dynasty is a family dynasty in Ancient India.
See the Vijayanagar dynasty for further information.
What Is Sangam Literature?
Sangam Literature is a kind of literature that originated in
India.
Sangam (sometimes spelt Cankam) means "academy" in
Tamil and refers to a collection of classical literature written during the
early years of the common period.
What Were The Defining Qualities Of Sangama Poetry?
Eight collections of short poems are the most well-known
works in Sangam literature.
Three of these collections belong to the puram ("outer
portion") genre, while the other five belong to the akam ("inner
part") genre.
Puram poetry was "public" verse that described
kings' exploits, battle, death, and other great acts.
The Sangam poets distinguished five developed moods in Akam poetry:
- Union,
- patient waiting,
- unfaithfulness,
- separation,
- and hardship.
Akam poetry was about an individual's inner experience,
especially cultured love, of which the Sangam poets distinguished five
developed moods: union, patient waiting, unfaithfulness, separation, and
hardship.
Each of these moods has well-developed symbolic
connotations, including associations with a certain kind of terrain, time of
day and year, flora and wildlife, and different sorts of people; this level of
symbolism lends amazing metaphorical richness to these works.
The akam poems are considered to be the literary forerunners
of devotional (bhakti) poetry, which originated in Tamil Nadu.
References And Further Reading:
- See A.K. Ramanujan (trans. ), The Interior Landscape, 1994, and Glenn Yocum, "Shrines, Shamanism,
- Love Poetry: Elements in the Emergence of Popular Tamil Bhakti,"
- Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol. 41, No. 1, 1973.
Also refer to, Tamil language and Tamil epics.
