The sangam literature whose age can safely be assigned to 200 B.C. circa reveals the high excellence of the many sided Tamil culture. the renowned Tamil Academy was establised by the Royal house of the Tamil poets activities of historical and cultural importance. The tamil word ''sangam'' implies academy as well as gathering.
Tholkappiam, the earliest litery work extant in Tamil, which received the approval of the learned Daneils of the Makiri's court, is the most authoritative tratise on Tamil Gramma, culture and prosody. some of the aphorisms propounded by Tholkappiar in the monumental work, Tholkappiam, discloses the fact that there were several authoritative Tamil works dealing with different subjects in vogue. the deluge that occured in the southern part of the Tamil country not only swallowed the territory but also the valuable Tamil classics. A scientific study of Tholkappiam with a historical outlook will enable one to establish a higher antiquity for Tamil language, literature and culture.
The tamil savants of yore have realized each and every aspects of life. They broadly classified the human life in to the two main division viz, agam,(subjective or internal) and puram, (objective or external). The objective life consists of war and charity. The five-fold classification of love viz, conjugal union, chaste patience, sulkiness, pining and separation are assigned to mountanous region (Kurinji) pastoral (mullai) arable land (marudham) littoral (neithal) and deseart(palai) respectively. The five fold classification of love and land and the manner, in which each erotic facet is associated with its corresponding tract clearly indicates the real intimacy between life and nature.
Most of the poem of the era are erotic in charectar and have the five different aspects of love as their subject matter. Among the eight anthologies(Ettu thogai) six are amatory poetry in which different aspects of erotic sentiments are beatifully portrayed. purananooru(an enthology of four hundred poem ) throws an appreciable flood of lighton the client Tamils. pathitripathu though some of the virses of the collection are lost, serves as an authoritative source for every historean of the chera history of the sangam periods which enables him to fix the chronological position of the chera kings.
Devition, love, benevolence and warfare are the vital points elaborately dealt with in the ten idyls , the ten long poem composed in the aghaval\metre(blank verse).
In the nutshell , the sangam literature is the reflection of the Tamil life and a storehouse of the noble human thoughts, which are the source of inspiration for the medieval and modern poets. Hence this era can be styled,''The golden age of the Tamil History''.