Tamils and Agriculture

தமிழரும் உழவும்

Abstract

This paper will discuss the ancient association of the Tamil community and the art of cultivating their land as manifested in the Sangam literature. Since the dawn of humans, they abandoned the hunting society in favor of the agricultural society when they realized the greatness of the earth, and thereby farming became the main trade of the civilization. This is confirmed by Thiruvalluvar that states that agriculture is the pillar that the world rotates around. The agricultural land has been categorized in the Marutham tinai of Sangam literature in which people used to farm numerous varieties of crops, such as paddy, millet, varagu, ulunthu, kol, payaru, ellu, avarai, paruthi, sugarcane and turmeric. The paper chronologically explains the different phases and machinery of Tamil agricultural activity in the ancient period such as ploughing, irrigation, levelling, sowing, transplanting, fertilising, crop protection, weeding, harvesting, threshing and storing. Thalambu, Thaval, Tattai, Kanai, Jekilhi, Adaar and fences are some of the agricultural tools discussed on the basis of Sangam poetry. The other method that was brought out in the article is crop rotation whereby the farmers planted alternative crops on harvested soil to revive soil fertility and this method is still encouraged in the agricultural science today. The article ends on a high note that the young generation should learn and save farming as a cultural heritage and as a scientific practice because failure to save the agricultural practice by opting to use modern technology will plunge the country to ruins.