Tamil Herioc Poetry

'This epoch in our nation's history is violent but brilliant, short-lived but glorious, convulsive but opulent.'

As trade flourished between South India and the western world, a new age dawned – one marked by the advent of an energetic military class, succession wars, inheritance disputes and a bardic tradition informed by cultural and political advances between the fourth and fifth-century B.C. The ascendancy of the Tamil Heroic Age heralded the era of Tamil Heroic Poetry.

In this acclaimed comparative study, revered Sri Lankan academic and journalist K. Kailasapathy introduces and interprets ancient Tamil poems and notes the stylistic heritage, themes and motifs pervading the oral traditions and time-worn texts. The rationale is layered in its construction, mapping the commercial and social fluxes to the verses of the time. Kailasapathy also draws eloquent comparisons to heroic poetry in other languages – most notably Greek – and meticulously bridges the gaps in studying early Tamil poetry.

A nod to H. M. Chadwick's The Heroic Age, this deeply necessary exploration of our neglected past is an engaging and accessible discourse on one of our most fertile literary ages.