Bay of Bengal.4 This inverted triangular territory with Cape Comorin as the apex would include as well present-day Kerala, and the outer fringes of Karnataka and Andhradesa. These districts were Tamil-speaking in ancient times, and Nature as obtained on the Western shore and Western Ghats, namely in the Ceera kingdom, came in for as much poetic interpretation as Nature in the Paaṇṭiya and Coola kingdoms. With the inclusion of the Malabar coast the natural prospect that the Tamil poet had in view is seen in all its divergence and richness. In the last two thousand years, there has been change in the geographical configuration and climatic conditions of South India. Here and there the sea has gained upon the land, or the land has encroached upon the sea. Here and there a harbour has been silted up as in the historic places of Koṛkai and Arikameedu, a river has changed its course or been divided into anicuts, a hill has subsided. The main aspects of natural panorama remain unaltered. The whole region, however, was then more fertile and cooler; there were extensive acres of forests and jungles, and the hills were as yet not denuded to give room for acres of tea, coffee and rubber.5 Even the plains contained large tracts of forest land. There was abundant variety in the landscape offered to the Tamil poet for study and contemplation. From the sandy beaches of the Coromandel to the plains of the Cooḷa and Paaṇṭiya regions gradually changing into woodland, or progressively ascending to meet the ranges of the Western Ghats which shoot out the Nilgris, the Palani and Aanaimalai hills, there is the diversity which gave rise to the five-fold regional division fundamental to Tamil poetry. It is possible that the traveller today who uses the main trunk road or the railway from Madras to Tuticorin will probably have impressions of a general aridity and barrenness, especially if he has covered the Madras-Maturai section by night, but no impression of ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 K.RAMAMURTHI, “Some aspects of the Regional Geography of Tamil Naad”, Indian Geographical Journal, Vol. XXIII, No. 2 ff; K.M. PANIKKAR, Geographical Factors in Indian History, p. 24, Bombay, 1955. 5 On extent of territory see evidence cited in M. S.PURNALINGAM PILLAI, Tamil India, o.c. pp. 1-20; G. S. DURAISAMY PILLAI, Tamil Literature (Tm) pp. 7-13, Calcutta, 1931. |