are linked together by the Tamil poets in the composition of imagery. Ethics and Nature The Tamils are presented in the early classics as a hardworking and industrious people. The fertility of the soil was greater in the Cankam period than now, but was not so great as to require much less energy and industry on the part of cultivators than are required at present. Famine, drought, and poverty were not unknown either. It happened that Nature compensated by providing an abundance of luxury goods in exchange for what she exacted by labour from the Tamils. The hills of Tamil Naad provided pepper, cinnamon and other spices; her seas gave pearls and red coral; her forests yielded metals and precious stones. Therefore, as early as historical records go, the Tamils have distinguished themselves as traders with Malaya, Java, and Campa; with Mesopotamia, Egypt and the Roman Empire to the West. They made the most of what Nature gave them, and their commerce and international trade added not a little to the wealth of their kingdoms.8 The Cankam age was also known for its spirit of warfare. The chiefs and kings fought intermittently among themselves, but they also developed at the same time a very honourable code of warfare. Their commerce with foreigners, and their code of warfare made them develop ethical standards. Honesty, truthfulness, bravery, love of honour are virtues without which no people may distinguish themselves in trade or war. Mercy and sympathy are also qualities which are natural to those who have attained a position of permanent wealth, and to the warrior used to the miseries of the battle-field. Hence the repeated emphasis in Tamil literature on the right use of wealth by distributing it to the poor and the needy. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 8 E. H. WARMINGTON, The Commerce between the Roman Empire and India, Cambridge, 1918; H. T. passim on the trade of Tamil Naad with the rest of the World;MORTIMER WHEELER, Rome beyond the Imperial Frontiers, pp. 141-182, Pelican Books, London, 1955. |