they would easily trace the simple and primitive origin of their names.

The use of flowers not only in love but also in war is another characteristic not usually found mentioned in other literatures. The anthologies point to conventions whereby warriors had to wear garlands of flowers, the nature and colour of which signified the kind of warfare or the strategic movement in which they were engaged. If warriors went to attack a clan or king, and despoil him of his cattle wealth or movable property, they would have to wear the brightred flowers of the ixora. An unidentified poet referring to warriors setting out on such an expedition says that, adorned as they are with the red garlands of the vetci on head and around the neck, they look like the setting sun. Similarly, pale flowers were worn by those who were defending a besieged fortress, and white cassia flowers by those who were returning victorious from battle, in the same manner that laurels were symbolic of triumph in the Graeco-Roman world. There were about ten such strategic movements to each of which a characteristic flower was ascribed.

Further, as the rose stood for an English royal line, the thistle for Scotland, and the fleur-de-lys for France, similarly each of the Tamil kingdoms had a significant flower-the small white margosa flowers for the Pāndyan, the fig's flowers for the Colan, and the flowers of the palmyrah palm for the Ceran.

Regional Division

The entire concept of Nature poetry was determined at one stage of the evolution of Tamil poetry by the poetic conventions which regulated that Nature was to be the background of poetry, especially of love poetry. The year was divided into six seasons, and the day was divided into its prominent periods, like the dawn, the noonday, the evening, nightfall, and midnight. Land itself was divided into five regions-the montane, the pastoral, the riverine, the littoral and the desert, and to each region was ascribed a characteristic tree or flower. Stages or phases of love were also classified as courtship, union of lovers, separation, sorrow and pining in separation, and patient endurance. To each of these phases of love an appropriate region was ascribed with a corresponding season of the year, and a particular time of day or night. Suppose a poet wished to write a poem on a clandestine meeting between lovers, he would probably because of convention choose the mountain region, the winter or rainy season and midnight as Nature's background for his description of the love theme of union. If similes occurred in his poem, he would draw them from the flora and fauna peculiar to the mountain