Abstract—This paper is a concise account of the Burial and
Funerary culture of the ancient Tamils during the period 1000
B.C.E. - 250/300 C.E. culled out from the rich data available in
the Tamil Sangam literature
Ettuthokai,
Pattupaatu,
Tholkappiyam, etc., some of which are dated to 300 B.C or
earlier; and correlates the data with the archaeological finds
discovered during excavations made from the last decades of
the 19
th century till now. The contribution of the Tamils to the
Indian prehistory and history dates back to the time of the
major ancient civilization of Indus valley and its classic
contemporaries like Elam, Sumerian etc. This will enthuse
other scholars to proceed further in this vital field and
endeavour to highlight the Tamil and Indian contribution to
ancient civilization and culture.
Index Terms—Tamil civilization and culture, burial and
funerary culture, tamil prehistory and archaeology, tamil
sangam literature and archaeology on burial practices.
E. Iniyan was with the Department of Ancient History and Archaeology,
University of Madras, Chennai, Taminadu, India (e-mail:
iniyane@gmail.com).
[PDF]
Cite: E. Iniyan, " Burial and Fuunerary Culture of Ancient Tamils (During
1000 B.C - 250/ 300 A.D)," International Journal of Social Science and Humanity vol. 5, no. 12, pp. 1068-1071, 2015.