The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c9.s2.13

c9.s2.13

A very interesting *sâhitya pariṣat* (literary academy) of southern India was the *Sangam* of the Tamils⁶ at Madura. Early in the Christian era in this Pandyan city a body of censors formed themselves into an institution to correct the abuses of literature. The third of these *Sangams* was in existence in the second century. Forty nine critics and poets were members of this association, which thus anticipated by about fifteen hundred years the French Academy founded by Richelieu (1637) in its aim at checking the growth of literary weeds. The *Sangam* enjoyed the patronage of the state for several generations. Its influence on the people may be gathered from the fact that the celebrated Tamil classic, the *Kural* of Tiru-valluvar, received the imprimatur of the academy before king Ugra-Peruvalludhi. It is interesting to note that the author himself was not a member of the association. Similarly the two other masterpieces of the Augustan age of Tamil literature, viz., the *Epic of the Anklet* and the *Jewel-Belt*, were submitted to the examination of this body of connoisseurs.