The following is a chronological overview of the history of the Tamil people, who trace their ancestry to the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the Indian union territory of Puducherry, the Northern and Eastern Provinces of Sri Lanka and the Puttalam District of Sri Lanka.[1][2]

Pre-Sangam period

PeriodEvents
c. 600 BCEThe production process of Wootz steel began in the 6th century BCE and was exported globally by the Chera dynasty as what was termed as "the finest steel in the world," i.e. Seric Iron to the Romans, Egyptians, Chinese and Arabs by 500 BCE and was used to make the famous damascus blades.[3][4][5][6]
c. 600–300 BCEThe Keezhadi excavation site is built.[7][8] The site is located 12 km southeast of Madurai in Tamil Nadu, near the town of Keezhadi in the Sivagangai district. It comes under the Thiruppuvanam Taluk of the Sivagangai district. A large-scale excavation carried out in Tamil Nadu after the Adichanallur archaeological site. The settlement lies on the bank of the Vaigai River and reflects the ancient culture of the Tamil people.[9][10]
c. 400 BCEKaveripattinam, the ancient capital port city of the Chola Dynasty is destroyed by the sea.[11][12][13]

Sangam age

PeriodEvents
c. 300 BCE–200 CEThe Sangam age begins, during which the books of Sangam Literature are written.[14]
c. 300 BCEGreek ethnographer Megasthenes describes Madurai as the capital of the Pandya dynasty.[15][16]
c. 250 BCEAshoka's inscription recording the four kingdoms (Chera, Cholas, Pandya and Satyaputra) of the ancient Tamil country.
c. 205 BCEElara, a Tamil prince and contemporary of Sinhalese king Dutugamunu, ursurpes the throne of the Anuradhapura Kingdom. He would rule until his defeat by Dutugamunu c. 161 BCE.
c. 13Greek historian Nicolaus of Damascus meets with an ambassador sent by the Pandyan King to Caesar Augustus, Strabo XV.1-73.[17]
c. 1–100The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea gives a detailed description of early Chera and Pandya kingdom and mentions a part of the Tamil country as Lymirike (misread as "Damirica" by some modern scholars).[18]
c. 77 and 140Greco-Roman writers Pliny the Elder and Ptolemy mention Madurai to be ruled by the Pandyans.
c. 113–135Gajabahu I of the Anuradhapura Kingdom, a contemporary of Chera Senguttuvan and Karikala Chola (the Gajabahu synchronism).
c. 130Chera king Udayanjeral rules in the Chera country.
c. 190Chera Kadukko Ilanjeral Irumporai rules in the Chera country.[19]
c. 200Writing becomes widespread and vattezuttu evolves from the Tamil Brahmi, becoming a mature script for writing Tamil.[20]
c. 210Pandyan king Neduncheliyan rules in Madurai and defeats his enemies at the battle of Talaiyalanganam.

Post-Sangam period

PeriodEvents
c. 300–500End of the Sangam period, many Tamil epics such as Silappatikaram are written
c. 300–590Kalabhras invade the Tamil country and displace the traditional rulers from their kingdoms.

Pallava and Pandya

PeriodEvents
c. 560–580Pallava Simhavishnu retakes power from the Kalabhras in Tondaimandalam.
c. 560–590Pandyan Kadungon rules from Madurai and displaces the Kalabhras from the south.
c. 590–630Pallava Mahendravarman I rules in Kanchipuram.
c. 610Saiva saint Thirunavukkarasar (Appar) converts Mahendravarman from Jainism.
c. 628Chalukya Pulakesi II invades the Pallava kingdom and lays siege on Kanchipuram.
c. 630–668Pallava Narasimhavarman I (Mamalla) rules in Tondaimandalam.
c. 642Pallava Narasimhavarman I launches a counter-invasion into the Chalukya country and sacks Vatapi. Pulakeshin I is killed in battle.
c. 640–690Pandya Arikesari Parankusa Maravarman rules in Madurai.
c. 690–725Pallava Rajasimha builds the Kailasanatha temple in Kanchipuram and many of the shore temples in Mamallapuram.
c. 710–730Pandya king Kochadaiyan Ranadhiran expands the Pandya kingdom into the Kongu country
c. 731Pandya Maravarman Rajasimha allies with the Chalukya Vikramaditya II and attacks the Pallava king Nandivarmam.
c. 735Chaluka Vikramaditya II invades the Pallava country and occupies the capital Kanchipuram.
c. 760Pallava Nandivarman II invades and defeats the Ganga kingdom at the battle of Villande.
c. 768–815Pandya Parantaka Nedunchadaiyan (Varaguna Pandyan) rules in Madurai.[21]
c. 767Pandya forces defeat the Pallavas on the south banks of the Kaveri river.
c. 800–830Varagunan I becomes Pandya king and extends his empire up to Tiruchirapalli by defeating the Pallava king Dandivarman.
c. 830-862Pandya Sirmara Srivallabha rules in Madurai.
c. 840Srimara Srivallabha invades the Anuradhapura Kingdom and captures the northern provinces of king Sena I of Anuradhapura.[22]
c. 848The rise of Vijayalaya Chola in Tanjavur after the defeat of the Muttaraiyar.[23]
c. 846-869Pallava Nadivarman III leads an invasion against the Pandya kingdom and defeats the Pandyas at the battle of Tellaru. The territory of the Pallava kingdom now extends to the river Vaigai.
c. 859Pandya Srivallaba defeats the Pallavas in battle at Kumbakonam.
c. 862Sinhalese forces led by Sena II of Anuradhapura invade the Pandyan kingdom and sack Madurai. Srimara is killed in battle.

Chola period

PeriodEvents
c. 903Chola king Aditya I defeats the Pallava king Aparajitavarman.[24]
c. 949Battle of Takkolam.
c. 985Accession of Rajaraja Chola I.[24]
c. 1010Rajaraja completes the Brihadisvara Temple.
c. 1012Accession of Rajendra Chola I.[24]
c. 1017Rajendra invades and annexes the Anuradhapura Kingdom.[25] Cholas capture the crown, queen, daughter, and wealth of King Mahinda V of Anuradhapura and take king himself as a prisoner to Tamil Nadu, where he eventually died in exile in 1029.
c. 1023Rajendra's Expedition to the Ganges.[26]
c. 1025Chola navies defeat the king of Srivijaya[27]
c. 1054Rajadhiraja Chola dies in the battle of Koppam against Western Chalukyas[27]
c. 1070Accession of Kulothunga Chola I[27]
c. 1118Vikrama Chola[27]
c. 1133Kulothunga Chola II[27]
c. 1146Rajaraja Chola II[27]
c. 1163Rajadhiraja Chola II[27]
c. 1178Kulothunga Chola III[27]
c. 1216Rajaraja Chola III[27]
c. 1246Rajendra Chola III[27]

Chola to Pandya transition

PeriodEvents
c. 1190–1260Bana Dynasty rule begins in Magadaimandalam with family title of 'ponparappinan' and headquarters at Aragalur.[27]
c. 1215 Kalinga Magha invades Sri Lanka leading to the fall of the Polonnaruwa Kingdom. The Jaffna Kingdom, a Tamil kingdom in Sri Lanka, is established.
c. 1216–1238The Kadava dynasty and Maravarman Sundara Pandyan establish rule over regions of South India.[28]

Pandiya revival and Muslim rule

PeriodEvents
1251Accession of Jatavarman Sundara Pandyan I.[29]
1279End of the Chola dynasty with the death of Rajendra Chola III.[27]
1268–1310Kulasekara Pandiyan rules in Madurai.[29]
1308Malik Kafur, a general of Alauddin Khalji, invades Devagiri en route to Tamil Nadu.[30]
1310Sundara Pandian III, son of Kulasekara Pandiyan, appointed as co-regent by his father. This angered his other son Vira Pandyan and prompted him to kill his father and defeat his elder brother, who then fled to Alauddin Khalji to become king.[31]
1311Malik Kafur invades the Pandiya country and attacks Madurai.[30]
1327–1370Madurai under the rule of the Madurai Sultanate.[30]

Vijayanagar and Nayak period

PeriodEvents
1370Bukka, ruler of the Vijayanagara Empire and his son Kumara Kamapna capture the entire Tamil country.
c. 1447–1450 Bhuvanaikabahu VI of Kotte conquers the Jaffna Kingdom, and the kingdom becomes a part of the Sinhalese Kingdom of Kotte.
1467 The Jaffna Kingdom regains independence from the Kingdom of Kotte.
1518The Portuguese land on Coromandel Coast in Pulicat.[32]
1532–1580Sevappa Nayak rules as the first independent Nayak ruler in Tanjavur.
1560–1621 Portuguese conquest of the Jaffna Kingdom – the Portuguese invade and annex the Jaffna Kingdom and take king Cankili II as a POW, thus marking the end of the Jaffna Kingdom.
1600–1645Ragunatha Nayak, the greatest of the Tanjavur Nayaks.
1609The Dutch establish a settlement in Pulicat.
1623–1659Tirumalai Nayak rules in Madurai.
1639The British East India Company purchases Chennapatinam and establishes Fort St. George.
1652Tanjavur and Gingee fall to the Bijapur Sultan.
1656Mysore army invades Salem against the Madurai Nayak Tirumalai.
1676Maratha army from Bijapur marches into Tanjavur, Ekoji declares himself king.[33]
1692The Carnatic Sultanate established by Nawab Zulfiqar Ali Khan, a viceroy of the Mughal emperor.
1746Bertrand-François Mahé de La Bourdonnais of the French East India Company attacks and captures Fort St. George from the British.

East India Company

PeriodEvents
1749British regain Fort St. George through the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, arising out of the War of the Austrian Succession.
1751Robert Clive attacks Arcot and captures it.[34]
1756The British and the French sign the first Carnatic treaty. Mahommed Ali Walajah is recognized as Nawab of the Carnatic
1759The French, led by Thomas Arthur, Comte de Lally, attack Madras.
1760The Battle of Vandavasi between the British and the French.
1767Hyder Ali, Sultan of Mysore attacks Madras against the British, but is defeated by the British at the Battle of Chengam.
1773The British Government passes the Regulating Act. The administration of Madras comes under British government review.
1777–1832Serfoji II rules in Tanjavur.
1799Serfoji cedes the Tanjavur kingdom to the British.
1801Maruthu Pandiyar of Sivaganga organise the South Indian Chieftains against the East India Company. After a series of battles, they were captured and hanged in Tiruppathur Fort.
1803Bentinck appointed governor of Madras.
1800–1805Poligar Wars
1806The Vellore Mutiny: Indian soldiers of the East India Company Vellore mutiny against governor William Bentinck in Vellore fort. 114 British officers are killed and 19 mutineers are executed.

British rule

PeriodEvents
1892British government passes the Indian Councils Act.
1909Minto-Morley Reforms – Madras Legislative Council formed.
19201920 Madras Presidency Legislative Council election – the first regional elections held in Madras. The Justice Party wins the election without any significant opposition and forms a government.[35]
1927The Madras Congress passes a resolution for "full independence"
1928The Simon Commission visits Madras. Mass protests result in several deaths.
1937The Indian National Congress (INC) led by C. Rajagopalachari wins the 1937 legislative council elections and forms a government in Madras, defeating the incumbent Justice Party which held power for nearly 17 years.
1938E. V. Ramasamy organises a separatist agitation demanding Dravida Nadu, a proposed sovereign state for the speakers of Dravidian languages in South India, consisting of the Indian states of Madras, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.
1944"Periyar" E.V. Ramasamy and C. N. Annadurai establish the Dravidar Kazhagam (DK).
The All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC), the first Sri Lankan Tamil political party, is founded by G. G. Ponnambalam.

Post-independence period

PeriodEvents
1947The Madras Presidency, comprising Tamil Nadu and parts of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka is established
1949 C. N. Annadurai splits from the DK to form the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK).
A group of three Sri Lankan Tamil politicians, S. J. V. Chelvanayakam, C. Vanniasingam and Senator E. M. V. Naganathan, split from the ACTC to form the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK).
1953Madras State comes into being along linguistic lines.
1956 The Official Language Act (No. 33 of 1956), also known as the Sinhala Only Act is passed by the Parliament of Ceylon.[36] The act replaced English with Sinhala as the sole official language of Ceylon, with the controversial exclusion of Tamil.
1958 The Sinhala Only Act is amended and the Tamil Language (Special Provisions) Act of 1958 is passed in Ceylon, thus making Tamil an official language of Ceylon.
1965Widespread anti-Hindi agitations in response to the union government's decision to make Hindi as the national language of India.
1967 An alliance led by the DMK wins the 1967 Madras elections and replaces the INC government in Madras State; C. N. Annadurai becomes the first non-INC Chief Minister of Madras post-independence.
1969Madras state is renamed as Tamil Nadu (country of the Tamils).[37][38]
1972 After decades of oppression of Sri Lankan Tamils by the Sinhalese government, Velupillai Prabhakaran founds the Tamil New Tigers, which would later be renamed as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 1976. It was a Sri Lankan Tamil militant group which advocated for the creation of an independent state of Tamil Eelam in the Northern and the Eastern Provinces of Sri Lanka.
1983–2009 The Sri Lankan Civil War is fought between the Sri Lanka Army and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. It ended in May 2009 with the total military defeat of the LTTE, the killing of Velupillai Prabhakaran and a total of 80,000–100,000 deaths.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Manual of the Puttalam District of the North-Western Province of Ceylon (1908), Frank Modder, p.55.
  2. ↑ Minahan, James (2012). Ethnic Groups of South Asia and the Pacific: An Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-59884-659-1.
  3. ↑ Srinivasan, Sharada (15 November 1994). "Wootz crucible steel: a newly discovered production site in South India". Papers from the Institute of Archaeology. 5: 49–59. doi:10.5334/pia.60.
  4. ↑ Coghlan, Herbert Henery (1977). Notes on prehistoric and early iron in the Old World (2nd ed.). Pitt Rivers Museum. pp. 99–100.
  5. ↑ Sasisekharan, B. (1999). "Technology of Iron and Steel in Kodumanal" (PDF). Indian Journal of History of Science. 34 (4). Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 July 2015.
  6. ↑ Ward, Gerald W. R. (2008). The Grove Encyclopedia of Materials and Techniques in Art. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 380. ISBN 978-0-19531-391-8.
  7. ↑ Dennis S. Jesudasan (20 September 2019). "Keezhadi excavations: Sangam era older than previously thought, finds study". The Hindu.
  8. ↑ "Keeladi | Department Of Archaeology". www.tnarch.gov.in. Retrieved 12 August 2021.
  9. ↑ "Keeladi: Unearthing the 'Vaigai Valley' Civilisation of Sangam era Tamil Nadu".
  10. ↑ எஸ். அண்ணாமலை (18 June 2015). "அகழ்ந்தெடுக்கப்பட்டது: பாண்டிய-ரோம வணிகத் தொடர்பு (ஆங்கிலத்தில்)". The Hindu. Retrieved 12 September 2015.
  11. ↑ Marine archaeological explorations of Tranquebar-Poompuhar region on Tamil Nadu coast, Rao, S.R.. Journal of Marine Archaeology, Vol. II, July 1991. Available online at Archived 24 January 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  12. ↑ Gaur A. S. and Sundaresh, Underwater Exploration off Poompuhar and possible causes of its Submergence, 1998, Puratattva, 28: 84-90. Available online at
  13. ↑ "Indian town sees evidence of ancient tsunami", Associated Press report, Poompuhar,14 January 2005. Available online at
  14. ↑ Singh, Upinder (2009). A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India 1st Edition. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson. ISBN 978-8131716779.
  15. ↑ Allan Dahlaquist. Megasthenes and Indian Religion
  16. ↑ Keay, John (2000) [2001]. India: A history. India: Grove Press. ISBN 0-8021-3797-0.
  17. ↑ Strabo XV.1
  18. ↑ Lionel Casson (2012). The Periplus Maris Erythraei: Text with Introduction, Translation, and Commentary. Princeton University Press. pp. 213–214. ISBN 978-1-4008-4320-6.
  19. ↑ Zvelebil, Kamil Veith (1991). Companion Studies to the History of Tamil Literature. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978-9004093652.
  20. ↑ Coningham (), Robin; et al. "Anuradhapura (Sri Lanka) Project, Phase I: ASW2". Arts and Humanities Research Council. Archived from the original on 7 March 2013. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
  21. ↑ "Preserving the past". The Hindu. India. 3 February 2010.
  22. ↑ "Sinhala king and South Indian invasions". Daily News. Sri Lanka. 20 October 2009. Archived from the original on 21 March 2013.
  23. ↑ "Chapter 1-4.pmd" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 March 2012. Retrieved 7 November 2012.
  24. 1 2 3 Kulke and Rothermund (2010). A History of India. Routledge. p. 115. ISBN 9780415485432.
  25. ↑ Meyer, Holger (1999). Umsatzsteuer - Binnenmarkt. Berlin: Boorberg. p. 73. ISBN 978-3415026131.
  26. ↑ Majumdar, R.C. (1934). Ancient Indian Colonies In The Far East. Dacca: Asoke Humar Majumdar Ramna. p. 407.
  27. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Nilakanta Sastri, K.A. (2005). A History of South India. New Age International Limited (P). p. 158.
  28. ↑ Sethuraman, N (1980). Medieval Pandyas, A.D. 1000-1200. University of Michigan.
  29. 1 2 Thinakaran, Alice Justina (15 May 2007). The Second Pandyan Empire, A.D. 1190-1312. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan. p. 225.
  30. 1 2 3 Aiyangar, Sakkottai Krishnaswami (1921). South India and her Muhammadan Invaders. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. pp. 222–223.
  31. ↑ Aiyangar, Sakkottai Krishnaswami (1921). South India and her Muhammadan Invaders. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. p. 97.
  32. ↑ "Portuguese on the Coromandel". The Hindu. India. 17 May 2004. Archived from the original on 1 August 2004.
  33. ↑ "Historical Moments". Thanjavur Municipality, Tamil Nadu state Government. Archived from the original on 17 June 2013. Retrieved 28 May 2013.
  34. ↑ "Excerpts from a Sergeant's Diary recounting Robert Clive's capture of Arcot, September-October 1751". Project South Asia. South Dakota State University, USA. Retrieved 11 July 2013.
  35. ↑ "A history of agitational politics". Frontline. India. 10 April 2004.
  36. ↑ Sri Lanka Consolidated Acts
  37. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 18 March 2016. Retrieved 11 May 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  38. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 December 2013. Retrieved 11 May 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  • Nilakanta Sastri, K.A. A History of South India, OUP, Reprinted 2000
  • Nilakanta Sastri, K.A., Srinivasachari, Advanced History of India, Allied Publishers Ltd, New Delhi, Reprinted 2000
  • Read, Anthony, The Proudest Day - India's Long Ride to Independence, Jonathan Cape, London, 1997
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