The Pandayan Empire

The road East across the plain leads inevitably to the large city of Madurai, centre of trade of the great Pandyan Empire. This was the peak of the great Sangam age. The Sangam Academies of scholars were centred in Madurai and flourished between about 300 BCE and 400 CE. They laid the foundation, through great works of literature for a defined linguistic area, the Tamilkam, roughly corresponding to the whole of the South. The third Sangam, or congregation of scholars and poets was held here in around 1800 BC. The first and second Sangam ages are generally accepted as mythical, one legend telling that they were held in cities since inundated by the sea.

The Pandyan Empire

When the first Greeks came here the Pandyan Empire spread over most of the extreme tip of the peninsular. Present-day Sri Lanka was part of this kingdom, but the lands in between were still primitive and controlled by small chiefdoms. By the time of the Roman Empire the Cholas to the East and the Chera to the West had pushed the Pandaya further South. The area had always been a seething mess of small chiefdoms, sometimes allied to the main Pandyan rulers, sometimes fighting against them.  
The Chola, to the North and West, built a maritime trade. By the first century CE they were actively trading with South East Asia and Indonesia, and had a developed Navy. The great wealth which came from overseas trade helped to build a well-organised and cultured society. They declined from the end of the Sangam period until about 850 CE. One of the rock edicts of Ashoka mentions the three “crowned” dynasties of the South, the Pandyas, Cholas and Cheras.

The wealth which enabled the great Pandya city of Madurai to grow and thrive came from two directions, both East and West. Madurai, positioned in the centre of the peninsular and with access to the sea routes to the extreme South in Tuticorin and Sri Lanka and to the West via the gaps in the mountains. It may hold the record for the longest continually-inhabited city in the world.

Sangam poetry tells of the richness and sophistication of the time and is often the only historical source remaining. The Greeks and Romans knew the city well and traded here, caches of coins and records unearthed far away telling of the spices which were taken out and the wine and silks which went in the other direction. There is even evidence of Greek soldiers serving in the army of the Pandyan kings. There are good classical references to the kingdom and its trade in both Greek and Roman sources.

Nothing can be seen now of Madurai’s ancient roots. The temples came much later, but there is much in Madurai which is timeless. The market traders sit at the roadside in front of their produce. Right next to the temple the tailors trade from booths where they are packed in so tight that it is difficult to see how they can manage to move their sewing machines and the shoppers push and shove to negotiate the narrow walkways.  Just outside the city the rock-cut temple bears hundreds of years of soot from lanterns and butter lamps and the elephant gives its age-old blessing to anyone with donation. Away from the city on the surrounding hills where wild-life still proliferates, the four huge gopura dominate the low sprawl around them, just as they would have done in previous centuries, and Madurai is still a city of trade

In the Sangam age the South was divided into five areas whose boundaries are uncertain, but which seemed to be based on topographical features. Kuttenad is still recognisable today in the low, rice-growing area, Venad the present day Trivandrum region, or “Land of the Chieftans”. In the early years of this period the Ay dynasty in the South and the Ezhimalas in the North separated the Cheras who came in between.

The world outside India

The far East was experiencing its own growth of philosophy and thinking. Buddhist monks had probably reached China by this time and some of the most significant philosophers made their appearance.  Confucius (551 to 479 BCE) introduced a philosophy that combined ethics with religious traditions, a philosophy that would dominate Chinese political structure until the 20th century. At about the same time, we also see Laotze introducing a more sophisticated version of traditional nature worship called Taoism, in one of the greatest books ever written, the Tao te Ching. The Tao philosophy was to influence later Buddhism.
From 403 to 221 BCE, China was split into a number of warring states.  In 221 BCE, the Ch'in dynasty established its rule.  The Ch’in were great organisers and administrators. They began the task of building the Great Wall to keep out the invading Huns. The Ch’in were overtaken by the Han, who defeated the Hun and expanded Westwards, building new trade routes and establishing the longest and most persistent of them all, the Silk Road. This route joined sea routes as it wound its way across continents to Rome and further Westwards. Although there is little evidence of direct trade with the Chinese at this time, finds of Chinese Porcelain suggest that Chinese goods were reaching the South of India. They were certainly reaching Rome; the Emperor Augustus forbade the wearing of silk as a drain on Rome’s resources.

http://factsanddetails.com/china/cat2/sub90/item50.html

The connection with the East and West allowed for the free exchange of ideas and trade.  The links between South India and the Empires of the Middle East were already strong. From 2000 BCE Arab traders, who were very cagey about the origins of their goods, imported  spices, precious stones, cinnamon, ivory, pepper, ebony and sandalwood and sold them in Egypt and around the

A sturdy-looking Phonecian ship
http://exploration.marinersmuseum.org/watercraft/phoenician-ships/

Mediterranean.  The great Assyrian rulers, Assurbanipal and Tiglath Pileser 111 recorded cotton and other common articles of South Indian origin, and there were records of imports of elephants, tiger and leopard skins, spices, gingelly oil and other commodities until the fall of Assyria in 600 BCE.
King Solomon, who reigned around 1950 BCE reputedly sent his fleet to India, and the fabled port of Ophir was said to be in the South of the continent. He did receive ivory and peacock feathers from somewhere, but he is also said to have had ships filled with gold, something not found in the South, and it is unlikely that gold from another country was being traded. However, it is likely that his fleet reached India and traded there, whether in the South or the North. The seas between India and the Middle East were known by most of the empires of the ancient world, and these empires must have been familiar to the populations of South India. Trade routes hugged the coasts and eventually connected with the great overland routes carrying tea and silk from China.  Connections between the South Eastern coast and the West of the continent were hampered by the ridge of the Western Ghats, although the Palghat Gap allowed for some to-ing and fro-ing and was one of the routes goods to Madurai, the great trading town in what is now Tamil Nadu, would have taken.

Roman trade: Relief from Trajan's column

In about 302 BCE Greek ambassadors, under their leader, Megisthenes visited the Ganges plain, and there is a tradition that he reached as far South as Madurai. The city, which was the centre of the Pandyan dynasty, sent representatives to Greece and Rome and trade flourished there. He wrote a four-volume book, Indika, which has been lost in its entirety. Fragments remain and it was quoted and interpreted by later scholars such as Pliny, Strabo and Aelian. They made little of the outrageous claims Megisthenes made about the people and fauna of India, and later geographers and historians discredited his accounts. Many of his strange descriptions might be a result of language and cultural problems, although explaining these creatures could prove difficult:

"Equally absurd is the account given of the Enotokoitai, of the wild men, and of other monsters. The wild men could not be brought to Sandrakottos, for they refused to, take food and died. Their heels are in front, and the instep and toes are turned backwards. Some were brought to the court who had no mouths and were tame. They dwell near the sources of the Ganges, and subsist on the savour of roasted flesh and the perfumes of fruits and flowers, having instead of mouths orifices through which they breathe. They are distressed with things of evil smell, and hence it is with difficulty they keep their hold on life, especially in a camp. Referring to the other monstrosities, the philosophers told him of the Okupedes, a people who in running could leave the horse behind; of the Enotokoitai, who had ears reaching down to their feet, so that they could sleep in them, and were so strong that they could pull up trees and break a bowstring. Of others the Monommatoi, who have the ears of a dog, their one eye set in the middle of their forehead, the hair standing erect, and their breasts shaggy; of the Amukteres also, a people without nostrils, who devour everything, eat raw meat, and are short-lived, and die before old age supervenes. The upper part of the mouth protrudes far over the lower lip. With regard to the Hyperboreans, who live a thousand years, they give the same account"
Strabo, from Megasthenes: Indika, Trans. J. W. McCrindle

Megisthenes also described the caste system of the Indians, describing seven castes and marvelling at the fact that there were no slaves. As these accounts percolated Westwards they established India as a place of mystery and strangeness. Within India itself, the Aryan culture was spreading South with the Mauryan kingdom, which had an aggressive policy of taking its superior way of life to the less- advantaged people elsewhere. In Madurai the Pandyan dynasty was jostling with the Chola and Chera for primacy in the great age of the Tamil Sangam.
 

Influences from he West.

The life of the Buddha might have been consigned to the dustbin of history as little was heard of  the localised sect in the kingdom of Maghada for two hundred years or so, but the West was spreading its influence Eastwards and routes were opening up by commerce and conquest..

The extent of the Mauryan Empire under Ashoka

The greatest upheaval in the North was the conquest of a large area by Alexander the Great, who had become King of Macedonia, leader of the Greeks, overlord of Asia Minor and Pharaoh of Egypt and 'great king' of Persia at the age of 25. In 500 BCE the Persian King, Darius, had invaded the Indus Valley but the Greeks conquered Persia and he got no further. In 326 Alexander’s armies took a large area of the North, defeating the local ruler, Porus.  By the time the European and Paurava armies faced each other across the banks of the river Jhelum in the Punjab, Alexander’s troops were weary after a long campaign and some hard-won victories in present day Afghanistan and Pakistan.  The 34,000 Macedonian infantry and 7000 Greek cavalry were aided by the Indian king Ambhi, who was Porus’s rival. Ambhi was the ruler of the neighbouring kingdom of Taxila and had offered to help Alexander on the condition that he would be given Porus’s kingdom.
The large numbers of Indian infantry and the war elephants proved a great trial to the Macedonians, but after a ferocious battle Alexander finally prevailed. His conquests spread to what is today the Punjab, spreading to Jammu and the Himalayas. He made alliances with local rulers, and when he returned to Persia, discouraged and with an exhausted and rebellious force, he left several generals to rule the provinces from his centre, Taxila, now in modern Pakistan. Although his rule was very brief the influence of Greek art and culture was long-lasting. As Macedonia broke up following Alexandra’s death, the Selucid Emperor, Nicator, ruled in his place and held the territories in India. It is possible that the reputation of the growing power of the kingdoms of the East were a further disincentive to Alexander to expand his conquests to the Ganges valleys.
While Alexander was taking territory in the West, Chandragupta  Maurya was taking the Nanda lands
round the Ganges Delta. His ambitions led him further West and he met Nicator in battle and defeated him. The resulting treaty, sealed by a marriage, gave the growing Mauryan Empire most of Alexander’s gains. Chandragupta’s statecraft and administrative talents allowed the Mauryan Empire to spread to encompass most of the Indian peninsular, the first unifying kingdom, ruled from Pataliputra, modern day Patna.

 Ashoka Major Rock Edict, Shahbazgarhi

Chandragupta secured the great Mauryan Empire before abdicating in favour of his son, Bindasura. He inherited an empire which spread from the previous Macedonaian conquests across to present day Bengal and as far South as the borders of Tamil Nadu, with the exception of the Kalinga kingdom, modern Orissa. It was Bindasura’s son, Ashoka, who famously united the whole of the Indian peninsular, apart from the Southernmost kingdoms at the very tip.
In about 260 BCE, before he became emperor, Ashoka waged a ferocious campaign against Kalinga which resulted in the death and exile of over 100,000 people. According to the popular legend, he was so sickened by the cruelty of what he had initiated that he turned against violence and embraced a doctrine very similar to Bhuddism. His many edicts, carved on huge boulders across his empire, spread his doctrine of tolerance and peace.

Ashoka was the first unifying ruler of India. There is no evidence that his great empire stretched as far as Kerala. His carved rock edicts have been found as far south as Karnataka and he was in contact with the Buddhist communities of Sri Lanka, but no evidence of his rule has emerged in Kerala so far. A single reference to the south in Edict 13, that of Kerala-putra, is taken to mean that Ashoka’s rule stretched to the beyond Karnataka, but there is no clear definition of what Kerala-putra actually meant geographically. 

   There is a suggestion that trade links with the north were well developed, so it is reasonable to assume that Ashoka’s legacy reached far into the South. Ashoka’s dates have been reliably calculated to the third century BC. He is credited with spreading the Buddhist philosophy of Dharma throughout India, although he did not seem to be too particular which religion or sect incorporated it into their own beliefs.