Economic Heritage of the Tamils (Proceedings of the National Seminar on the Economic Heritage of the Tamils) 27-01-1993 To 29-01-1993

The importance of Economy was felt even in the primitive society.

A mighty man with considerable wealth became the leader of an ethnic group. The head of many such groups has often emerged as the king.

The early Tamils had referred to this economy in the name porul, otherwise called "the wealth".

Thirukkural, an earliest Tamil ethical literature deals with the importance of porul in more than half of its couplets, in a similar way to the other ancient Tamil classical grammars and literatures.

Tamil monarchies, viz. Chera, Chola and Pandiya, fight for the progress of their wealth within themselves or rarely with their neighbours by sea or land.

They ran armies containing elephants, chariots, horses and infantrymen for such fights in order to protect their land and the people who live within their territories.

Such instances are registered in the verses of the early Tamil classics.

Agriculture became the main source of income when the ancient Tamils gave up their frequent wars. Due to the change of scene in the political atmosphere, poverty was slowly eradicated and the people had spent their time in developing art and religion.

Recently, the International Institute of Tamil Studies, with the aim to study the Heritage of the Tamils down from the period of ancient monarchies, conducted ten National Seminars over a period of ten years.

The proceedings of these seminars were printed and published for the benefit of researchers.

The present publication, a collection of 30 papers written in English and one in Tamil, is a yield of the eleventh conference on the Heritage series.

I hope the following proceedings will be a reference guide to the researchers in this field.

The authors of these papers deserve praise for bringing out the facts and readable texts to the people, for generations to come. I sincerely thank our Hon'ble Chief Minister DR. KALAIGNAR, who is also the Chairman of the International Institute of Tamil Studies, for his able guidance on Tamil Studies and his kindness towards the Tamil Scholars.

Hon'ble Finance Minister Professor K. Anbazhagan, dedi cates himself for the Tamils and the Tamil language, deserves our sincere thanks.

I also thank to Thiru. Dr. K. Rajamanickam I.A.S.(Retd.), Secretary to Hon'ble Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for the constant encouragement of Tamil Studies.

For his support in conducting Tamil Studies in the International Institute of Tamil Studies, my sincere thanks go to Thiru D. Rajendran I.A.S., Secretary to Government, Tamil Development, Endowments and Information department.

I appreciate Dr. Annie Thomas, the editor of this publication and all staff members for their untiring work in arranging the current seminars.