Abstract

Records of famine and drought in Tamil society are found in literature and oral tradition from the Sangam age itself. They used the traditional astronomical knowledge of the Tamils to predict droughts and accordingly started facing droughts.  Paalaithinai, one of the five thinais, is a deviation from Kurinji and Mullai due to drought. Thus, the impact of famine and drought on the Tamil society has been there for a long time. In the modern era, with the advancement of weather forecasting technologies, natural droughts and famines caused by climate change are now caused by artificial famines due to the wrong economic activities of the government and the war environment. In this context, this article discusses the famines in Tamil Nadu, the effects of the famine, how the Tamil people dealt with it and the records of famine found in Sangam literature and modern literature.

Keywords

Drought, Famine, Sangam Literature, Climate Change, The Great Famine 1878,

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