Posted by RAM NARAYAN S on Nov. 23, 2013, 9:21 p.m.
The history of Tamil Nadu goes back to the early stone age. The region of Tamil Nadu (now one of the states in the south of the Republic of India) has been under continuous human habitation since prehistoric times.
The civilisation of the Tamil people is among the oldest in the world and has been influenced by, influenced, and coexisted with many external cultures.
The three Tamil dynasties of Chera, Chola and Pandya were all of ancient origins. Together they ruled over Tamil Nadu with a unique culture and language, contributing to the growth of Sangam Literature, some of the oldest literature in the world.
They had extensive oversee trade contacts with the Roman and Greek empires later on. These three dynasties were in constant struggle with each other as they wanted hegemony over the land.
Invasion by the Kalabhras during the third century disturbed the tradition, and order of the land by displacing the three traditional ruling dynasties. These occupiers were overthrown by the Pandyas and the Pallavas, who restored the kingdoms. The Cholas, who came back from obscurity in the ninth century by defeating the Pallavas and the Pandyas, rose to become a great power and extended their empire over the entire southern peninsula. At its height the Chola empire had spread from Bengal in the northeast to Sri Lanka in the south. The Chola navy held sway over the Sri Vijaya kingdom in Southeast Asia.
Rapid changes in the political situation of the rest of India occurred due to the incursions of Muslim armies from the northwest marked a turning point in the history of Tamil Nadu. With the decline of the three ancient dynasties during the fourteenth century, the Tamil country became part of the Vijayanagara Empire. Under this empire the Telugu speaking Nayak governors ruled the Tamil land. The brief appearance of the Marathas gave way to the European trading companies, who began to appear during the seventeenth century and eventually assumed greater sway over the indigenous rulers of the land. The Madras Presidency comprising of most of southern India including what is now Tamil Nadu, was created in the eighteenth century and was ruled directly by theBritish East India Company. After the independence of India by Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi, the Tamil Nadu state was created based on linguistic boundaries, due to a Telugu man who wished the Telugu speaking land bordering Tamil Nadu to become its own state, which it did, Andra Pradesh was born. This caused a chain reaction because the other languages also wanted their own states. This led to state boundaries because of linguistic reasons, and gave birth to many other linguisticly devised states, including Tamil Nadu.