The use of clothing in Sangam literature

Literature can be said to be the expression of human life. Just as modern literature reflects the lifestyle of today's people, Sangam literature depicts the lifestyle of the people of the Sangam period. Even though many literary elements such as imagination, parable, and metaphor are included in a literature, their content should be in line with the lifestyle of the people. Only literature that exists in this way will remain in the minds of the people over time. In this way, among the basic needs essential to human life, next to food is clothing. In ancient times, man wore animal skins as clothing to protect himself from the cold, and later, due to the development of civilization, he started wearing leaves as clothing. Later, he wore clothes based on the sense of beauty. In this way, the clothes that were in circulation among the people of the Sangam period are examined through literature. Thus, this study examines the fact that Sangam literature records the types of clothing that were in use during the Sangam period, such as udukkai, odalis, oliyal, kalingam, kachu-var, thaliyadai, thokai, puttakam, poonkarai neelam, porvai, erani, kazhakam, thanai, tugil.