The earliest Tamil literature, composed in the early centuries of the Common Era, is known as

Sangam literature, including Tolkappiyam, Pattuppattu and Ettuthogai, gives details of the Chola, Chera and Pandya kingdoms, trade with Rome and society in early Tamilakam. Vedic literature is in Sanskrit, the Jataka tales are Buddhist stories in Pali, and the Puranas are later Sanskrit texts of the Gupta period onwards.