Thu Feb 27 16:15:06 UTC 2025: ## Chola Empire and Tamil Culture Explored at Madurai Conference
**Madurai, February 27, 2025** – A two-day international conference on Tamil language and culture concluded Thursday at The American College in Madurai. The event, organized by the college’s Tamil Department, featured presentations on various aspects of Tamil history and society.
Historian Y. Subbarayalu delivered the keynote address, focusing on the Chola empire’s history and geography. He analyzed medieval Tamil society using later Chola period inscriptions as primary sources, highlighting the potential for mapping settlement patterns based on village names mentioned in these inscriptions. His presentation also touched upon the caste system during the Chola period.
Other speakers included T. Sanathanan, a senior lecturer from the University of Jaffna, Sri Lanka, who discussed the traditional centering of Tamil identity around literature, music, and drama. D. Senthil Babu, a researcher from the French Institute of Pondicherry, presented on accounting systems from the later Chola period through British rule, tracing their evolution from political necessities to tools of administrative control.
The conference, attended by Principal M. Davamani Christober, historian and writer Stalin Rajangam, and others, included discussions on a wide range of topics related to Tamil language and culture.
First Piper 