Silappathikaram and Manimekalai are the two important epics useful for insights into cultural and religious history.

Ettuthogai and Pathupattu collections have about 2400 poems. These poems, varying in length from 3 to 800 lines, were composed by panar, the wandering bards and pulavar, the poets .

Three levels of rulers are found:
1) Kizhar,
2) Velir,
3) Vendar

In the south, the three family ruling houses, the Cholas, the Cheras and the Pandyas

Adukotpattu Cheralathan
Father - Kudakko Cheralathan
Mother - Velaavi komaan's daughter (Paduman) Devi
Capital: Thondi
Period of Rule : 25 years - (A.D. 19-44)

Hiuen- Tsang is reported to have seen at Kanchi one hundred Buddhist monasteries and 10,000 priests belonging to the Mahayana school.

1. The Asokan inscriptions, written in Prakrit,found in Andhra-Karnataka regions.
2. The Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions found in the caves of TamilNadu and Kerala such as in Mangulam, Jambai, and Pugalur.
3. The Satavahana inscriptions and other Buddhist inscriptions of the Andhra region

1. Coins of pre-Satavahana chieftains and of the Satavahanas from Andhra- Karnataka region. The coins issued by the Cheras, Cholas, Pandyas, and the chieftains of the Sangam Age.
2. Roman copper, silver and gold coins.

1. The megalithic burials sites of the early historic period.
2. Excavated material from ancient sites, including ports, capital towns, with architectural remains, such as in Arikamedu, Kodumanal, Alagankulam, and Uraiyur.
3. Buddhist sites with stupas and chaityas located in Andhra and Kamataka regions (Amaravati, Nagarjunakonda, etc.)

Kizhar:
Kizhar were the heads of the villages or a small territory, later known as nadu. They were the chiefs of tribal communities living in specific areas. The Vendar were kings controlling larger, fertile territories.
Velir:
The Velir, who were many in number, controlled the territories of varied geographical nature, mainly hilly and forest areas, that were in between the muvendar's fertile territories.

Hiranyagarbha literally means golden womb. A person coming out of this golden womb, after elaborate rituals performed by priests, is declared as reborn possessing a celestial body. The Satavahana king Gautamiputra Sathakarni performed this ritual to claim Kshatriya status.

Karikalan's foremost military achievement was the defeat of the Cheras and Pandyas, supported by as many as eleven Velir chieftains at Venni. He is credited with converting forest into habitable regions and developing agriculture by providing irrigation through the embankment of the Kaveri and building reservoirs.

The stupa is a heap of clay that evolved out of earthen funerary mounds, in which the ashes of the dead were buried. Buddhist stupas evolved out of the burial of the ashes of the mortal remains of the Buddha. Buddhist sacred architecture originated with the eight stupas where the ashes were divided. Hemispherical shape, the stupa symbolizes the universe; and the Buddha represents the emperor of the spiritual universe. The stupa has a path around it for devotional circumambulation.

Foreign Notices
The following Greek and Latin sources inform us about the long distance cultural and commercial connections.
1. The Periplus of Erythrean Sea, an ancient Greek text of the first century CE.
2. Pliny the Elder's Natural History, first century CE
3. Ptolemy's Geography, second century CE
4. Vienna Papyrus G 40822, aGreek document datable to the second century CE.
5. A Roman Map called Peutingerian Table

The polities of the Cheras, Cholas and Pandyas were pre-state chiefdoms. The arguments for the latter view are:
1. No social stratification is noticed.
2. Proper territorial association is absent.
3. Destructive warfare did not allow the development of agriculture and surplus production for the emergence of the state.
4. No evidence of taxation as in the governments of North India.