Which one of the following statements about Sangam literature in ancient South India is correct ?

Sangam literature is described as a key source consulted by historians to investigate the society and culture of the times.

A student could check whether works used as social evidence commonly contain material-culture references (objects, crafts, places) to support their use as historical sources.

Tholkappiyam is noted as dealing not only with poetry but also the society and culture of the times, implying literary texts include social-cultural detail.

One could look in Tholkappiyam for explicit mentions of crafts, tools, dress, or economic activities as examples of material-culture references.

The thinai concept links ecological zones to specific people, deities and cultural life, a pattern in Sangam poems tying landscape descriptions to human activities.

Using basic geographic knowledge, a student could infer that poems describing fishing, agriculture, or hill life likely mention related material items (boats, ploughs, weapons) and then seek such terms in the texts.

This snippet lists concrete craft production (bronze vessels, beads, textiles, shell bangles, iron smithy, pottery) attested for the Sangam Age, linking the period to recognizable material culture.

A student could test whether Sangam poems reference the same crafts/items named here, using the archaeological/archival inventory as a checklist.

A Sangam work (Pathitrupathu) praises Kodumanam for gemstones, and excavations at Kodumanal yielded conches, bangles, furnaces and inscribed potsherds, showing literary place-names correspond to material finds.

One could use the correspondence between poem-place-names and archaeological finds to hypothesize that poems include material-detail (gem trade, crafts) and then search those poems for such references.

Defines varna as an Aryan/Vedic category (Rig Veda references Arya and Dasa) and notes emergence of social classes including sudras.

A student could use this to check chronological and geographic spread of Vedic/varna ideas (from north to south) against the Sangam period timeline to see if contact made transmission plausible.

Describes the Later Vedic consolidation and changing privileges of the four varnas, showing varna was a well-developed Brahmanical model by later Vedic times.

Compare the period when varna became established in Vedic texts with the Sangam centuries to assess contemporaneity and opportunity for influence.

Explains the concept of jati as distinct from varna and how Brahmanical authorities classified new groups into jatis when the fourfold varna didn't fit.

Use this distinction to search Sangam texts for evidence of caste-like occupational groups (jatis) versus explicit fourfold varna terminology.

States Tholkappiyam is the earliest extant Tamil grammatical text dealing with poetry and society — i.e., Sangam literature explicitly treats social matters.

Examine Tholkappiyam and other Sangam works (anthologies) for vocabulary or social categories that match or diverge from 'varna' terminology.

Sangam age sources mention social disparities, slaves, war captives, women poets and occupational craft production — indicating social categories existed though not labelled here as varna.

A student could compare these social features with varna prescriptions (roles for warriors, priests, commoners, sudras) to see parallels or differences in practice and terminology.

States Sangam poetry 'primarily expresses with great skill and delicacy personal emotions such as love or societal values like heroism and generosity' — highlighting human/social themes rather than supernatural focus.

A student could check whether texts that foreground emotions and social values typically omit or treat differently supernatural/magical explanations, using a corpus search of Sangam verses for supernatural vocabulary.

Defines the Sangam Period and notes details about the period are 'mainly derived from the Sangam literature' — implying these poems provide social-historical detail useful to historians.

One could infer historians treat Sangam poems as descriptive of observable social life rather than as mythic/magical accounts, so compare historical-claim passages with any magical references to see attitude/treatment.

Describes concrete social and economic information in Sangam Age (warfare, slavery, craft production, urban centres), indicating the literature contains material, empirical concerns.

Use this pattern to predict that if Sangam texts emphasize material life, magical forces may be absent or framed instrumentally; a student could search these ethnographic passages for supernatural framing.

Lists Sangam and post-Sangam literature among diverse textual sources (Arthasastra, Puranas, chronicles), showing Sangam works are treated alongside both practical and religious texts.

A student can use this to compare genre conventions: contrast Sangam poems with known religious/Puranic texts that contain magic to see differences in presentation and rationality.

Notes the term 'Sangam' and the later medieval literary tradition; implies a literary-historical continuum where later works (often more devotional/mythic) can be compared to earlier Sangam texts.

A student might compare Sangam-era verses with later medieval devotional texts (where magical/divine interventions are common) to judge whether Sangam treats magical forces similarly or more secularly.