High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! During the Sangam age, 200 BCE - 200 CE, agriculture was the main vocation of the Tamils. It was considered a necessity for life, and hence was treated as the foremost among all occupations. The farmers or the Ulavar were placed right at the top of the social classification. As they were the producers of food grains, they lived with self-respect. Agriculture during the early stages of Sangam period was primitive, but it progressively got more efficient with improvements in irrigation, ploughing, manuring, storage and distribution. The ancient Tamils were aware of the different varieties of soil, the kinds of crops that can be grown on them and the various irrigation schemes suitable for a given region.