ABSTRACT
The historians and scientists worldwide have generally said that climate now and then had changed, besides the challenges ahead. The rulers of Tamil kingdoms in the medieval period understood and managed the variability of the Indian monsoon. Scholars have opined that some specific years stand out experiencing very severe El Nino conditions in the world. Weather patterns in the Tamil coast had attracted a great deal of attention from colonial administrators, due in large part to the damaging effects of climate on European commerce and manpower. During the age of European expansion on the Tamil coast in the early eighteenth century, the traders, missionaries and East India Company servants felt the urgent need to understand unfamiliar flora, fauna and geology both for commercial purposes and to counter environmental and health risks. In the studies of climate and history, the people frequently find mention of climates ‘worsening’ and ‘improving’ and climates becoming more or less conducive for human development.
