Evidence from various sites in southern India shows that there were Stone Age settlers in what is now Tamil Nadu about 200,000 years ago. Stonebuilt burial sites are common in several parts of the region. Dravidians moved into the south of India in about 3000 B.C. They now make up the great majority of its people.

The people of Tamil Nadu had developed an Iron Age culture by about 1000 B.C. By about 300 B.C., Tamil Nadu was under the rule of three dynasties. The Cholas occupied the coastal area east of Thanjavur and inland to the head of the Kaveri Delta at Tiruchi. At various times, they were a strong military power. One of their princes, Elara, conquered the island of Sri Lanka in about 100 B.C.

The central area-Madurai, Tirunelveli and a part of south Kerala-was ruled by the Pandyas. The Pandyas were a great maritime trading power who had connections with the Roman Empire up to about A.D. 500. The Cheras controlled much of what is now Kerala on the west coast of the peninsula, but they also penetrated southern Tamil Nadu.

From around A.D. 100, a poets' academy known as the Sangam flourished in Madurai. According to legend, poets at the academy put Tamil literature through an extraordinary test. They threw books into the sacred tank of the Meenakshi Temple, and those that floated would be deemed worthy, while those that sank were considered useless. The writings of that period show that life in Tamil society was very different from that in the north of India.
In Tamil Nadu, the wise men were at the top of society, followed by peasants, hunters, artisans, soldiers, fishermen, and scavengers. This contrasted with the caste system that existed in the rest of the subcontinent.

The Pallavas became powerful in the 300's and ruled northern Tamil Nadu from 550 to 869. They were also great builders and adventurers. Mahabalipuram became an important port and naval base in the 600's. The Pallavas were mainly Shivaites (followers of Shiva, the Hindu god), and during the 700's they built the Mahabalipuram shore temples.

Their king, Narasinhavarman II, also built the great Kailasanatha temple at Kanchipuram, about 70 kilometres from modern Chennai. For 150 years, this was not only the administrative centre but also the literary and artistic capital where scholars studied Sanskrit and the Vedas.