The Tamil Sangams (Tamil: சங்கம் caṅkam, Old Tamil 𑀘𑀗𑁆𑀓𑀫𑁆, from Sanskrit saṅgha) were three legendary gatherings of Tamil scholars and poets that, according to traditional Tamil accounts, occurred in the remote past. Scholars believe that these assemblies were originally known as kooṭam or "gathering," which was also a name for Madurai. Three assemblies are described. The legend has it that the first two were held in cities since "taken by the sea", the first being called Kapatapuram, and the third was held in the present-day city of Madurai.

The historical Sangam period, alluding to the Sangam-legends, extended from roughly 300-200 BCE to 300 CE (early Chola period before the interregnum). In this period the earliest extant works of Tamil literature were written (also known as Sangam literature), dealing with love, war, governance, trade and bereavement. The name Sangam and the associated legends probably derive from a much later period. "Sangam" is also known as koodal (Tamil: கூடல்) or "gathering".

An accurate chronological assessment of literary works has been rendered difficult due to lack of concrete scientific evidence to support conflicting claims.Undue reliance on the Sangam legends has thus culminated in controversial opinions or interpretations among scholars, confusion in the dates, names of authors, and doubts of even their existence in some cases. The earliest archaeological evidence connecting Madurai and the Sangams is the 10th century Cinnamanur inscription of the Pandyas.

According to Tamil legends, there were three Sangams.

Nilakanta Sastri observes that a sangam of Tamil poets flourished for a time in Madurai may well be a fact. But the facts regarding sangam have got mixed up with much fiction, making it difficult to draw reliable conclusions from them. Kamil Zvelebil, finds a kernel of truth in them, suggesting that they may be based on one or more actual historical assemblies. Others reject the entire notion as not factual. Nevertheless, legends of the Sangams played a significant role in inspiring political, social, and literary movements in Tamil Nadu in the early 20th century.

Early literature from the pre-Pallava dynasty period does not contain any mention of the Sangam academies, although some early poems imply a connection between the city of Madurai, which later legends associate with the third Sangam, and Tamil literature and the cultivation of the language. The earliest express references to the academies are found in the songs of Appar and Sampandar, Shaivite poets who lived in the 7th century. The first full account of the legend is found in a commentary to the Iraiyanar Akapporul by Nakkīrar (c. 7th/8th century CE). Nakkīrar describes three "Sangams" (caṅkam) spanning thousands of years.^{[citation needed]}

There are a number of other isolated references to the legend of academies at Madurai scattered through Shaivite and Vaishnavite devotional literature throughout later literature. The next substantive references to the legend of the academies, however, appear in two significantly later works, namely, the Thiruvilaiyadal Puranam of Perumpaṟṟapuliyūr Nambi, and the better-known work of the same title by Paranjothi Munivar. These works describe a legend that deals mostly with the third Sangam at Madurai, and is so substantially different from that set out in Nakkirar's commentary that some authors such as Zvelebil speculate that it may be based on a different, and somewhat independent, tradition.

In contemporary versions of the legend, the cities where the first two Sangams were held are said to have been located on Kumari Kandam, a fabled lost continent, that lay to the South of mainland India, and which was described as the cradle of Tamil culture.^{[citation needed]}