THE

CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TAMILS

.
Based on the Synchronistic Tables of their Kings,

Chieftains and Poets appearing in the^Sangam Literature.

BY
K. N. SIVAEAJA PILLAI, B.A.,

SENIOR LECTURER IK TAMIL, UNIVERSITY OF MADRAS.

UNIVERSITY OF MADRAS
1932
Price RS- 5 Foreign It- d
 PREFACE.
SINCE the work now presented to the reader rests solely
on the strength of the Synchronistic Table accompanying
it, I consider it necessary to prefix a few remarks bearing

on the undertaking and execution of such a work,

remarks for which I have not been able to find a place in
the body of the book itself.

The History of the Tamils, their language, and their

literature cannot be said io have even started its exist-

ence, for the sufficient reason that a correct chronological

frame-work to hold together and in right order the many
facts enshrined in their ancient Sangam Literature has not
yet been got at. Various have boon the attempts made
till now to utilize the facts gathered from that Literature
for edifying narratives, descriptions and exhortations; but
a genuine history, none of thoso, ii must bo regretfully

acknowledged, has boon able to evolve. Lacking the indis-

pensable initial lime-frame, the so-called histories of
Tamil Literature and the long-winded introductions to the
various editions of the Tamil Classical poems remain
to this day inane and vapid of roal instruction,
in spite of their tedious parrot-like repetitions
of fictions and facts culled from tradition and
the poems themselves. learned Thoauthors of
these dissertations have been only to make bricks
trying
without straw, or rather to raise a structure with
only
bricks without the connecting mortar of This
Chronology.
lack of a scientific chronology
however, due not to any
is,

paucity of relevant materials in which the Sangam Litera-

ture is apparently rich but to a failure to apply to
them the correct mode of manipulation their valuation
and arrangement. Taking this view of the mailer I nerved
myself lo the task of tesling whelher Ihe early poems of Ihe
vi PREFACE.

Tamils when subjected to modern methods could be made

to yield the secret of their chronology or should be allowed
to lie mute, as of yore, or worse still, to mumble out their

incoherences, here and there, in the triad of collections to

which a late literary but unhistorical systematist has so
kindly consigned them. In entering on this new and diffi-
cult piece of work T had no reason to be buoyed up by any

strong hope of success, so divergent and even conflicting

being the views of scholars about the Tamil Sangam and its
Literature and so hopelessly disarranged the literary
remains. And immediately after I sat down and began
preparing the Synchronistic Table a revered scholar, with
another friend, one day happened to step into my room
and, learning what T was engaged in, lost no time in throw-

ing a- plentiful douche of cold water on the scheme, urging

that he himsolf had been engaged more than once in a
similar undertaking but each time had to give
1

it up as a
fruitless venture sheer vexation of spirit. This warning
in

coming from a scholar of his standing and that at the very

threshold of my efforts naturally had the effect of very
nearly wiping out even the little hope I had behind the
back of my mind. Still realising the traditional overpar-
some of our scholars for traditions as a class I
tiality of

persuaded myself that the scholar referred to must have

weighted his barque with a little too much of unnecessary
traditional lumber to have thus sent it to the bottom before
reaching its destination. A ray of hope thus gleamed
through this idea and accordingly I persisted in my work
and went on verifying the various literary references and
jot ling down the names for the projected Table. If past
failures are but stepping-stones to future success, I thought
that this particular scholar's discomfiture should put me

doubly on my guard against the intrusion of legendary

matter and
unverified traditions amongst the facts of
the Table and so vitiating their positive testimony. I
resolved also to keep clear before my mind the distinction
between facts and our interpretation of facts, between
objective data and subjective constructions. Despite all
these resolves, however, I should confess that my first Table,
true to the for e\va ruing 1 had already received, turned out

badly; nor could the second fare any better, though

much superior to its predecessor in its close-jointed charac-
ter and freedom from extraneous and irrelevant matter.
The Table herewith presented is the result of my third
attempt and I trust that the sacrifice of two of its fellows
has added strength to it. Unlike its predecessors this Table
has stood all the criticism i have been able to bring to bear
upon it and hence on frame I proceeded to distribute
this

the various facts and events of Early Tamil Literature and

weave a connected narrative for the period covered by it.
Now that the Table and its interpretation are placed before
Tamil Scholars, old and new, it is for them to pronounce
\vhether these lay the foundation-stone for a real 'Begin-

ning of South Indian History' based on the earliest literary

documents available in Tamil, or, these too should go the
way of the previous attempts in the field.

For drawing up the preliminary lists of the Kings,

Chieftains and Poets appearing in the Sangain Literature
on wr hidi the construction of the Synchronistic Table was
started, 1have to express my thanks to Vidvan V. Verikata-
rajalu Reddiyar and Pandit K. V. Anantarama Aiyar, then
Fellows of the Oriental Research Institute, of whom the
latter unhappily has since been removed by the hand of
death beyond the reach of this deserved though belated
recognition of his assistance. 1 should also acknowledge
with gratitude the services of Mr. S. Somasundara Desikar
of the Tamil Lexicon Office and Mr. K. N. Kuppuswami
Aiyangar, B.A., of the Oriental Research Institute Office, in
so kindly undertaking the preparation of an Index of Names
for this book. And, above all, my most sincere thanks are
due to the Syndicate of the University I have now the
honour to serve, for the facilities and conveniences offered
for Research in, this Institute without which a work of this
nature would scarcely be possible.
 CONTENTS.

SECTIONS.

PART l.Sangam Literature: Its Valuation and

Arrangement.
SECTION. PAGE.
1. Introduction .. .. .. .. 1
2. Dravidian Pre-history and South India . . . . 5
3. The historical period of Dravidian Culture and
South India . . . . . . 6
4. Tamil Literature and its historical value . . 11
5. Early Tamil Literature, the only evidence for
the period covered by it . . 14
6. The Sangam Literature of the Tamils . . . . 15
7. The Sunburn Literature: Its defects and drawbacks. 16
8. The Slrry of the S;mg;mt c::{;mine<l .. .. 18
!>. The Sim gam works: llu-ir collect JON and arrange-
ment . . . . . . 27
10. The testimony of the Four Collections- Primary .. 38
11. The Kesult of the Literary valuation of the
Sangam Works . . . . . . 40
12. iSuccrssion of the Sungam Works: their broad
arrangement in time . . . . 42
13. The basic Works for the Synchronistic Tables .. 44

PART II. The ftynchronislic Tables and their

Ten Generations . . 47
14. Difficulties in our way .. .. ..47
15. The Personages in the Tables .. .. 51
16. Description of the Tables .. .. ..52
17. The Tables and the Chola line of kings . . 56
18. A new view-point . . . . . . 60
The First Generation: Vdiyan Tittan Period .. 67

19. The Chola Line: Veliyan Tittan .. .. 67

20. The Pan$ya line unrepresented . . . . 72
zii CONTENTS.

SECTION. PAGE.
21. The Chera line unrepresented . . . . 73
22. The Chieftains .. .. ..73
The Second Generation Titian Veliyan : alias Porvaik-
ko Perunatfcilli Period . . . . . . 75
23. The Ch-ola Line: Tittan Veliyan alias Porvaikko
PerunarkilU . . . . 75
24. The Pundiya and the Chf>ra Kinjrs . . . . 81
The Third Generation: Mudittalai-Ko Perunarkttli
Period . . .. .. ..85
23. The Chola Line:
(1) MiHlittalai-Ko-Perunarkilli

(2) Karikalan 1 .. .. ..85

26. The Pancliya Line: NedumtcT Celiyan alias Nedum-
cejiyan I . . . . 98
27. The Chera Line:
(1) Antuvan Chcral Irumporai
(2) IJdiyan Chf-nil alias Pcnmichorru TIdiyaii
Cheralatan . . . . . . 103
28. The Chiefs . . . . . . . . 105
29. Link-names . . . . . . . . 109
The Fourth Generation: Vcl-pah-iadakkai-Pcruviral
Killi Period . . . . . . m
30. The Cho]a Line: Vel-pah-tadakkai-Peruviral Killi. Ill
31. The PaiMliya Line Putappamliyan : . . . . 112
32. Thr Chera Line:
(1) Celva-KaiJuiiko-Ali Atan
(2) Kudakko-Nednmcheralatan
() Pal-Yaiiai-CVl-Kclii-Kuttuvan .. ..116
33. The Chieftains . . . . . . 118
Link-names . . . . . . fm uy
The Fifth Generation: Umva-pah-1er-Ilaiicc<f Cenni
Period .. .. .. ..119
34. The Chola Line ITruva-pah-ter-lJancei,! Cenni
:
. . 119
35. The Pancliya Line: Pasumpfm Pamliyan .. 120
36. The Chera Line:
(1) Kuttuvan Irumporai
(2) Kalaiikaykkanni Narmu^i-Cheral
(3) Ka^al-pirakkottiya-Vel-Kelu Kuttuvan .. 124
SECTION. PAGE.
37. The Chieftains . . . . . . 125
Link-names . . . . . . . . 128
The Sixth Generation : Karikalan the Qrcai's Period. 128

38. The Chola Line : Karikfilan II . . . . 128

39. The Pandiya Line : Palsalai Mudukudumi Pcruvaiudi. 131

40. Some Doubts . . . . . . . . 133

41. The Chera Line:

(1) Cheraman Kudakko Ilancheral Irnmporai
(2) Aflnkotpattu Cheralatan .. . . 136
42 n The Chiefs . . . . . . . . 140
Link-names .. .. .. ..Ill
The jSVfv;///? Generation : Cedeenni-Xahnnkiin Period. 141
43. The Choja Line: Codcoimi NatamkiHi .. ..Ill
44. The PfuK.liya Line :
Talaiyfilankfinaltii^VruAYimi
Nedmiut]iyan .. .. .. 144
45. The Chera Lino: Chrrainan Kuttuvan Kddai .. 146
40. The Chiefs .. .. ..146
Link-names .. .. .. ..147
The Eiyhlh Gnnrulion: KitltuHurrdllu-turu'iini-Kini
Valavan Period . . . . . . 148
47. The Choja Lino: KulanHiiTattu-tufK'iya-Kil]i V;ila-

van .. .. .. ..148
48. The Pfmdiya Line:
(1) llavantikaippalji-liinciya-Naniiirinui

(2) KfujrikrirHltii-tuficiyH-Malran Valnrli .. ]4!)

49. The ChrM-a Line: Yanaikkan Mantaran ('heral Irum-

porai . . . . . . 149
50. The Chiefs .. .. .. ..150
Link-names . . . . . . . . 150
The Ninth General i'm: RajuxMjum'Vcthirpenniur-
Ifilli Period .. . . 150
51. The Chola Line: Rajasiiyam Vetta IVrunarki])! .. ]50
52. The Pawliya Line:
(1) Musiri Murriya CtOiyan
(2) TTkkira Peruvaludi .. ..151
53. The Chera Line:
(1) Cheraman Mfiri Vanko
xiv CONTENTS.

SECTION. PAGE.
(2) Cheraman Ko Kodai Marpan . . 153
54, The Chieftains .. .. ,.153
Link-names . . . , . , . . 155
Th c T< ;? / h Oc n c . 'a I wn : ( Vt o[fi n Ku~ Ct uka n n a it
Period . . . . . . , . 155
53. The Choja Line Ko Ceftkanijan : , . . . 155
56. The Pantfiya Line . , .. ..156
57. The Chora Line : Kanaikkal Irumporai . . 157
58. The Chiefs .. .. .. ..157
50. Retrospect and Summary . . . . 158

PART J1I. Chronoloyy: The Probable Date of the

Ten Generations . . 160
60. Preliminary . . . . . . . 160
61. Relative, Chronology of the Ten Generations inter
ae . . . . . . 160
62. The Absolute Chronology of 1ho (u-nerutions .. 161

(i.'5. The Testimony of the Early Creek and Roman

writers . . . . . . . . 162
G4. The Aayi Kin^s and their Kingdom .. ..167
(if). The Conquest of the J\yi country .. .. 170
6(5. Certain considerations re this Chronology .. 170
67. ConfiriiKilorj 1'hidemv .. .. .. 1712

(a) Io!itical .. .. .. ..172

68. (6) Geographical .. .. ..174
69. (c) Commercial .. .. ..179
70. ((7) Numismatic .. .. ..183
71. Two types of Investigators .. .. .. 186
7'J. Previous Attempts .. .. .. 189

PAKT IV. Kcxults .. 191

73. Preliminary .. .. .. ..191

74. (i) Relnliw Chronology .. .. ..191
7r>. (ii) Absolute Chronology .. .. ..192
76. (iii) The Establishment of the Tamil Kingships in
their respective capitals . . . . 192 ,

77. (iv) The Ruin of the earlier independent Chief-

taincies . . . . . . . . 195
SECTION. PAGE.
78. (v) The Beginning of Aryanisation . . . . 196
79. (vi) The legendary nature of the San gam Story .. 196
80. (vii) Lateness of the redaction of the Sangam Works. 198
81. (viii) Light thrown on the Sangam Literature .. 198

82. (a) "Eitultokai"' or the Might Collections . . 199

83. (b) "Pattuppatlu" or the Ten Idylls .. 200

84. (c) The Eighteen Didactic Works . . . . 204

83. (ix) A peep into the previous condition of Tamil
Literature and Learning . . . . 205

86. (x) Light thrown on Dravidian Polity and Civili-

zation . . . . . . . . 209
87. Conclusion .. .. .. ..215

APPENDICES.
I. The Date of JUauikkaviicagar . . . . 217
il. Toikappiyiiiii reran* Agapporuj .. .. 222

ILL The Authorship of Kalittogai .. .. 224

IV. Note on ^Vrkkadu' and 'Aruvalar' .. ..227
V. Note on the Tamil '.Maii'^.* ) suffix .. 229
VI. Note on Karuvur, the ChGra Capital .. .. 231
VII. Note on Poet l^laikkfujar .. .. 235
VJ11. Grammarians on the signiiicancc of u^u and C* ). 237
IX. Note on the Elephant-marked Coins of Madura .. 249
t
X. Noli; on 1li<; *Avy:;s' and Vad<ij>u!aui' ,. 251
XL Numismatic evidence n the Dark JVriod in Tamil
History .. .. .. ,.253
XII. Prof. W. F. Clifford on the Authority of Traditions 254
X11I. Note on Tiruvalluvamdiai
XIV. Note on the name Tirumurugdfruppafjlai
XV. The Age of Tvttapirit/atH

Index
Authors and Books consulted

TABLES.
1. Genealogy of the Chola Dynasty
2. Genealogy of the Pug^iya Dynasty
 *^ ^^^

3, GoMftlacr of the Cktrt Djrwwty . .. xii

4,
m 3JAii*r%!fa worUmg to t>r. & 0.
. _
tbr
tti Tft*t*fr*ft*
. Maim of lh* (kftrmUiyitA . . , . . . 166
?, t5yti'Kr*>tit%iK Tl>k *'f ib# Tumit Kmfp *IK] Roman

of l^v**Ioj>inrfit of the |*twm in

, Th- H>u*hrmiAtic (ahlr* nf tii^ Kmf*,

HIM! Vtmtm wpArntriy ftnntofl **wt ki?pt in
fb** him! rov*r of ita*
 SHUTA.

Ff*~-Lhw.
/or

117-12 Eryikrowt
- 3 twrUjr

170-21

231-J4
 TABLK

I* C S3 BO / 1 .

BC I A n *>

23 A A !>

A T T3 A P

A I> 106 A ft

A l> 11$ A

5 A f* 13^ A

A l> ITS A

1 A P **CK A > (II)

 TABLE II.

THE PdNDIYA GENEALOGY.

1 A.D. -25 A.D. (1) Nedumter-Celiyan of Korkai alias Neduficeli-

yan I, the Conqueror of Kudal.

I

25 A. D. -50 A. D. (2) Ollaiyur-tanta-Putappandiyan, probably son of (1).

50 A.D. -75 A.D. (3) Pasumpun- Fandiy^ii aUas Nilam-taru-tiruvil-

Paiidiyau alias Vadimbalamba-mnra-Pan-
diyau alias Pamiadu-lanta-Paij^iyaii or Ne<Jim-
celiyan II, the Conqueror of the Aayi country,
probably son of (2).
I

75 A.D.-100 A.D. (4) Patefclai-Mudukudumi-Peruvahidi alms Velliyam.

balattu-tuficiya-Peruvaludi, probably sou of (3).
I

100 A.D. -125 A.D. (5) Talaiyalaihkanattu-Ceru-Venra-Neduiiceliyan alias

Nedunceliyaii III, probably son of (4).
I

125 A.D. -150 A.D. (6) Ilavaiitikaipalji-tunciya-Nanmaran.

(7) Kiidakarattu-tuficiya-Maran-Valudi.
I

150 A.D. -175 A.D. (8) Musiri-Murriya-Celiyan.

( 9 ) Kanappereyil-tanta-Ukkir apper uvajudi.
 TABLE III.

THE CHERA GENEALOGY.

25 B.C. -1 A. D. (1) Karuvur-Eriya-Ol-Val-KopperumclicraJ-Irumporai,

the Conqueror of Karuvur.

1 A.D. -25 A.D. (2) Udiyan Chf'ral (3) Antuvan Choral

probably son of (1). probably sou of (1).

25 A.D. -50 A.D. (4) Kudakkd(5) PalySnai- (6) Olva-Kadum-

Neduncheralataii, Ccl-K<?]u-Kuttu- KO alias Chikkar-
son of (a). van, son of (2). ptfJU-tuiiciya^CVlva-
Kadumko, son of (3).

50 A.D. -75 Ai.D. (7) Kadal- (8) Kalaihkay- (9)

Pirakottiya- kanni-NarmiKli- Trumi)ora,i, tho
Vel-Ko1u-Kuttvaii, Choral", son of (4). Conqueror of
son of (4). Takadur, son
of (6).

75 A.D. -100 A.D. (10) Adukotpatfii- (11) Kudakko-

Cheralatan, son of (4). Ilancheral-Irum-
porai, son of (9) .

100 A.D. -125 A.D. (12) Cheraman-Kuttuvan-Kodai.

125 A.D. -150 A.D. (13) yanaik^an-Ocy-Mantaran-dieral-Irumporai.
150 A.D. -175 A.D. (14) CheramanlMari-Vanko.
(15) Cheraman-Kokkodai-Marpan.
175 A.D..200 A.D. (16) Cheraman-Kanaikkal-Irumporai.
 TABLE IV.

The Contemporary Kings of the Early Andhra Dynasty in Mahar&shtra

according; to Dr. R. G. Bhandarkar.

50 B.C. -40 B.C. (1) Krishnaraja.

40 B.C.-16 A.D. (2) Sat ak ami.
(3) Kgaharata Nakapana aud his son -in -law Vasava-
data.
133 A.D. -154 A.D. (4) Gotamiputra Satakariii.

130 A.D. -154 A.D. (5) Vasisthiputra Pulumayi.

154 A.D. -172 A.D. (6) Gotamiputra Sri Yajna Satakarni.
172 A.D. (7) VasisthiputraCatusparna (Cattirapana).
About 190 A.D. (8) Madhariputra Bakasena.
(Early History of the Deccan, p. 32.)
 TABLE V,

The Contemporary Kings of the Early Andkra Dynasty in

Tailangana according to Dr. E. G. Bliandarkar.

 THE
CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TAMILS
BASED ON

THE SYNCHRONISTIC TABLES OF THEIR

KINGS, CHIEFTAINS AND POETS.

PART I.

THE SANGAM LITEUATUEE : ITS VALUATION AND ARRANGEMENT.

1. If the literatures of the other races in India
should stand condemned for want of

history, the Literature of the Tamils

also should allow itself to be arraigned on that common
count. Many of these races, it is true, have built up
characteristic civilizations of their own in their respective

areas, and thus made history in a real sense; but few of

them had the taste or inclination to systematically record
what they had accomplished in set works devoted to
history. The Tamils, who have occupied the Southern
corner of Peninsular India from a time beyond the reach
of traditions when their migration into the land is said
to have taken place, have also evolved therein a social
polity and civilization which still possess features entirely
distinct from those of the Aryan system of the North.
It is further clear that in the long stretch of centuries
over which this culture spreads, the Tamils have borrowed
freely from others and given them largely of their store
in return. When a race meets another and comes to live
by its side for centuries, cultural drifts are bound to
occur either way, unless a particular race takes deli-
berately the unwise step of severe isolation from its
neighbours. Every historian knows that such an isolation,
if persisted in, leads in the long run to decline and decay
2 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TAMILS.

and no nation, that has not been brought into contact

with an outside race, either by its own migration or that
of the other in its midst, could hope to come to the fore-
front in the cultural history of man. Hence, it is little
surprising that in the meeting of the Aryans and the Dravi-
dians in South India a mixture of cultures should have
taken place, and that also on no inconsiderable scale, as
their contact all the while seems to have been very close
and intimate down to the present day. The problem of

problems for the historian of Southern India is to take

this composite culture, this amalgam of civilization,
analyse it carefully and impartially and trace its elements
if possible to their respective sources Dravidian or
Aryan.
It is sad to note, however, that in the preliminary
efforts towards such an undertaking, the Indian
Sanskritists as a class, consciously or unconsciously, have
failed to do justice to the Dravidian element in the prob-
lem. In systematic attempt of many of them
fact, the

appears ever to have been to belittle the Dravidian con-

tribution to the cultural history of India and in their
treatment of the question to try even to wipe out, if that
were possible, the term Dravidian and all that it goes to
connote. In no activities of life, either practical or
theoretical, have they found anything that could go incon-
testably to the credit of the Dravidians. Even after the

appearance of that epoch-making work of Dr. Caldwell,

which covers only a very small and limited corner in the
extensive field of Dravidian civilization taken as a whole,
scholars are not wanting who have taken upon
themselves,
in a truly cyuixotean spirit and manner, to tilt against
linguistic windmills of their own creation and to claim
thereby a victory of having demolished the claims of the
Tamil language to a position independent of the great
divine language of the North Sanskrit.
1
But western

(1) Sanskrit Authors like Kshdm&ndra and others, with greater

linguistic insight than is displayed by some present-day Indian Sanskritists,
 SANGAM LITERATURE. 3

scholarship, asmight be expected, wanted to hold the

balance even and, in spite of the predisposition and
partiality engendered by its equipment in Sanskrit lore,
has now begun to feel that the judgment delivered till now
has been wholly one-sided and faulty and that common
fairness demands that it should be withdrawn till, on the
momentous issues raised, the other side also had been
allowed to have am
not mistaken, the first
its say. If I
and foremost duty of the Dravidian section of the Oriental
Research Institute started by our University is to see
whether, in all or any of the sociological phenomena it

may have to handle, there is anything ethnic, linguistic,

or cultural, which could go under the distinctive appella-
tion, the Dravidian, or whether the whole system is Aryan
from top to bottom as some enthusiastic investigators
hereabout have begun to assert.
For an attempt at throwing some light on this great
problem, it has been more than once pointed out that the
gaze of the scholars should be directed to the South. This
part of India, ever since the original migration of man,
has been the home and centre of Dravidian life and culture
and possesses the richest materials, archaeological, socio-
logical, linguistic and literary. Except for its pre-historic
remains, of which the recent finds of Mohenjo Daro and
Harappa form probably but a part, North India has been
literally swept clean of its Dravidian antiquities by the

havQ relegated the Dravidtt or the Dravidiau group of languages to the class
Paisaehi (the language of the demons) and thereby admitted that this group
has no genetic relationship with Sanskrit, the language of the Gods or with
any of its allied dialects. The attempt, however, of some modern Indian
Sanskritists to prove that Tamil and other related languages are indebted
to Sanskrit both for their vocabulary and their accidence, if successful, would

only prove that the Dravidian language is only an Aryan tongue in

disguise and should never have been given the misnomer 'Paisachi'. The
favourite method, followed by such scholars of catching hold of a few
linguistic resemblances and grammatical analogues
here and there for rais-

ing the widest generalisations on them, if pushed to its utmost extent of

to establish the interconnection of all the
application, might probably go
in the world! Imagination, it scarcely needs pointing out, feels
languages
dazed before such an attempt, at least in this infant stage of linguistic
science.
4 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TAMILS.

great Aryan flood. That did not and could not happen
in the South. Here, the so-called Aryanisation seems to
have assumed a milder form; its mighty waves were
splintered into ripples here. But even then it did not fail
to spread a somewhat thick scoria of religious colour over
the whole face of Dravidian life and spiritual outlook. 1
This was presumably effected by the Aryan alliance with
the Kingships raised ou the ruins of the ancient Village
Communities of Dravidian India and by the use of poli-
tical power as an engine for engrafting new beliefs and
practices on the old stem. Despite this powerful move
for powerful it must have been in a society composed for
the most part of peaceful agriculturists, traders and
artisans the tangled skein of the present-day Dravidian
life contains many a filament of native purity which

awaits the practised eye and the patient labour of the

specialist to disentangle and separately exhibit. Thus,
South India, both by its rich pre-historic past and by its
existing social structure and practices, forms the most
characteristic, if not the only, source of real information
on Dravidian history, past and present.
2. But strange to say even at this distance of time,
when many minor problems facing the
Dravidian Pre- have received their ade-
Ethnologists
history and South * j i A A i_ -

India. quate exposition and solution, the

possibilities of South India in respect

(1) Here is Prof. Whitney's testimony about the life, thought and
outlook of the Indian branch of the Aryan race being entirely permeated
by religion. He writes: "The mass as it liea before us is almost exclu-
sively of a religious character; this may have its ground partly in the ond
for which the collections were afterwards made, but is probably in a far
higher degree due to the character of the people itself, which thus shows
itself to have been at the beginning what it continued to be throughout
its whole history, an essentially religious one. For no great people, surely,
over presented the spectacle of a development more predominantly religious;
none ever grounded its whole fabric of social and political life more abso-
lutely on a religious basis;
none ever meditated more deeply and exclusively
on things supernatural; none ever rose, on the one hand, higher into the
or bank, on the other, deeper
airy regions of a purely speculative creed,
into degrading superstitions the two extremes to which such a tendency
naturally leads". Oriental and Linguistic Studies, pp. 5-6.
 SANGAM LITERATURE. 5

of the light to be thrown on the Dravidian- Aryan contact,

have scarcely been explored in any methodical manner
and worked up to lead to positive results. The nature of
the problem the study of the Dravidian civilization in all
its original shape and colourrequires that our attention
should be centred more on the pre-historic periods than
on the brief span of the chequered history of South India
in later times. It is well-known that Positive History,
which begins with the invention of writing and evolution
of literature, is preceded by two great periods, the semi-
historic and the pre-historic. And it is equally well-
known that for the pre-historic times the historian draws

upon the fruitful science of Archaeology and for the semi-

historic he has to depend on such new sciences as Com-
parative Philology and Linguistics, Comparative Mytho-
logy and Religion, a study of folk-lore, folk-songs, etc,, a
study of man's arts, industries, professions and institu-
tions, in short all the studies bearing upon man and going
under the rather title
" ". The materials
general Sociology
to be gathered from such varied special sciences and
studies, though they may be seemingly mute yet convey
to the historian cryptic messages of their own and furnish
him with the links to connect the particular history of a
nation with its past and with the general history of man-
kind at large. My reason for referring to these somewhat
patent facts is only to show what a large lee-way South
India has still to make in creating this group of special
sciences before she can with confidence look for a scientific

history of her past. Works in any of these directions,

except a few stray monographs, are yet to come and until
specialists step in to supply the want, the historian has
necessarily to wait. On the past phases of Dravidian
pre-history, the views of individual scholars expressed so
far will carry conviction only when they are reinforced
by the necessary scientific data. And for this, a thorough
and systematic exploration of the Dravidian antiquities
by a group of specialists in the many fields indicated above
6 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EABLY TAMILS.

is absolutely necessary. Excavations of the sites of the

and ports of the Tamil sovereigns such as
oldest capitals

Karur, Musiri (Cranganore), Korkai, Kudal (old

Madura), Uraiyur, and Kavirippattinam have still not

been attempted, though such an undertaking may throw

much welcome light on the Dravidian culture prevailing
1
at about the opening centuries of the Christian era.

Linguistic, literary and cultural studies from a strictly

Dravidian standpoint and on scientific lines have not yet
been entered upon to any extent and made to add their
quota of evidence. The resources of the epigraphic in-
vestigation, which relies mainly on lithic records and cop-
per plate grants of the mediaeval kings and some private
donors, become exhausted by the seventh or the sixth
century A.D. reach beyond which its mate-
the utmost
2
rials grow scanty in the extreme. In circumstances such
as thesp, the earlier stages in the Dravidian history or
rather pre-history, which have been indicated above, are
bound to remain in the dark for a long time to come.
3. Fortunately for the historical period of South
India, the Tamils, of all the Dravidian
Period of Drl^idian nations, have cultivated and preserved
culture and South a literature reaching comparatively to
a fairly good antiquity. Considering
the limited necessities and conditions of the Early Tamils,
their literature is apparently rich enough and, what is

(1) Since writing the above, the Archaeological Department of Mysore

have made certain trial excavations in Chitaldrug District of their State and
have succeeded in alighting upon the buried remnants of prehistoric cities
of the iron and the stone age near the Brahmagiri Hill and at Siddapura
in Molakalmuru Taluk. The history of the ancient culture in South India
is thus pushed back many centuries from the Early Mauryan Period.

(2) Dr. Vincent Smith in p. 467 of his Early History of India, writes
thus: "The eighteen Puranas pay small attention to the South, early in-
scriptions are extremely rare, the coinage gives little help, the publication
of Archaeological investigations in a finished form is backward, the explora-

tion of the ancient literature is incomplete. On the other hand, from the
ninth century onwards the mass of epigraphic material is so enormous as
to be unmanageable."
 SANQAM LITERATURE. 7

more important and valuable for the historian, it happens

to contain a simple and faithful record of the happenings
of a far-off period. Even before the historian takes up
this body of literature, it is absolutely necessary that it
should be judged on grounds of literary chronology and
arranged in a scheme exhibiting continuous growth and
development. Chronology of language and thought, on
which Prof. Max Miiller laid much stress, is nothing but
history extended beyond its generally accepted province
of the civic and political events of a society. No doubt by
this extension of the phenomena to be covered and by
their peculiar nature the standard of accuracy becomes
less definiteand precise than in the strictly limited histori-
cal field. But with all its loss in comparative definiteness
and precision it carries with it an inexpugnable certainty
of its own
as any fact of orthodox history. In the absence
of valuation of literature on principles of literary develop-
1
ment based on psychological standards,
strictly the
historian's handling of that literature would lead but to
error and confusion. So I shall first try to approach
Tamil Literature from the standpoint of literary develop-
ment and see whether it is possible to discover in it any
principles of the growth of the national mind.

Taking a bird's eye view of the total ensemble of

Tamil Literature, we find it is made up of three separate
and clearly-defined strata, the Naturalistic, the Ethical,
and the Religious? This division proceeds on the most

(1) Lord Mbrley enforces this truth in the following remark: "That
critics of art seek its principles in the wrong place so long as they limit
their search to poems, pictures, engravings, statues, and buildings, instead
of first arranging the sentiments and faculties in man to which art makes
its appeaK" Burke, p. 19.

(2) Compare with this the stages specified by Mr. P. N. Bose, B.Sc., in
his work Epochs of Civilisation. "In the first stage matter dominate! the
spirit, military prowess calls forth
the greatest admiration, culture, being

relegated to the gratification of the senses, takes the form of the

Fine Arts.
The second stage is characterised by intellectual development. It is tht
age of Eeason, of Science and Philosophy, and Militarism is on the
decline.

The third or final stage is the stage of spiritual development." Vid

Xeview, 1913, p. 435.
8 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TAMILS.

fundamental characteristic of literature at large its

dominant and guiding motive in any historic period. The

of literature into periods on linguistic,
classification

metric, or literary forms, though helpful in its own way,

cannot be half so satisfactory for purposes of chronology
as the one carried out on the varieties of literary motive
that inspires and lights up different periods of a litera-
ture. While the literary modes and forms, the garb
though they are of thought and expression, may change
like fashion, the guiding and sometimes compelling ideals
of a literature seem to possess a somewhat greater relative

persistence. These form in short the very life and soul

of a literature and serve as a faithful index, if not a com-

plete record, of the national mind and its orientation in

successive periods of its history. These should therefore
serve us as unerring guides in our attempt towards fixing
the relative ages of different periods of Tamil literature,
at least in its broadest outlines. Judged by the standard
of the motive or the ruling idea alone, each of the three

groups mentioned above, the Naturalistic, the Ethical, and

the Religious, reveals a new turn in the national mind and
relates a different story. They mark also three succes-
sive periods in the evolution of Tamil literature, in which
the national mind is reflected, the Naturalistic being the

earliest, the Religious the latest, with a mediating period

marked by Ethical thought. In the poems composed
during the Naturalistic period, man's life and his sur-
roundings are dealt with in their most elementary phases
and the poets, one and all, seem occupied with depicting
these in 'unadorned simplicity'. Man's physical
their
wants and sensuous enjoyments are the only themes which
evoke their Muse. As a class the Naturalistic Poets
do not anywhere rise much above a 'life of the
senses'. In the Period, however, their horizon
Ethical
gets more widened and they are found to interest them-
selves in larger problems of man's well-being in an
organised society. Here they try to grapple with ques-
 SANGAM LITERATURE. 9

tions of conduct and character arising from the various

complex relations of life in society and appear generally
preoccupied with the evolution of a code of morals and
polity to form the basis of an ordered social life. Advanc-
ing still further to the last stage, the Religious, the vision
of the Poet seems to quit man's earthly existence and his
limited interests therein and is turned on a higher and
grander sphere, the destiny of his soul beyond time. In
this super-sensuous, highly abstracted intellectual order-

appears almost to dissolve and disappear

ing, physical life
from view as of little or no account whatsoever.

Though one may tempted to justify the orderly

feel
succession of such periods in the evolution of the Tamil
mind on a priori grounds of its natural constitution and
the presuppositions of social psychology, I shall confine
myself to a consideration of certain broad facts of Dravi-
dian national life and history as lending more than ample
justification for the division of literary periods here
adopted. Before their contact with the Aryans, the
Dravidians, as I have elsewhere pointed out, were mainly
engaged in building up a material civilization and securing
for themselves the many amenities of life, individual and
communal. 1 Naturally, therefore, their lives took on a
secular colour and came to be reflected as such in the
literature of that period. The impulseof religion, which
came to possess them at a later period, was then absent.
And when Aryans began, the
the first infiltration of the
Jains and the Buddhists seem to have been the earlier
batch, all facts and traditions considered. These here-
tical sects, finding in the Tamil land no Brahmanic religion
on any scale to oppose, had to content themselves with the
composition of works mostly ethical and literary. The
Tamils too seem to have taken themselves readily to this
impulse which ran in the direction of their national bent,
and the second period accordingly was throughout ethical

(1) Vide Agastya in the Tamil Land, p. 7 and pp. 18-20.

02
10 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

and literary in substance and tone and seems to have

been ushered in by the writing of such works as Kural,
Tolk3,ppiyam, etc. The Hindu Aryans, in any force, were
the last to come and with their arrival was opened quite
a new channel of national activity, Religion, into which
the whole of and thought have flowed
Dravidian life

work being the great Saivite

since, the pioneer in this
preacher and propagandist, Tirunanasambandar of the
seventh century A.D. 1 Immediately after the dawn of the
Religious Epoch, there arose a transition period in which
the heretics wrote on Religion and the orthodox Hindu

writers, on Ethics but this late mixture of impulses in the

;

national life need not deflect our vision regarding its broad
features and lead us to modify our conception as to the
relative ages of the two impulses in the history of the
Tamil nation. Thus, by the facts of the social and political
history of the Tamil land from the beginning till now, the
tripartite classification of its literature, based solely on
its dominating motive and ideal, receives its amplest justi-
fication. I shall designate these periods as the classical,
the mediaeval, and the modern, for convenience of
reference.

(1) This period synchronises with the Pallava domination over the Tamil
kingdoms in the South. The later Pallavas of the Simha-Vishnu line, the
builders of the Mamallapuram Monolithic temples, were the real protagonists
in the Aryanisation of the South. Aryan religion, under the aegis of the
Pallava Kings of Kaficipuram seems to have gathered a power and prestige
all its own, which it had failed to secure during the pre-Pallava period.

Wherever political power enters into alliance with a religion, that religion
is bound to succeed. Buddhism, after the time of its great founder, throve
only so long as it had powerful potentates to back it up; the moment that
support was withdrawn, it collapsed. This only illustrates the general truth
that independent thought amongst the masses of a society is only a alow
growth. These generally look to the top for leading in such speculative
matters and then blindly follow. Apropos of the Tamil connection with the
Pallavas, I may instance an interesting irony of time brought about by
change of historic circumstances. At the beginning, the Tamils looked down
upon the Pallava race as a 'mixed breed and in their mouth the term
9

'Pallava 9 stood for a person of mean extraction. But after the establish-
ment of the Pallava power in the Tamil laud, one of the Devaram hymnists,
strange to say, goes out of his way to utter imprecations against such of
the Tamil Kings as refused to pay tribute to the Pallava overlord.
 SANGAM LITERATURE. 11

4. The value of this body of literature for purposes

of history should next be appraised. As
_ ,
a necessary preliminary to the treat-
Tamil Literature , A /. - * A-
and its Historical ment of this very important question,
vatae'
one can overlook the general
scarcely
ban under which Indian Literature as a
whole has been placed by the Indian Epigraphists and
their oft-repeated stricture that literary evidence, unless
and vouched for by the more reliable evidence from
until

inscriptions and other contemporaneous documents, is not

worthy of credence. The grounds for such a condem-
nation are doubtless many and weighty. Indian Litera-
ture, at least of the ancient and mediaeval times,

sadly lacks any chronological frame-work worth the name;

it is tainted with a profuse and indiscriminate inter-

mixture with all sorts of legendary and mythical stuff;

and what is more provoking than these to one engaged in
the construction of a scientific history of the past is to find

the generality of the Indian people exhibiting an uncritical

proneness to accept any work of literature as sober history

of their past and a tendency to anathematize those who
disbelieve or doubt the veracity of that literature. The
extreme dictum of the Epigraphist may be due to reasons
such as these and in fairness one cannot blame him
for being too cautious and critical in separating the
wheat from the chaff in that huge promiscuous literary
heap.

Still, I cannot but urge that what applies to Indian

Literature as a whole applicable to the Tamil
is not at all

Literature of the earliest period. Setting aside the Ethical

as of little value to history, the Religious portion of Tamil
Literature,i.e., the later Tamil Literature, has little to dis-

tinguish fromit the general run of the Aryan Literature

of the North and may, therefore, be allowed to lie under
the Epigraphical embargo. Their material for the con-
struction of history can in no way be used without the
most careful critical examination and even then the
12 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TAMILS.

demand for epigraphic corroboration regarding their

testimony will not be considered superfluous.

But, as far as the Naturalistic Period of Tamil Litera-

ture is concerned, a wholly different treatment should, in
my opinion, be accorded. The works, which go into this
class,show human mind in the most unsophisticated stage
of its growth. The virus of later myths and marvels has
not yet entered it and brought about a corruption of its
1
pure fountains. In this connection, I feel bound to demur
to the assumption, too commonly and too hastily made by
some scholars, that even the earliest stratum of Tamil
Literature bears traces of Aryan influence. I can only

say that this assumption is entirely gratuitous and is the

result of hazy thinking on the subject. As grounds for
this conclusion, they invariably appeal to the use of certain
Sanskrit words here and there in the poems of that period,
few Aryans among the Tamils, and to
to the existence of a
some of those Aryans appearing as authors of certain
poems, in that remote age. Granting the whole of this
contention for, as a matter of fact, in respect of the last
two grounds we are far too removed from that early
period to be confidently dogmatic about the nationality of
and singers of an age long since gone
the individual settlers

by still to say that

poems like Kurumtokai, Narrinai,
Agananuru, and Purananuru are based on Aryan models
or inspired by Aryan ideals, in their plan or execution, is
nothing less than a positive perversion of facts. Both in
substance and in form, these earliest warblings of the Tamil
Muse are native throughout and do not bear the slightest
tinge of foreign influence. If, from the appearance of a
few words of Sanskrit or Prakrit origin, these poems are

(1) Sir H. S. Maine writes thus in p. 26 of his "Village Communities"

about Oriental Thought and Literature as a whole: "It is elaborately in-
accurate, it is supremely and deliberately careless of all precision in magni-
tude, number and time". Though this formidable indictment is true of
North Indian Literature and later Tamil Literature, it is utterly inappli
cable to the specific stratum of Literature taken up for consideration in this
work.
 SANGAM LITERATURE. 13

divested of indigenous character, one could, with

their

equal reason, conclude that modern English Literature is

inspired by Indian ideals on account of certain Indian
words having got into the ever-expanding English Langu-
age. Borrowing of words from one language by another
is a matter of everyday occurrence and has not the least

bearing on the question of influence on literary models

and ideals. Further, I am at a loss to conceive how these
theorists would dispose of the very large number of poems
in the "Sangam" collections which have not even a single
Sanskrit word to disturb their native harmony. Do these
too reflect Aryan thought and life? To seek to connect
then the presence of a few Aryans in the Tamil land at
that early period, and the form and thought of early Tamil
Literature is most unwarranted and is perhaps due to a
proneness to magnify the antiquity and extent of the
Aryanisation work in Tamilagam. Surely, these early
poets of the Tamil land did not wait for the incoming
Aryans to be schooled into literature in their native tongue ;

but, on the other hand, the new arrivals had to pick up

the knowledge of what to them was a foreign language
and the form and technique of a foreign literary art. The
Naturalistic class of Tamil Literature must therefore be
considered as containing works exhibiting native
Tamil genius in all its purity and integrity with little or
nothing of any exotic strain in it. It has not the incrust-
ations of fanciful myths and impossible legends to mar the
value of its testimony. It is, for the most part, a plain
unvarnished tale of the happenings of a by-gone age
wholly free from the stereotyped conventions and profuse
embellishments which the erudition and fancy of later
times happened lo delight in. A Literature, such as this,
which transcends the period of Aryan intermixture, that
brought in its train all the mythological cargoes 1 of the

(1) Springing equally with Science from the speculative side of man's
intellectual powers, the myths, no doubt, form his first attempt at answer-
ing certain theoretical problems he himself creates. The practical man, on
the other hand, does not encumber himself with a consideration of such
14 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TAMILS.

North, should open to us a new treasure-house of facts, a

good deal of which can go bodily into history. Hence one
cannot be too careful and circumspect to keep this literary
patrimony of the ancient Tamils free from the contami-
nation of the wild myths and legends of later times.

5. To another consideration also, the attention of

the Epigraphists may be invited in this
connection. Even granting that literary
Xitterfttore, **&
only evidence for evidence, it, can scarcely
the best of
the period covered
s t a nd
a par with epigraphic testi-
on,

mony in accuracy and certitude, it is

after all the only evidence, all things considered, which
South India of the early centuries of the Christian Era
may possibly supply us with. Excepting the few rock-
cut caves and beds, the so-called Pandu Kulis, 1 and the
Brahmi Epigraphs in the Tinnevelly and Madura Districts
and in the Arcot region and, these too have not been
satisfactorily deciphered yet almost the whole body of
the inscriptions seems to take its rise from the founding
of the stone-temples in the South and from the practice of
making gifts for religious purposes to individuals or cor-
2
porations. If South Indian temples are admittedly off-

questions. The myths may accordingly bo held as the science of the primi-
tive man; they may be bad science but stillthey are science of a sort,
being the product of the theoretic activity of his soul. But, however much
these myths may have served man's purposes at the time of their origin,
they are here condemned for the insidious influences they still exercise on
the beliefs and practices of the present day and for delaying the advent
of a wholly scientific outlook and method in the thought and activity of
modern India.
(1) Mahauiahdp&dhyaya Pandit Swaminatha Aiyar in one of his Uni-
versity lectures gives the correctform of this name as Panda Kuli (literally
meaning pottery-pit).
(2) Bef erring to South Indian inscriptions as a whole, Dr. V. A. Smith
writes: "But these records, notwithstanding their abundance, are inferior
in interest to the rarer Northern documents by reason of their comparatively
recent date. No important Southern inscription earlier than the Christian
Era is known, except the Mysore and Maski editions of Asoka's Minor Bock

Edicts and the brief dedications of the Bhattiprolu caskets. The records
prior to the seventh century after Christ are few." (Early History of India,
P- 17.)
 SANGAM LITERATURE. 15

shoots of the Pallava art ofMamallapuram of the seventh

century A.D., one will not be justified in expecting much
epigraphic evidence for the earlier centuries. The higher
we mount the rarer should they become. To count then
on the construction of South Indian History from inscrip-
tions alone, for periods century above
anterior to the
indicated, is, it seems to me, a hope that will scarcely be
realised. Epigraphy thus failing us, we have next to fall
back on the only available evidence within our reach
Literature. At least, the Epigraphist can have no objec-
tion to accept this repertory of information as the second
best instrument of research in a region where we have
no reason to expect anything better. Thus, then, early
Tamil Literature, from its intrinsic merits and from its
extrinsic historical has a value all
conditions, its own,
which is hardly worth one's while to cavil at.
6. Before passing on to a consideration of the
Tamil Literature
Naturalistic
Group of
The sangam and its valuation, a few observations
Literature of the , ,, , , ,. ,,. , ,

Tamils. about the larger class, of which this

forms a part, are called for. The
"Sangam" Literature covers, in its entirety, two of the
groups I have indicated above, the Naturalistic and the
Ethical. The Naturalistic group consists of the most part
of the Eight Anthologies called the Ettutokai (literally
the eight collections) and by far the greater portion of
the "Ten Idylls" known as the Pattuppaftu.
1
The

(1) The Eighth Anthologies arc: (i) Purananuru, (ii) Kurum-tolcai,

(Hi) Narrimi) (iv) Agcm&n&ru, (v) Patirruppattu, (vi)
(mi) Ealitlokai, and (mil) ParipcldaL The Ten Idyll* are: (i)
arruppadai, (ii) Pattinappdlal, (til) Mullaipp&ttu, (iv)
(v) Nedunato&dai,(vi) Perumpanarruppadai, (vii)
(viii)Malaiyadukadam, (ix) Kuruncippattu, and (x) Tirumurug&rruppadai.
Of thcao, Parlpddal and Tirvmurugarruppadai, the last in each of the two
collections, are, it seems to me, of late origin bearing as they do evident
traces of the religious motive. It is highly probable that they may have
been composed towards the close of the Ethical Period. I have purposely
deviated from the orthodox order of enumeration to secure a chronological
will be made clear in the course of this
arrangement, the grounds for which
work.
 16 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

Eighteen Didactic works, in which Kural and Naladiyar

appear, go to form the Ethical catena of the Sangam
Literature. Though I propose to confine myself strictly
to the Naturalistic portion, I have to utilise also the
Ethical to mark off the stages in the History of Tamil
Literary development. The valuation of the
historical
several works may be deferred for the present. The over-
anxiety to judge and use historically a mass of literary
materials, chaotically thrown together with little or no
attempt at even a broad arrangement of their contents in
time, will only lead to 'confusion being worse con-
founded'. Principles of literary growth and development
would be thrust to the background, if not completely
overlooked, and a system of perverted chronology would
be the sole outcome at which literary men and historians
of literature would only stand aghast. 1 Valuation of
literary materials on principles of development displayed
by the national mind is hence an indispensable preliminary
before these could be rendered fit for any historical utili-
sation. And so I shall first try to derive whatever

, guidance I may from that source.

7. The Early Literature of the Tamils, unhappily

christened the " Sangam Literature",
The Sangam has had to labour under certain serious
U
difficulties and drawbacks and, on this
defcte ajia drawJ
*<M*B. account, it has not come into its own till
now. First and foremost is the atmo-
sphere of myth and mystery in which the whole cycle of
poems has been enveloped by a later generation of scholars
and scholiasts. In the second place, the various poems
have been collected and arranged on principles of pure
literary form and theme by a late redactor, probably
Perundevanar, the author of the first Tamil Mahabharatam,
in mixed prose and verse, and of the many invocatory
stanzas appended to five of the collections. This literary

(1) Fide Appendix I: The Date of Manikkavacagar.

 8ANGAM LITERATURE. 17

arrangement has distorted the chronology of the works

in the most lamentable manner imaginable. The whole
mass has been thus rendered unfit for immediate histori-
cal handling. If an evil genius had conceived the plan of

playing pranks with the chronology of a nation's early

literature and gone to work, it could not have done worse
than what the redactor, the Tamil Vyasa, has himself
done. It is a most perverse arrangement to say the least
and deserves entire recasting for purposes of history.
If the thanks of posterity are due to this Tamil
Vyasa for having rescued these works from extinction,
the chaos into which he has thrown them, not conducing
to any connected historical account, must lead one to the
sad reflection that, after all, ignorance of a particular period
of a nation's history would have been far better than the
myriad errors and misconceptions his effort at systemati-
sation has since given rise to. In the third place, by far
the greater number of scholars who have approached it
have not written about it in the proper scientific spirit
and with the necessary insight and sympathy. Far be it
from me to cast any slur on the few pioneers who turned
the first sod in the field of Dravidian research. Still one
can hardly help remarking that the "Sangam Literature"
has suffered more from its friends than its foes. The
scepticism of the latter seems <to have been more than
counter-balanced by the blind credulity almost amounting
to bigotry of the former,who belaud this literature as the
very acme of perfection and try to carry back the date
of its composition to many thousands of years before the
dawn of the Christian Era. The opposite school, not to
be outdone in exaggeration, seems to have developed an
over-sceptical frame of mind and is equally positive in
assigning these works to the eighth or ninth century after
Christ, if not lower still ! We
need not for the present
take sides with either of these parties but proceed at once
to see what credence could be given to the story of the

Sangam itself.

C 3
18 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

8. After all, the story of the Sangam is not .very

The story of ancient as it looks. When the so-called

the Sangam "Saiigam" Poets and Kings lived and
examined*
accomplished their life-work, the Sangam
had not come into existence. Considering the war-like nature
of that early period and the unsettled state of political exist-
ence then obtaining, the very idea of a literary Academy
could not have been anything else than foreign to it. The
primitive historical conditions of the Tamil land, as
evidenced by the literature of the Naturalistic Period,
could not have favoured any such institution coming into
existence. The various poems in this collection of works
have one and been composed by different poets, living
all

in different parts of the country, on many different occa-

sions. The literary motive behind their production was
by no means the composition of a perfect work of art to
stand the scrutiny of a conclave of critics at the top. The
hard poets of that period, faced with the problem
lot of the

of bread and butter, seems to have driven them on to

attach themselves to some king or other, some chieftain
or other, and play the part of singers of their glories and
achievements. Wanting a public to which they could sell
their literary wares, the Poets had perforce to depend
on the few patrons on whom
they lavished their choicest
eulogia in return for the food and clothing they were
provided with. Presents of elephants and gold orna-
ments might have come once in their way, and that also
only in the case of the singers in the front-rank of their pro-
fession; but to the generality of the poets the problem of
keeping the wolf from the door, in life's hard struggle,
was too imperious to be overlooked. A Poet, with a
famishing household behind him, and driven on its
account to the presence of his patron, could very well be
excused for not keeping to the ideal requirements of his
art for the time being. His one idea, naturally enough,
would have been to please his patron and win the most
valued presents from him and not to court an assembly
 SANGAM LITERATURE. 19

of fastidious critics sitting in a far-off city for a verdict

on his work an assembly moreover of scholars equally
famished as himself, whose approval or disapproval would
not have in the least mattered with him in fighting the
battle of life. Thus, even if the Sangam had existed at

the time we speak of, il would not have functioned at all.

But did it exist?

If contemporary evidence is the only means at our

disposal to arrive at any relevant conclusion on this point,
it wholly negatives the existence of any such institution
as a Sangam. The earliest reference to this hypothetical
body occurs in the commentary written on Iraiyandr's Agap-
porul, a late work probably of the 8th century A.D. Every-
thing connected with this work is so steeped in myth and
mystery that not even the slightest reliance can any
one safely place on it. Agappond is decidedly later than
Tolkdppiyam. In more than fifteen sutras, 1 the phraseo-
logy of Tolkappiyar seems to have been borrowed whole-
sale with little or no variation. Yet with all these
borrowings the author of this famous work on Love
appears have kept
to himself in the background and
allowed his handiwork to lay claim to a divine origin.
Nothing less than Revelational authority would satisfy
him in the hopeless struggle he appears to have entered
upon for displacing the great classic of Tolkappiyar in
the field of Agapporul. Along with this mystery of the
authorship of Agapporul, there is the added mystery of
its commentary which is ascribed to Nakkirar, one of
the Sangam celebrities. In order that this ascription
might gain acceptance at the hands contemporaries of
then living, the real author of the commentary, probably
Nilakantan of Musiri, pretends that he had Nakkirar 's
commentary transmitted to him by word of mouth through
ten continuous generations of disciples, intervening between
himself and Nakkirar. How this preposterous story could

(1) Vide Appciulix II: Tolkappiyam versus Agapporul.

20 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

be believed in it is not for us to inquire into just now. .All

that I want to make out is that both/the work, Iraiyanar's
Agapporul, otherwise kno\vii as Kalaviyal, and its com-
mentary, should stand discredited all things considered
and that anything they contain should be subjected to the
most careful scrutiny and examination before being
accepted as historical matter.
And it is mystery of the
in this mysterious work, the

Sangam tradition, all on a sudden, takes its rise. This

tradition is not a genuine one emanating from the people ;

it bears on its face the hall-mark of a literary workshop

from which it has been

presumably issued for general
circulation; its too minute details about the number of
years allotted to each Academy, the number of Kings and
of Poets and the names of those Kings and Poets and of the
works belonging to each preclude the possibility of the
author ever having received such information from any
floating tradition current before his time. Beyond doubt,
the whole story takes its birth from the fabulising imagi-
nation of a late scholar and owes its persistence to the
sedulous propagation it received from the uncritical
mediaeval commentators.

Examining the account of the three Academies a little

more closely, we find that the whole structure is too
symmetrical, too methodical and artificial, to be true. The
facts embodied in the narration of the Agapporul com-

mentator, if distributed under their appropriate headings

in a table, are enough to tell their own tale. They will
undoubtedly bring home to the reader's mind the scheme
on which the commentator has worked, in order to leave
behind him one of the most daring of literary forgeries
ever perpetrated. The incredibly high antiquity with
which Tamil Literature comes to be invested by this
legend and the high connection with divinity it brings
about were more than enough to secure for it a ready
acceptance by a credulous public; but to later scholars
the tradition stands to this day a sphinx' riddle.
 SANGAM LITERATURE. 21

Evidently the fabricator appears to have started from

some authentic data before him. They were the so-called
" third
Sangam" works, which in all probability must
have by that time assumed a collected form. These
collections furnished the basis on which he proceeded to
raise his imaginary structure of the three Sangams. The
number of Poets appearing in these collections was too
unmanageable for his purpose, exceeding as it did five
hundred. He had to make a selection from this large and
varied company of poets before investing any with the
membership of his projected Academy. Taking the 49
letters of the Sanskrit Alphabet, which, to the orthodox
scholar, represent the Goddess of Learning, he could
still

not have thought of any other number so appropriate as

forty-nine to represent the strength of her votaries
in the last Tamil Academy. Further, this parti-
cular number being of the odd class should have
recommended itself to a superstitious mind to which
even numbers are a taboo to this day by their
1
inauspiciousness. With forty-nine as the starting point
most of the figures in the account appear to have been
easily arrived at. The number of the Pandiyas admitted to
the charmed circle of the bards composing the Sangam
rises in an arithmetical series as 3, 5, and 7 and the period
of duration of the three Sangams put together falls short
2
of ten thousand years by ten. Another notable peculi-
arity of the arrangement is that the fabricator was deter-
mined to see the third Sangam playing the Cinderella to

(1) This number appears again in the 49 Tamil nadus said to have been
submerged in the Indian Ocean; and also in the Velira' genealogy as 49
generations from their remote ancestors who are believed to have lived in
Dvarasamudra.

(2) This distributed among the 197 Pandiyas of the three Sangams
put together gives us an average of fifty and odd years for a generation
an impossible figure in human history. Individual cases of exceptional
longevity there may of course be; but in the calculation of an average
to
cover 197 generations no figure, exceeding 20 to 25 years, can be safely
adopted. Human history in any known period docs not give proofs
of
such lengthened averages for a generation.
22 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

her elder sisters the two previous Sangams. So far as

the figures go, she should not aspire to any figure higher
than the lowest under each heading. Evidently the
fabulist worked on the current doctrine of degeneration,
whereby the golden age of man was relegated to a far
distant time in the past, the succeeding ages getting more
and more corrupt in morals and poorer in intellect and
learning. Another feature of this cut-and-dried scheme
worthy of special mention. Though among the five
is also

hundred and odd poets the various tribes and professions

of ancient Tamilagam were strongly represented, the
third Academy shows except for a limited sprinkling of
a few Kilars and Vanigars (merchants) a preponderant
Aryan element. What the author, from his superior
station, considered the plebeian consitutent of the literary
body was carefully kept out of his
Academy. Gods,
Kings, Rishis, and Aryan Scholars at least those whom
he considered as belonging to that superior class do
seem to have somehow jostled the native scholars to the
background. This poverty of the native talent in the
literary aristocracy admitted into the Academy should
doubtless give us an inkling into the source from which
the Sangam arose.
myth Moreover, this patrician
assembly gives us an entirely wrong perspective of the
learned community of the ancient Tamil country. 1 Coming
to the Literature prevalent at different Sangam periods
and the Grammar on which that literature is still held to
have been based for in the opinion of the father of the

Of the 49 poets of the third Sangam appearing

(1) in Tirwvalluva-
malai, half is
nearly made up of such scholars as Kavi Sagara
Perundevanar, Rudra Sanma Kannar, Nalkur Velviyar, etc., who have
not a single stanza to their credit in these collections. Evidently they
belonged to a much later age and were brought in to strengthen the Aryan
element of the Academy. And in the remaining half, three KUars and
three Vanigars alone have secured admittance. It may be urged whether,
in the world of scholarship of which the Academy was representative for
that age, racial considerations could be brought in; but somehow that seems
to have been the main reason which weighed with the famous fabricator
of the Sangam in practically ignoring the native poets.
 SANGAM LITERATURE. 23

Sangam,
1
Grammar should necessarily precede Litera-
ture the third its Paripadal and Kalittokai,
Sangam, with
and other works for its Literature, and Tolkappiyam for
its Grammar, was sought to be thrown into the shade by

its more illustrious predecessors with such works as

Perumparipadal, Pertmkalittokai and Agattiyam. These

imaginary works were created possibly to prick the pride
2
of the arrogant members of the third
Academy. Turning
next to the places wherein the Academies were successively
held, modern Madura was preceded by Kapadapuram of
the Ramayana fame and one Southern Madura. The name
'Madura' itself was a later coinage even for Uttara Madura,
which probably before the period of Talaiyalankanattu-
Pandiyan was known as Kudal as probably also Peralavayii.
This name came into vogue only after the Aryans had
secured some influence in the South by their increasing
numbers and importance. If Uttara Madura itself had gone
by some other name in any past period, the creation of
a Southern Madura as an earlier city carries with it its own
refutation. The name so far from establishing its anti-
3
quity does just the reverse. Existing Literature is wholly
silent regarding tlie last two cities. The story-teller has
however thrown out a hint about a deluge between the
second and third Academies. Whether a like catas-

(1) Cf. "In the first dialogue of the Eroici Furori, published at London
in 1585, while Bruno was visiting England, ho expresses his contempt for
the mere pedants who judge poets by the rules of Aristotle's Poetics. His
contention is that there are as many sorts of poets as there are human

entiments and ideas, and that poets, so far from being subservient to rules,
me themselves really the authors of all critical dogmas. Those who attack
the great poets whose works do not accord with the rules of Aristotle are
called by Bruno stupid pedants and beasts." (Spingairn'a Literary Criti-
cism in the Renaissance, p. 166.)

(2) The story of the chastisement administered to that uncompromising

critic Nakklrar, related at some length in Tiruvilayadal-puranam, is also due
to the same motive.
name 'Madura' has the limits of South
(3) The travelled beyond
India. Yule and Burnell write in their HdbsonJobson "Thus we
have Madura in Ceylon; the city and island of Madura adjoining Java;
and a town of the same name (Madura) in Burma, not far north of
Mandate, Madeya of the Maps",
24 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

trophe intervened between the and the second Sangam

first

we have no means of knowing. Probably the author did

not think safe to appeal to
it two deluges marking the
termination of the first two Academies. Failing a deluge
what other cataclysm then could one interpose between the
first two Sangams for explaining the shifting of the head-

quarters of the Assembly from Southern Madura to

Kapadapuram? Another interesting problem in connec-
tion with these periodic convulsions to which Tamilagam
was subject is in regard to the means by which such
complex details as are found embodied in the tradition
reached the hands of the eighth century fabulist. Were
they communicated by word of mouth from generation
to generation as in the case of the famous commentary on
Iraiyanar's Agapporul or did this great historian come upon
some secret archives which had escaped the deluge? It
is unnecessary to probe further into this elaborate myth,

which proclaims itself as a crude fabrication of the Reli-

gious epoch in almost every fibre of its make-up. If any
additional testimony were necessary to fortify this conclu-
sion, this one fact, I think, would suffice; that in the first
Academy the revered name of Agattiyanar heads the list
and stands above even that of God himself! Such was the
power of priesthood then and so god-compelling were the
mantras of which it was the custodian, that it could with
impunity measure strength with Omnipotence itself. No
other writer outside the ranks of the priests would have
1
dared performing this heroic feat!

I here summarise the grounds thus far offered

may
to establish the purely legendary character of the Sangam

story. (1) The tradition regarding the Sangams is not a

popular one but was brought into existence and propa-

(1) This is what A. M. Hoeart says in p. 133 of his book Kingship:

"This probably started in India and was the result of the gradual rise
of the King or priest to be a god in himself and not merely the spokesman
of a god. We know that the Indian priests carried the divinity of man
to such extremes that eventually the priest became superior to the gods
from whom he had originally derived all his prestige and authority ".
 SANGAM LITERATURE. 25

gated by a literary and priestly coterie for purposes of

its own; (2) The so-called Sangam works contain abso-
lutely no reference to any Sangam whatever; (3) The
political and social conditions of the period reflected in
Sangam Literature were not at all favourable for the
creation and maintenance of any such Sangam; (4) The
facts and figures contained in the tradition are so artifi-
cial and symmetrically disposed as to lead but to one
conclusion that they cannot be natural and are *
faked 1
throughout; (5) The constitution of the Sangam contain-
ing as it does mythical characters and members drawn
disproportionately from the Aryan community shows the
lateness of its origin, when the Aryans had come in larger
numbers to the Tamil land and begun to introduce the
northern myths in the south; 1 (6) The period of duration
of the three Academies put together, viz., 9,990 years, if
distributedamong the 197 Pandiya Kings will be found to
give us an average of fifty and odd years per generation
certainly an impossible figure in the history of man,
being more than double the general average which it

discloses: (7) One or two deluges intervening, the narra-

tor, in the natural course of events, could not have any
authentic source of information as regards at least the
firsttwo Sangams and his testimony based on data whose
source is still wrapped up in such deep mystery
is hardly worthy of acceptance; (8) The late origin
of the name 'Madura' for Uttara Madura itself for it
could not be earlier than Talaiyalankanattu-Pancliyan's
time, the city till then going under the name of Kudal
shows unmistakably that the Tamils of the first Sangam

(1) How in process of time myths develop is also commented upon

by H. Kern in his Manual of Indian Buddhism, pp. 5-6. He writes: "In
general it may be said that the stock of tradition, common to all Bud-
dhists, increased among the non -orthodox sects by much additional matter.
New mythological beings such as Bodhisattvas, Avalokitesvara and Manjusri
make their appearance; a host of Buddhas of the past, present and future,
are honoured and invoked along with Sakyamuni, whose image, however,
far from being effaced, is clad in brilliant majesty more than ever." The
same has been the case with Hinduism also.
C 4
26 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

could not have dreamt of such a foreign name for their

southern Capital at that far-off period and that the name
'Southern Madura' thus a pure coinage of the romancer
is

from Madura
* '
which he converted into 'Uttara Madura 1
to lend support to his own
story; (9) The non-existence
of any of the works of the first or the second Academy
raises the presumption that they were more the creations
of the romancer's imagination than actual works of real
authors, swept away by the deluges which on the whole
are but a clumsy attempt at explanation when so many
other details regarding the works themselves have
come down to intact; (10) The whole scheme is
us
against the course of natural events and hence is
unscientific in its character. History of learning and
knowledge in any country at any time must show in the
main a gradual progress and development from small
beginnings. The Sangam tradition reverses this natural
order and shows a -continuous decadence from the golden
age of the first Academy till we reach the iron age of
the third.

Reasons so many and substantial as these should

lead any fair-minded scholar to reject the Sangam tradi-
tion as entirely apocryphal and not deserving of any
serious historical consideration. It will, however, furnish
a chapter in the study of myths and the psychological
tendencies of the age in which it arose. Though worth-
less as testifying to any objective facts of Tamil history,
the tradition itself claims our notice as a phenomenon of
a certain type at a particular period of a nation's thought.
I strongly suspect whether the eighth century tradition
is not after all a faint reflex of the earlier Sangam

movement of the Jains. We

have testimony to the fact
that one Vajranandi, a Jaina Grammarian and Scholar
and the pupil of Devanandi Pujyapada, an accomplished
Jaina Sanskrit Grammarian, in the Kanarese country, of
the sixth century A.D., and the author of a grammatical
9
treatise, 'Jainendra , one of the eight principal author!-
 SANGAM LITERATURE. 27

ties on Sanskrit Grammar, went over to Madura with the

1
object of founding a Sangam there. Of course, that
'Sangam' could not have been anything else than a college
of Jain ascetics and scholars engaged in a religious pro-

paganda of their own. 2 This movement must have first

brought in the idea of a Sangam to the Tamil country.

It is more than likely that, following closely the persecu-
tion of the Jains ruthlessly carried out in the seventh
3
century A.D., the orthodox Hindu party must have tried
to put their own house in order and resorted to the crea-
tion of Sangams with divinity loo playing a part therein,
for the express purpose of adding to the authority and
dignity of their literature. It was the sacerdotal 'Sangam'
of the early Jains that most probably supplied the ortho-
dox party with a cue for the story of a literary Sangam
of their own on that model. The very name 'Sangam'
unknown Tamils proclaims its late origin and
to the early
toattempt foisting the idea it signified on the so-called
Sangam Literature as its inspiring cause is little short of
perpetrating a glaring and absurd anachronism.
9. Leaving out of account the Ethical group of the
Sangam Literature, the eighteen Didac-
Tha Sangam works: tic works, which are admittedly later
their collection and ... ., , <>,

arrangement. compositions, the real Sangam collec-

tionsembrace the Ten Idylls (Pattup-
pdttu) and the Eight Collections (Ettuttokai), which
form the Naturalistic group. Evidently the stanzas or
groups of stanzas appearing in these collections belong to
different authors, treat of different subjects, sometimes
with reference to particular kings or chiefs and sometimes

(1) Tide E. P. Rise's Kanaresc Literature, pp. 26-27.

(2) "Samgha, Dr. Buhler (p. 6) acknowledges to be as much a
Jain as a Buddhist technical term for their orders or societies" (T. W.
9
Rhys Davids, 'On the Ancient Coins and Measures of Ceylon , (p. 59). It
may here be pointed out that this term refers to one of the Buddhist Tri-
ratnas: Buddha, Dharma and Snmgha.
(3) "A terrible persecution of the cognate religion Jainism occurred
in Southern India in the Seventh Century". (Elliott, Coin* of Southern

India, p. 126 post, Oh. 16, Sec. 2).

28 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

not. The various poets whose poems have been gathered

into these collections can scarcely be considered as belong-

ing to one generation. They must have lived generations

apart and left their fugitive works in the custody of some

sovereign or chief, whose glories they happened to sing
about. At least a goodly part of these collections must
have lain snug in the palace archives of some king or
other they were arranged and set in their
before
present order by a late redactor. In which repository
these poems lay, who conceived the first idea of arranging
them, and who carried out the arrangement, are matters
about which we know
absolutely nothing at present.
Internal evidence there is to the extent that one Bharatam
Padiya Perundeyanar has affixed invocatory stanzas to
five at least of the Eight Collections, vis., Puranaw&ru,
Agananuru, Narrwai, Kuruntokai, and Amkurunuru. Of
the remaining three, Patirruppattu, (The 'Ten Tens')
appears rather in a mutilated .form with the first and the
tenth 'Ten' missing; Kalittokai contains an invocation by
pne Nallantuvanar, who is reported to be its redactor,
but may #lso have been its author; and in Paripadal,

twenty-four out of the seventy pieces have been published

and these bear unmistakable evidence of their very late
origin. Literary tradition handed down by fugitive
stanzas and allusions in the words of the commentators give
us some specific information about the scholars who made
some of these collections and the kings by whose orders
such works were carried out.

Poem. Scholar who collected. King who directed

*
the Collection.
1. Ainlwuniiru . . Pulatturai Murriya Chera King by name
Kudalur Ki]ar Yanaikkanchoy Man-
(KQdalur Kilar, who taran Choral Irum-
was the master of the porai.
whole domain of know-
ledge)
2. Euruntokai . . Not known . . Pann&dutanta Pandiyan
3. Narrfaai . . Not known . .
Purikko
Maran Valuti.
4. Agttodwaru .. tTruttira Sanman .. Pandiyan Ukkira Peru.
valudi.
5. Pwan&nuru . . Not known . . Not "known.
 SANGAM LITERATURE. 29

Keeping Aiiikuruwlru apart, a work decidedly later

than the others on .literary and historical grounds, the
last four go together both by their subject-matter and

style composition. The principles that appear to

of
have guided the redactor are the nature of the subjdct-
matter of the compositions, their style of versification, and
even their bulk, the number of lines of verse of each
stanza furnishing a standard for his classification. If the
subject-matter of tfye literary compositions was distributed
wholly under either 'Agam' (Love) or 'Puram' (War,
Politics and other miscellaneous matters), the first classi-
fication from this standpoint must have been effected by
one author. It is very unlikely that the various groups
of poems existed as such in the archives of different kings;
nor is it probable that if they had lain together in the
palace library of any one sovereign the other sovereigns,
with whose names tradition associates 'certain composi-
tions, could have in any manner directed such compila-
tions. Even supposing that one particular king was so

deeply attached to war that he was pleased to patronise

only the Purana.nuru collection, the triad of 'love' poems,

Kurunlokai, with stanzas containing from four to eight
lines, Narrinai, from 9 to 12 lines, and Agawanuru,
from 13 to 37 lines, these at least should be
considered to have been collected by one editor, at
one time, and not as they stand now distributed

among different sovereigns and different scholars.

Further, there arc certain features in the collections

themselves which may rouse reasonable suspicion in the
mind any candid scholar. Each of the 'Puram' and
of

'Agam' collections contains stanzas to a fixed number 400

or thereabouts. Are we to assume that the redactor for
some reason or other fixed a uniform limit for these collec-

tions! This might be conveniently assumed if there had

been only one redactor. But at present the collections
are assigned to different scholars and the question may
naturally arise why should these later authors allow
30 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TAMILS.

themselves to be constrained to stick to th(e original

number 'four hundred'. Could it be the result of a mere
sense of uniformity or a blind copying of an established
model? It would be interesting also to inquire how these
late redactors would have gone lo their work if the poems

they happened to handle had fallen short of or exceeded

the particular number 'four hundred'. Then again, the
Brahman Poet Kupilar, of whose sixty-six poems in the
Agam collections, sixty pieces happen to be of the Kurinci
3
class, seems to have been brought in to figure as the author
of Kurinripattu, in the Ten Idylls, of the third hundred

treating of the Kurinci Love in Ainkurunuru, and of

the Kurincikkali section in Kalittokai. very unlikely It is
that a much-travelled poet as Kapilar was reputed to have
been should have confined his poetical efforts to the
description of only the KurARci Love. His poems in the
PwraM&nuru collection are enough to establish the width
of his interests, the catholicity of his views, and the com-

prehensiveness of his poetical talents. However, in the

opinion of an admiring posterity, he was somehow made
to play on only the Kuriiici key. Then again, a careful
comparison of Ainkurunuru, and Kalittokai brings to light
certain interesting bits of information about the manner
in which these collections were made. Ainkurunuru, the
earliest collection made probably by Perundevanar, who
sang the Mahabharata story in Tamil, stands thus, its
five divisions being distributed among five different
authors.
Division. Subject-matter. Poet.

1st Hundred . . Marutam . .

drampokiyar.
2nd . .
Neytal . . Aminuvanar.
'
3rd . . Kuriuei . .
Kapilar.
4th .. Palai .. Otal Antaiyar.
5th .. Mullai ... Peyanar.

(1) Love of the Kurinci type is the 'love at first-sight', the love
which springs naturally in the breast of lovers when they meet each other.
The convention of the Tamil Poets restricts this to happen, only in the hilly
places. This type of love leads at once to the sexual union of the lovers
and brings about their natural marriage, marriage without the preliminaries
of parental consent and other shastraic rites and requirements.
 SANGAM LITERATURE. .
31

It would be instructive whether these five poets

to note
and Perundevanar, the redactor, appear as authors of

any of the poems in the Puram and Agam collections and

if they do so, what the nature of their poems is. For
facility of comparison, I give the facts in a tabulated
form.
32 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TAMILS.

I
H 4 TS t-4 M>^' .^ 13

!' g s g 2 g *

**- tUse'l 3 111 a4

5 ulhll S*3 Sw
EH OiHfH '

4> J'S- ^*S '^^ "-',il

^ W ^ rt |^ OH -H CO WrH^
|g gj |g

'! 1 1-a |3|3

s I
"~
*s
WrtH
IS S IS

'5 S 'S

i
~ ~
61
- ""
S rt IS
_" rt
g

I i *l
i I
I I Ji 1 4 9 ll

I
 SANQAM LITEKATURE. 33

First as to Perundevanar, who affixes invocatory

stanzas to the Agam, Puram, and Ainkurwwru, coltec-
tions, tradition distinguishes him from the Perundevanar
who has left us two poems in Agananuru and Narrinai and
from a namesake, whjo composed the Mahabharata
later

story in 'venba' verse, and was a contemporary of the Pal-

lava King 'Nandipottarasan' of the ninth century A.D. We
have absolutely nothing by way of evidence either to
confirm or contradict this assertion. Still judging from
literary evidence alone gathered from a comparison of the
fragments of Bharatam Padiya Perundevanar 's work
(composed in the Champu style of the Sanskrit authors
in mixed verse and prose) with the Bhdrata Venbd of
the ninth century Perundevanar, one can scarcely feel justi-
fied in identifying their authors. Nor can one
dogmatically assert the authenticity of the float-

ing stanzas preserved in theof work

the com-
mentators the ancient Champu Tamil Bharatam comes
to us in no better garb than these. Hence one has to be
very careful and cautious in using such disconnected lite-
rary chips for historical purposes. Sadly have the biogra-
phies of even many later poets been twisted into fantastic
forms by certain unscrupulous writers interlarding the
own pieces, composed solely with a view
account with their
to embellish such narratives. Even if Bharatam Padiya
Perundevanar could not be identified with his 9th century
namesake, 1 find no reason why the Perundevanar of the
Sangam works, who seems to belong to a much later period
than Paranar or Kapilar, could not be assumed as the
author of the missing Champu treatise and the redactor of
the Sangam works in question. It is bootless, however,
to move in a region of pure speculation where there is not

even a solitary foot-hold to support us. Though we know

so little of this Perundevanar, his handling of Ainkurunuru
is suggestive of some valid reflections. Any reader of this
work must be convinced that it is a much later production
by its style and treatment and is the handiwork of one
O-5
34 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TAMILS.

author. Probably the redactor, not having before him the

name of the author and thinking that the collection work
he was engaged in required that the work should be consi-
dered a joint-production, carried out his idea of distributing
its authorship among five poets of a past age. In this dis-
tribution, however, he appears to have been guided by a
consistent and rational principle. The table appended above
will show that the first three poets, who have been assigned
by him to the Marutam, the Neytal and the Kurinci
hundred respectively, were exactly those who have sung
the most in Marutam, Neytal and Kurinci, in the Agawi
collection. The last two, Otalantaiyar and Peyanar, how-
ever, do not figure so prominently for Pdlai and Mullai
compositions. If Palai Padiya Perunkaduiiko and
Mamulanar two other poets in those collections who seem
to have specialised in Pdlai had preceded him, certainly
the name of either of them would have been invoked
instead of Otalautai's. However, this omission appears to
have been a
rectified
by still later redactor of Kalittokai,

who brings in Palai Padiya Peruiikadunko to play the

author of the Pdlaikkali chapter in that work. Here also the
whole Kalittokai -containing 150 stanzas inclusive of the
invocation seems from internal evidence to be the work
of one author, belonging to Madura country, if not to
Madura It forms an artistic whole by itself and
itself.
1

its authorship was ascribed to Poet Nallantuvanar by the

late Damodaran Filial in the first edition. But some
scholars would not be satisfied with one writer claiming
the authorship of the whole work which unhappily was
named Kalittokai (literally collection of 'kali' verse) and
set themselves furiously to think whether a work openly

going under the name 'Collection' could in any manner be

ascribed to a single author. Forthwith they produced a
2
floating stanza such verses carry considerable weight

(1) Vide Appendix III: Authorship of Kalittokai.

(2)
 SANGAM LITERATURE. 85

with the people and made a distribution which, for the

most part, follows no principle whatever. The distribu-
tion of Kalittokai, effected in the later edition stands thus :

I. Pafaikkali ascribed io Palai Padiya Perunkadufiko.

II. Kurincikkali Kapilar.

III. Marutakkali Manitan Ilanagan.
IV. Muttaikkati Nalluruttiraii.

V. tfcylarkali Nallautuvanar.

Leaving aside Palai Padiya Perunkaciunko and

Kapilar, who have a very large number of Palai and
Kurinci pieces to their credit, the other three authors
require some justification. Of them, Nalluruttiran does
not appear in any of the collections we just now consider;
and NaUantuvan has two stanzas of the Palai and the Ku-
rinci class in his name and has not touched Neytal at all. The
most glaring piece of short-sightedness appears to have
been as regards Marutakkali. This late systematiser was
evidently misled by the name Marutan Ilanagan, Ilana-
gan, the son of Manitan, and supposed that he must have
been so called by his having specialised in poems treating
of the Marutam love. But a reference to the Agam or 'love
collection' will demonstrate that of the five kinds of love
treated of by the Tamil poets, he seems to have composed
the fewest possible stanzas in Marutam. Of 'the thirty-
nine poems of his appearing in Agananuru, Narrinai and
Kuruntokai, 17 deal with Palai, 9 with Kurinci, 5 with
Muttai, 5 with Neytal, and only 3 with Marutam. A
more unhappy choice to represent a Marutam singer
could not certainly have been made! Perhaps it might
be urged that this paucity of Marutam stanzas was
sought to be remedied by the Poet composing Marutakkali
which contains 35 stanzas on the whole. There is however
no use in exhausting possibilities by such suppositions.
No doubt, the classification of the poems by Tinais and
36 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TAMILS.

Turais 1is the product of a later systematisation and need

not be pressed too much for any positive conclusion. One

fact, however, stands prominently out: that Kalittokai
collection or rather distribution was made at a period
much later than when Ainkurunurw was taken up by
Perundevanar. That being established, it would be
pertinent to inquire why Perundevanar, the earlier writer,
should have omitted handling Kapilar's Kurincikkcdi,
which he should have doubtless come across? Turning to
Patirruppattu (The 'Ten Tens'), it is another collection
of poems which comes to us in a mutilated form. The
issued edition of the work contains only eight poems by
eight poets (each poem comprising ten stanzas), the first
and the tenth poem not appearing in any of the existing

manuscripts. Unlike the other collections, this particular

set of poems is confined to the glorification of one parti-
cular dynasty of the Tamil sovereigns the Chcras. We
may reasonably conclude that it should have been composed
and put into the present shape under the patronage of the
Chera rulers of the West Coast. It seems to be purely a local
collection and as such can scarcely take rank with the other

poems in their general authority. Considering the style

of some of the pieces appearing in it, I am inclined to assign
some at least to a little later period than the Agawanuru
and Purandnnru collections. Take for instance, the
fourth poem by Poet Kappiyarru Kappiyanar and you
will find it is composed on the principle of what is known
as 'Anthathi thodai', a device in versification by which a
poet begins a stanza from some word or phrase which
marks the close of the preceding stanza. 1 am sure this
device of a later versifying period did not exist at the time
when the poets of the Agananuru age extemporised

(1) The course of love is first distributed under five major classes called

Tinai, following the five classes of land, KwiMoi (hill-country), Palai

(desert), Mullai (forest), Marutam (agricultural country or cultivated

plains), and Neytal (sea-coast), in which it happens to take place. Turai

is the name of the sub-classes
portraying subjective states or objective
situations bearing on them, under each Tinai named above.
 SANGAM LITERATURE. 87

their poems with little or no idea of the cut-and-dried

formulae of the later prosodists. Moreover, this work,
like Ainkurunuru and Kalittokai, seems toAave been com*
posed on a uniform plan previously agreed upon by the
various authors concerned. These loot like so many
competition essays on a prescribed theme to comprise a defi-
nite number of stanzas, with coincidences in sentiments
and phraseology in their actual make-up. If these had
been written by different authors, one should assume that
each one of them followed a common model and had also
confined himself to one particular portion of the subject
treated I doubt whether Patirruppattu or at least a good
of.

portion of it is not the work of one author, set to the work of

glorifying the lino of the Chera Kings by a later sovereign of
that dynasty. Even here, as in the case of Kalittokai, the
later redactor with no clue about its authorship may
have ascribed the pieces to different contemporary poets.
It is also possible to conceive that the redactor had before
him a bunch poems by various authors and that by a
of

judicious selection ho picked out some and put them on a

uniform plan. Speculations like these, however, will not
help us to any settled conclusion until these works have
been subjected to a strict critical examination conducted
primarily on linguistic grounds. And this can be under-
taken only after the indexing work of the Sangam poems
which is now under preparation is completed and a com-
parative study is entered upon and carried out on
scientific linos. Till then we have to
suspend judgment.
On one point, however, there cannot be any two opinions:
that most of the poems in the four collections Puranawfrru,

Aganawuru, Narrinai and Kuruntokai belong to a period

decidedly anterior to that of Patirruppattu, Ainkurunuru,
Kalittokai and Paripddal. Of the latter class, only Patif-

ruppattu, the rest not treating of the dynastic annals, con-

tains matter historically useful and it may be utilised to
draw such secondary evidence from as would throw addi-
tional light on the primary evidence of the four earlier col-
38 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

lections.Pattuppattu (the 'Ten Idylls') also may supply

us with valuable secondary evidence of a like kind.
10. The fbur collections,Purananuru, Aganawiiru,
Narrinai and Kuruntokai, from the
The testimony of the testimony of which the Synchronistic
four collections: Pri- -. , , , . .. , . .,

mary. Tables are constructed, have, in spite

of the later accretions to their main
corpus, still a value of their own. Fortunately, the
later interpolations are mostly in the Agam group of poems,
which may safely be left out of account. They can offer us
but little help in the determination and arrangement of the
historical facts with which alone the Synchronistic Tables
here attempted will concern themselves. As for the main
historical testimony derived from these works, I have to

urge that its value should in no way be discounted on the

ground of the mere accident of its having been tampered
with by the systematizing zeal of a late editor or the
mytho-poetic elaboration of the Sangam fabulist. These
later efforts were doubtless due to the idea that the Sangam

poems themselves would thereby gain immensely in value.

But the irony of circumstances has brought about a new
which considers and cannot but consider
critical spirit,
these endeavours on the part of the old
well-meant
scholars as having only muddled the pure waters of the
head stream. The modern critic has to strip away the
mythic and f ormalistic wrappages thrown by later scholars
round a body of genuine works, before arriving at the
central kernel of truth. Even after piercing through such
later accretions he is now and then brought face to face
with certain inherent features of the works themselves
which, on account of their strangeness, are apt to raise in
his mind doubts about the genuineness of the
writings embodying them. To mention but two of
these, he comes across the names of Kings and Poets,
which, to his modern ears attuned to other sounds, can-
not but have a strange and even fantastic ring about them.
Names such as Unpotipasuiikudaiyar, Irumpidarttalaiyar,
 '
SANGAM LITERATURE. 39

Kalattalaiyar, Kalaitinyanaiyar, Kakkaipatiniyar, Kuntfu-

kan-paliyatan, Nariveruttalaiyar, Nalli, Kijli, Pari, Ori,
1
Kari, EUni, Evvi, Atan, Kankan, Katti must
Alisi,
naturally sound uncouth. And the names of the early
sovereigns of the three famous Tamil dynasties, the Chera,
the Chola and the Pandiya, have little or no connection with
the more polished and sonorous Sanskrit names of
their successors in the line. Add to this another peculi-
arity due to the limitations under which the late redactor
had to carry out his self-imposed or patron-directed task.
The names of poets seem to have been lost for ever
many
by the time the poems reached his hands. He was actually
faced with the difficulty of finding out the names of the real
authors of such pieces and appears to have hit upon the
ingenious plan of creating descriptive designations for the
innominate authors by some striking turn of expression or
thought occurring in tiieir poems. Here is, for instance, one
poet in the Kunmtokai collection called Cempulappeymrar
from the phrase 'Cempulappeynir' (water falling on red
soil) of stanza 40; and in 41, the phrase 'Aniladumunril' (a

courtyard whore squirrels play) gives rise to Anila^u

Munrilar, the descriptive name for the poet whose proper
appellation we have no means of tracing out at present.
Very many names occur like this in the other collections
also; but these singularities due to the distance of time
(1) A comparison of such personal names with the proper names of
individuals of later times is instructive mid interesting. At present South
Indian personal names arc borrowed mostly from the names of Gods and
Goddesses of the Hindu Pantheon and this practice must have come into
vogue with the dawn of the Religious epoch the period of Hindu reaction
against the heretical sects. Tn names, at least, the work of the go-called
Aryanisation has been thorough. Ever since the Aryan domination came
to be felt in politics and religion of the Tamil country, a process of re-

naming of persons, countries, cities, rivers, mountains, and other objects

was set on foot and seems to have been steadily pursued. This was the
first step in the Aryanisation work. And after the new names became estab-
lished in currency, all sorts of stories were later on spun round them to
show how the cities and rivers came into existence after the Aryan contact
with the south. A study of the ancient geography of Tamilagam as disclosed ia
the works of Pliny, Ptolemy and the Periplttx will establish how this re-
naming has rendered the task of identification extremely difficult and
irksome.
40 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

which separates us from the date of their composition

should not lead us to place these ancient works out of
court. It will be known to our readers that Prof. Julien
Vinson of Paris, a Tamil scholar of reputation in the
West, could not bring himself to view such singularities
with true critical insight and sympathetic imagination.
From a few of these strange features catching his eye
and ear, he seems to have jumped to the amazing conclu-
sion that this vast group of early Tamil Literature is one

grand pile of daring forgery and hence does not and can-
not serve the historian in any manner whatsoever. I shall
revert to this wholesale condemnation proceeding from the
extreme sceptical school in a later part of this paper and
try to present the reader not with any a priori counter-
arguments of my own but only with facts culled from this
group of works and standing inter-related with one
another in a wholly consistent manner. Forgery on a
large scale will hardly possess an inner coherency of its
own unless the author takes very elaborate care to previ-
ously arrange the materials on a consistent plan. Indeed the
charge of forgery against the whole group of the works
styled the "Sangam poems" is too preposterous to be en-
tertained as a serious hypothesis. Involving as it does a
whole cycle of poems, the assumption of forgery requires
not merely one or two individual
authors but a large
number of them of different places and times conspiring
to bring into existence a factitious literature on a very
extended And, what, after all, could be the motive
scale.
for such an elaborate system of forgery t I can well
understand the inspiring motive of individual fabricators
in producing isolated works and palming them off on a
credulous public; but the assumption that such a motive
could energise a company of writers to build up a mass of
faked literature is too wild to deserve any detailed criticism.
11. Reserving however this part of the subject for
The Result of the
* ater comment as occasion may arise,
utwrary valuation. j g^all briefly recapitulate the results
 SANGAM LITERATURE. 41

of the literary valuation to which the Naturalistic group of

the Sangam Compositions has been subjected at such length
and the light it throws upon the succession of such
works in time. As already pointed out, the Ethical group
is the latest in this cycle. The Naturalistic group, which
precedes composed of the Pattuppattu (the 'Ten
this, is

Idylls'), and the

EttuttoJcai (the Eight Collections).
Paripddal, one of the Eight Collections, happens to be the
latest among these both by its style and subject-matter.
Its scarcely concealed religious motive stamps it as later
than many of tho Ethical treatises. This work accord-
ingly has been left out of the purview of this paper. Kalit-
tokai and Ainkurun&ru, though they are earlier composi-
tions than ParipadaJ, are also of later origin and further
have little value for tlijegeneral historian. These also I
have refrained from utilising. Of the remaining, the four
known as Pwranwiuru, Aganuwum, Narrinw
collections
and Kuruwtokai form the main basis and supply us with
the primary evidence for the early history of the Tamils;
the two remaining works, Patirruppattu and Pattuppattu,
though decidedly later than many poems in the four
collections, are by their and subject-matter not far
style
removed from them. I intend using them as offering valu-
able corroborative testimony to the facts which are
disclosed by the four collections themselves. Wherever
these two works, Patirruppattu and Pattuppdttu, happen to
conflict with the evidence of the primary group, they have
to be discarded. In no way can we use these to overthrow
the testimony of those early works. But in matters
where their facts fit in well with those contained in the
primary group, their coincidence should naturally supply
us with an additional ground for confidence in the validity
of the truths we arrive at. It needs scarcely pointing out
that in such an endeavour as I am here engaged in, wherein
a goodly portion of the legitimately styled Sangam works
themselves have been excluded from utilization on the
suspicion of their late origin, such works as Cilappadi-
C 6
42 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TAMILS.

Jcaram and Manimekalai stand entirely ruled out. They

are decidedly much later than the latest of the Naturalistic
group, Kalittokai and Paripadal; and cannot even come
very near the main work of the Ethical period, Kural for
instance. They may be ascribed to the period just preced-
ing the dawn of the Religious epoch, say the sixth century
A.D., at the earliest. Herein I am guided by a sense of
the literary development alone and my complaint against
certain scholars who have
valiantly fought for the inclu-
sion of these two works in the Sangam collections is that

they have wholly failed to apply the preliminary literary

test to them before trying to quarry into the shafts of
these later formations for historical materials. Their
overzealous championship of these late works has only
made their opponents the more determined than ever to

bring down the dates of the earlier works to the level of

these evidently later compositions.

12. Whatever be the centuries to which we may

ascribe these works, the scheme that
Succession of the i s se t forth in the previous section as
Sangam Works: Their
broad arrangement in a result of our literary valuation fur-
e*
nishes us with a key for reading the
history of their relative development in time. Taking into
consideration the predominant national characteristic of the
Tamil race and utilitarian bent of mind
its materialistic

the Religious epoch could not have preceded the Ethical, nor
the Ethical, the Naturalistic period of its thought and life.
Confining our attention to the Naturalistic period, here too
we find the longer compositions could in no way precede
the shorter efforts. Trying to reverse their order of
succession would be just like attempting to misread the
life-history of a tree, by shifting its sapling stage to
succeed its fully-developed condition. The laws of mental
growth as exhibited by a nation are as invariable as the
physical laws and as incapable of inversion or deviation.
This scheme then gives us the initial guidance for distri-
buting the works under certain broad periods. Within
 SANQAM LITERATURE. 43

each period the works may have to bearranged by a resort

to nicer and more accurate methods. The standard
furnished by a sense of the literary development, based on
the growth of the national mind, necessarily proceeds on
averages and is certainly not applicable to the judgment
of individual minds or their works. Few will doubt the

utility of large balances weighing tons of material for not

coming up to the delicacy and accuracy of a chemist's
balance devised to measure exceedingly small particles of
matter. The former is as necessary as the latter and is
equally trustworthy if some allowance be made for a
narrow margin of error. Both in the shorter and
longer compositions, it is necessary to make a further
distinction by the application of another well-known
psychological truth. These
efforts of individual poets may

proceed either upon a subject furnished by an external

object or person or upon a subject improvised by the poet
;

himself for his own satisfaction. By the accepted psycho-

logical uniformity of the perceptual activity of the mind
preceding the oon-ceptual, in individuals as in nations, the
compositions having an objective reference should be
considered as naturally preceding those of a purely
subjective kind. Human mind is thrown on its own
resources only when it fails to get an object of the external
world to fasten itself upon. The metaphysical view of the
mind embodied in the 'Soul* theory, which invests it with
certain inherent powers not derivable from its contact with

Nature, does not, however, lend itself for any treatment

from the standpoint of the Natural Sciences. A natura-
view of the mind, on which alone its uniformities could
listic

be observed and enunciated, requires of us to consistently

apply this principle in the valuation of a nation's literary
works and seek to arrange them in the right order of
sequence. Accordingly, the Purananurw collection,
which deals with the objective events and conditions, should
precede the Agam group of poems and Pattuppdttu
and Patirruppattu among the longer compositions should
44 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TAMILS.

for a like reason stand anterior to Ainkurunuru, Kalittokai

and Paripadcd. A general comparison instituted between
these works on various linguistic and literary grounds also
goes to confirm the justice of the broad chronological
arrangement herein proposed. Another consideration also
adds its weight to this arrangement. Later interpolations
have crept in more into what I may call the subjective' *

group than in the 'objective'. From the very nature of

the 'subjective' poems themselves, it is much easier to

tamper with pure mental constructions than with the compo-

sitions which have an immediate and even organic

relationship with external facts, persons or events. In

the latter case, apart from other grounds, distance in time
alone should place the fabricator under the most serious
execute his interpolation with success. As an
difficulty "to

instance, I may point out that in the Pwraw.anuru collection

of poems I have not the least doubt that pieces of late
authors have found their way; but, these later pieces not
having any intimate relationship with the persons and
events therein celebrated, by far the greater number of the
poems of that "collection stand apart and could be spotted
out with a little careful discrimination. This circumstance,
then, is an additionalground why the compositions having
an objective reference should be considered as forming
most of the earliest efforts of the Tamil Muse.
13. The somewhat detailed inquiry we have thus far
pursued and the literary valuation
The basic works for thereby effected enable us to accept
Synchronistic
Tables. for the construction of the Synchro-
nistic Tables only six works as valu-
able and authoritative for the earliest period of Tamil
History. Of the nine works forming the Naturalistic
group, Ainkurunuru, Kalittokai, and Paripadal are left
out of account. And even among the remaining six works,
Pattuppattu and Patirruppattu are taken in as affording
only secondary evidence for purposes of confirmatio^.
Their facts are not allowed to take the lead in the COB-
 SANGAM LITERATURE. 45

struction of the Tables. The Tables, I am here presenting,

thus rest solely on the statement of the facts contained in
the four Puram and Ayaw collections. Their validity is
neither more nor less than the validity of the. testimony
of these works. And what value should one attach to this
earliest stratum of Tamil Literature? I have elsewhere 1
discussed certain linguistic peculiarities of Purandnuru
which have not come within the ambit of the Tolkappiya
Sutras and drawn a reason therefrom to establish the
anteriority of Pwranawlru to Tolkappiyam, the so-called
Grammatical authority for the second Sangam Literature.
Hence it is that 1 make bold to characterize these four
embodying some of the earliest compositions
collections as
of Tamil genius. Attempts to put them on a par with

CilappadikaraiH and Manimclcalai, or even with the still

earlier works Tolkappiyaw. and Kara}, and consider them
as contemporaneous in the lump are hopelessly mis-
directed and will lead only to a piteous distortion of
ancient Tamil chronology. Looking at these poems as a
whole, they strike us as a
strange body of literature
belonging to a different world, with apparently little or no
connection with even the mediaeval literature dating from
the Religious epoch of the seventh century A.D. The
JJcvflra hymns of Tirugiianasambandha and these early

poems are separated by a gap appreciably wide enough as

that which divides the classical Sanskrit from the Big Vedic
dialect in the North. Their purity of language, their
simplicity of thought, theirfreedom from the conceits,
conventions and mythologic paraphernalia of a later age,
their unstudied directness and even naiete in the portrayal
of the life and manners of an early age, and their many
verbal and grammatical enigmas which have been most
faithfully preserved and handed down by successive genera-
tions of scholars with little or no attempt at their eluci-

dation, all these attest as much to their ancientness as to

their genuineness. Setting aside the question of their age

(1) Vide Author's "Relative Ages of Purananaru and Tolkdppiyam'

46 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TAMILS.

for the time being, all that is necessary to establish here is

that we are dealing with a genuine body of a nation's
literature and not with an artificial literary concoction.

Taking the one outstanding fact that this early literature

contains numerous accounts of the habits, manners,
customs and observances of the early Tamils which are
anything but edifying to the amor propre of their present-
day descendants, this also must render the hypothesis of
forgery untenable. If a nation had unduly exalted itself by
a series of works, one could at least catch hold of that
as a motive for fabrication. But here the picture
presented by these works about the life and thought of
ancient Tamilagam is certainly not all rosy. No fabri-
cator would have left* behind him works such as these,
works which neither himself nor any one of his nation
could view at least in some portions with any feeling of
complacency. Hence the idea of a forgery is unthinkable.
The most crushing reply to this gratuitous assumption
however is given by the remarkable consistency which
runs through the Synchronistic Tables themselves, and to
these I shall now pass on.
 PART II.

THE SYNCHRONISTIC TABLES AND THEIR TEN GENERATIONS.

14. As stated already, these poems come to us in an
artificialgrouping introduced by the
Difficulties in our redactor Tinais and
consisting of
Turais, with introductory notes
from his pen added to many of Hiem. In the absence of

any other contemporary writing by which we can check the

references in these poems, these notes must remain the
only source of information about the persons and events
alluded to in the pieces. Still in utilizing such informa-
have taken care not to allow them to overweigh the
tion, I

primary testimony of the poems themselves. In cases

where the latter come into clear conflict with the former,
the former have been made to give way. But in all other
matters some weight was allowed to the evidence of these
editorial notes, especially because the redactor, however,
removed from the times of the Sangam works in question,
was still nearer them than we are and may be presumed
to have been conversant with the testimony of some living
tradition or of some authoritative works to which he had ac-
cess and which have since then disappeared. I have been all
the more inclined to ascribe some value to these expla-

natory notes of the first Editor, because of their matter-

of-fact character and freedom from any mythologic
embellishments.

Turning to the poems themselves, a goodly number

contain no reference whatever to any* king or chieftain.
These may be dismissed froim notice for the time being.
Nor can all the poems which have such reference be useful
for the Tables. Most of them refer to a past event or a
person who lived long before the poet himself. Except
48 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

for the information that the person referred to by the

poet must have lived before the poet himself, these pieces
offer but little help. Many of the stanzas of Nakklrar and
Mamfilanar fall under this class. These poets display
more than ordinary proneness to recount past occurrences
with many and chiefs of an
details concerning the rulers
But unless we can confidently fix the time of any
earlier time.
of such poets themselves, their narratives, however rich
in personal allusions, and however elaborate in details,
will not have any chronological value. I have found
Mamulanar, the most
allusively inclined of the poets,
except perhaps Paranar, also the most elusive of them.
With all my efforts, I have to confess that I have not yet
succeeded in locating him in a
particular generation.
Nakkirar, however, stands on u different footing. He
happens to sing of a contemporary King and his time is
thereby determined beyond reasonable doubt. This leads
me to a discussion of the value of the poems of contem-

porary singers. As a Table of Synchronism should be

raised mostly, if not solely, on
contemporaneous refer-
ences, I have had to scrutinize with great care the nature
and drift of the poems purporting to contain only such
references. Among these, some contain unmistakable
evidence of contemporaneity; while others are simply
reported to be such by the attached editorial note and do
not directly signify contemporaneity by their language.
To keep the Tables free from doubtful matter, I have
uniformly rejected these dubious stanzas for their lack of
any direct evidence of time. In fact, the greatest caution
had had to be exercised in the selection of the poems which
would be considered as possessing evidentiary value for
chronological purposes. In the practical carrying out of this
part of the work, the difficulty of distinguishing between
contemporaneous references and those concerning the past
times was indeed a formidable one. It would be admitted on
all hands that in early Tamil the verb of predication signi-
fied time only in a very limited, indefinite and hazy manner.
 THE TEN GENERATIONS. 4ft

The sense and is so weak

of time seems to have been
that even modern Tamil can scarcely be held to make
the faintest approach to the many grades of tenses
and moods that we find for instance in English. Hence
the determination of the lime of an event the poet sings
about was in manyinstances attended with great difficulty.
Still, by a detailed and careful comparison of the various
attendant circumstances such difficulties were overcome
and a tolerably correct conclusion arrived at.
Another difficulty arose from the confusion of the
personal names. The application of one and the same
name or descriptive appellation to different persons, with
distinct historical achievements of their own, has been the
source of serious misapprehension and misreading of an-
cient Tamil History. For instance, each of the names,
Karikdlan and Pamm\ptin Pandiyan, will be found
to refer to two distinct personages with a sepa-
rate historical setting for each.
purposes of For
correct chronology and history they should be differ-
entiated and kept apart. Herein, the mistaken identi-
fication by later commentators has misled not a few
into false paths and until the whole of this imposing struc-
ture of error is swept away we shall not be able to get at the
correct point of view of the past events or their connections.
As I shall deal with this part of the problem in its proper
place, it need not be dilated upon here.

The respect of the peculiar names of the

difficulties in

Poets, Kings and others to which I have already alluded

are however more seeming than real. It is true that such
names, as Palsalai Mudukudumi Peruvaludi (uet&ir&o
Talaiyalankaiiattu-Cheni-Venra

are descriptive names and not proper. If we

can realise the position of dependence of the
early Poets on the goodwill and munificence of
the kings of that time and the unbounded power
for good or evil that came to be wielded by the latter, we
50 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

may understand why their subjects, the poets not

well

excepted, considered it a sacrilege to mention the proper

names of their rulers. They had to resort to other devious

expedients for naming them; and this they seem to have
done invariably by connecting the kings with some of
their achievements or other incidents in their lives and
coining therefrom descriptive appellations by which they
could be known to their contemporaries. The. phrase Cerup-
pali-Erinda-Ilancetcenni (Q^^uun^ QujjB&p <&G*tL
for instance, thus refers to the young Cenni or
Q*saratR}i
Chola Prince who overthrew the Pali fortress Rajasuyam- ;

Wtta-Perunarkilli
(firirfQuMSmLL- Qu^vpSwaft), to
the great Narkilli or Chola King who performed the Raja-
suyam sacrifice. The words, Cenni (Q&w$\] and Kijli 1
in these descriptive phrases, whatever
(S&iefi^ occurring
be their origin, have come to signify, in the post-Karikal
usage, the Chola rulers as generic names. This peculiar
usage notwithstanding, the individual sovereigns have been
accurately identified. The very uniformity of practice
pursued by the ancient poets in the use of such descrip-
tive cognomens renders the identification for all intents
and purposes satisfactory. So, we shall be well justified in

treating these descriptive appellations as if they were

(1) Some writers are fond of deriving the proper names of this ancient

period from some significant root or other. Though their attempts may
not add visibly to the riches ol' Tamil philology, they are worth
noticing.
As an instance, I shall give here Dr. Pope's derivation of the name Killi,
as signifying the Chola sovereign. He writes in his translation of the 400
Lyrics: Puranantiru as follows: "Kilh was the family name of a renowned
dynasty of Chola Kings, eight of whom are mentioned in this connection,
Jts derivation is doubtful, but it may mean a digger and is in fact a

synonym of Pallava". He A a footnote the equation Pal=Kil. Now

add*
Kil as in Kilai; Kilir, KillakkvJso means a sprout, tender shoot or leaf.
The name could equally be dewved from that root. In fact, without more
authentic details of the origin of the Chola line of kings or of their tribe,
the derivation of their names cannot be anything else than highly conjectural.
Ancient history should come to re-inforce the conclusions of Philology and
where the latter seeks to reach a period far transcending that of the former,
'
its conclusions can at best be only hypothetical.
I consider ' Cenni and
<
Killi' in pre-Karikal usage as denoting two different branches of the
of kings as may be inferred from the facts brought out in
Ch6Ja family
the Tables.
 THE TEN GENERATIONS. 51

proper names attached to particular individuals concerned

nnd also in using them for the compilation of the Tables.

15. Most of the persons who appear in the Tables

come under one or other of the three
in
dasses "*** Poets, Kings and Chiefs.
'

A fow public functionaries or private

citizens are also occasionally mentioned in the poems; but
these will hardly be of any use for our purpose. Among
the three classes specified, the kings alone are expected
to show a line of continuous succession and hence must
form the very back-bone of tine chronological system herein
sought to be formed. The poets, both great and less, have
to be referred to the kings about whom they have sung
as contemporaries and thus assigned to a definite period
in the Tables. And of the three lines of the Tamil sove-

reigns, the Chola dynauy alone shows a succession for ten

generations without a breach. The Chera and the Pandiya
houses, on the other hand, lack this continuity. Hence the
Chola line had perforce to be adopted as the standard for
reference and comparison. As to the chieftains too, who

play a large part in the transactions of this early period,

the reader will find that as he moves down the times their
numbers get thinner and thinner, until at last most of
their lines vanish from view altogether. This was due
entirely to the Tamil triumvirs, in spite of their interne-
cine rivalry and warfare, entering into an overt or covert
league for the extermination of those old-time kingships.
In fact, one will be led to conclude from the early accounts
that the so-called Tamil chieftains were really tribal sove-

reigns who were either annihilated or brought under

subjection for the consolidation of the Tamil Monarchies
which may truly be said to have arisen from their ashes.
The Rise and Expansion of the Tamil Monarchies must
always remain an interesting chapter in the ancient
History of the Tamils and deserves therefore a separate
study and treatment.
 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TAMILS.

16. The Tables consist of four horizontal columns,

the first column being reserved for
f thC
the Pfi9#y a line of sovereigns, the
second for the Chola, the third for
the Cher a and the fourth for the various cffief tains who
turn up in this literature. These four horizontal columns
are divided into ten vertical sections, each representing
the period of a generation. By reading down a vertical
column you get the names of the various contemporaries
of a particular generation. By following the hori-
zontal column from left to right you get the
names of the successors in
subsequent generations.
In both the vertical and horizontal columns some names
appear more than once and serve as links to hold the
generations together. If a poet sings as a contem-
porary of a particular Pandiya sovereign and also of a
particular Chola king, the two rulers may naturally be
considered as having lived at one and the same time,
though quite likely that they may have lived in times
it is

slightly different but adjacent. Here the poet's name

serves the purpose of a link-name and helps us to fix the
representatives of different dynasties considered as
belonging to one identical generation. Or it may be that
while the poet sings of a particular sovereign of a parti-
cular dynasty, his son, another poet, may sing as a contem-
porary of another sovereign of the same dynasty. Here
also the known relationship between the poet who was a
father and the poet, who was a son, supplies us with a link
for placing the two sovereigns in two contiguous genera-
tions, although we are dark as to the exact
left in the

relationship" which subsisted between them. Here the

link-names of the father-poet and the son-poet come under
the class of what may be called horizontal or linear-link
names connecting two successive generations; whereas, in
the first case mentioned, the name of one and the same

poet which serves to establishcontemporaneity among

different individuals may bo styled a lateral link-name.
 THE TEN GENERATIONS. 58

In these Tables, excepting the few cases where the exact

relationship between the sovereigns is known either by
direct reference in literature or by tradition, all the other
sovereigns have been assigned their respective places by
the help of these lateral and linear link-names. The
existence of these link-names alone has made the construc-
tion of the Synchronistic Tables possible; their absence,
on the other hand, would certainly have rendered the
present attempt abortive. As an instance of this, I may
point out my inability to bring that fine synchronism of
Ko-Peruncholan and the Pandiya King Arivudai Nambi
into relationship with these Tables for want of a link-
name. Although so many as five poets, mz., Pisir-Antaiyar,

Pottiyur, Pullarrur Kannakanar, and

Eyirriyanar,
Karuviir Peruilcatukkattuppudanar, have sung about one
or the other of the two afore-mentioned sovereigns, they
have not sung about any others in the Tables or stand
related to any event in them. I am sure their patrons
were later rulers, though their time would not be far
removed from that of the Tables. I had therefore to leave
the Ko-Peraficholan Arivudai Nambi synchronism alone
for the present. Possibly future research (may open up a
way for effecting a junction with this synchronism. The
ten consecutive generations that have been brought into
the Tables, prepared as these are
by the help of the
link-names, lateral and linear, are held together by an
inseverable bond and so do not admit of any shifting
of their assigned places. In order to make these
Tables as accurate and reliable as possible, no pain was
spared to ascertain only strictly contemporary poets,
chieftains and kings for their inclusion therein. If the
stanzas of a
poet did not beyond doubt his
establish

contemporaneity with a particular king or event, he was

strictly excluded. By the great care thus exercised
both in the inclusion and exclusion of the names of persons,
on the ground of contemporaneity or its absence,
these Tables have gained in value and certitude.
54 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

As this happens to be the first serious attempt in distri-

buting the personages of ancient Tamil Literature under

a chronological scheme, I had to content myself with
not attempting too much by seeking to swell the
Tables by a multiplicity of names. My idea was more to
secure a reliable frame-work of chronology than to include
allthe personages appearing in these works in a compre-
hensive and exhaustive enumeration. By this restriction of
the scope also, the Tables, I hope, have gained a certain

degree of scientific accuracy, as fr as the inherent difficul-

ties of literary materials would permit. While they allow
future amplification in details, the ground-plan, I may be
permitted to add, has herein been laid with due regard for
the facts of Literature and their inter-relation and hence
may not admit of any material alteration. Every entry
in the Tables is vouched for by reference drawn from the
statements of the poets and that also of only such as have
direct evidentiary value. With a view to keep the Tables
clear of any hypothetical matter, I have carefully avoided
as far as possible interposing inferences and constructions
of my own However, in the solitary case of the
in them.
first Cher a sovereign, I have deviated from following this

general rule and have inserted in the Tables the name of

a king, whose inclusion has been found necessary on
grounds other than the existence of a link-name, which
will be detailed later on. This solitary hypothetical
insertion is marked by putting the name within
square brackets, to distinguish it from the other entries
which stand on a more secure basis.

As these Tables have been compiled by the help of

such link-names, I think it necessary to discuss briefly the
significance and use of the latter. Let us imagine a world
in which all the individuals of a particular generation start
and end their lives at about the same time. Here
each generation would stand by itself completely severed
from the one preceding or succeeding it in a sort of self-
v
contained isolation. Whatever be the number of the
 THE TEN GENERATIONS, 55

generations succeeding one another in time, we could not,

in the absence of the connecting names, tell anything about
their relative places in the scale of time. But the world
in which we happily not of the imaginary type refer-
live is
red to above where the lives of the individuals of a parti-
cular generation are not only of equal duration but coin-
cide with one another, in Ihcir beginning as well
as their end, with absolute mathematical preci-
sion. Individuals are born and die at all times
of the year and consequently overlapping of the

generations is the rule rather than the exception. Thus

the most natural thing for us to expect is that an indivi-
dual's name will appear in two consecutive generations.
It is also very likely that if an individual was blessed with
an exceptional longevity, covering more than the average
span of life vouchsafed to his contemporaries, his name
might appear in three, consecutive generations. But such
instances must be considered very rare and hence should
demand our most careful scrutiny. This critical sifting is all
themore necessary in the ancient history of the Tamils
among whom the grandson bears the identical name of his
grandfather to this day. By reason of the antiquity of
this practice in personal nomenclature one has to see
whether the name appearing in the third generation goes
to denote a different individual of the same family or the

original owner of the first and the second generation.

These considerations would demonstrate, at all events, that
an individual could not be expected to cover four genera-
tions. would be against the course of natural events.
It

Possibly some may urge that, if the average duration of a

generation is only 25 years, there is hardly any intrinsic
impossibility, much less improbability, in imagining a
centenarian to pass his life through four consecutive
generations. Although one could admit the theoretic
possibility of such a supposition, it should be noted that
that ideal centenarian could not have any chance of leaving
his mark by his activity in the domain of thought or life
56 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

in all the four generations in question. A generation, at

either end, must be sliced away as not allowing him by
non-age and over-age to take any active part in the affairs
of the world and thus leave an impress of his personality
on contemporary life or events. This, then, leaves for our
consideration only the two central generations as the natural
period of his activity and thought. Any attempt to
stretch it beyond those natural limits must inevitably tell

upon the scientific value of the work we are now engaged

in. Three generations is the utmost limit to which a
person could be assigned and that too in very exceptional
circumstances only. But beyond it neither facts of human
history nor demands of logic would permit us to go.
Where such instances turn up, we have to infer the
existence of two separate individuals, who have been

indiscriminately mixed up by posterity for want of a

scientific attitude of mind and the necessary critical

insight.
To enable readers
to alight at a glance on the link-

names, I have underlined the lateral link-names with thick

and the linear, with dotted lines. In the matter of the
linear-links, dotted lines have been further tipped
the
with arrow-heads showing the direction in which the link-
ing should be effected. If the name happens to connect its
generation both with the preceding and succeeding
ones, the underline is furnished at both ends with
arrow-heads for pointing the direction of linking. If a
lateral link-name serves also as a linear-link, the thick line
too is provided with arrow marks. These mechanical
devices, I hope, will enable the reader to get at
once at the connections among the various facts of the
Tables in their natural order of co-existence and
succession.

17. We have seen that by the systematising zeal of

Th6 Tables and the

Ohoia line of kings.
11111
the earliest redactor of the Sangam
works, chronology has been wrenched
it
out of its natural joints and thrown
 THE TEN GENERATIONS. 57

into great confusion, for the mere whim of an ideal

rhetorical arrangement of the poems. All that we are

presented with is a tangle of names of sovereigns, chief-

tains and poets mixed up pell-mell. The first problem

was to see where to begin in this uncharted wilderness.
With absolutely no guidance from literary traditions,
I could know neither the beginning nor the end of any line
of sovereigns just to make a start in the construction of the
Tables. Even supposing that any name would be as good
as any other for the end in view, still the idea could not
be overcome thjat success or failure of the undertaking

depended largely on the particular line of sovereigns

chosen as the base-line of the survey. In any
event, the dynasty chosen as the standard should
satisfy two indispensable conditions: firsi, that it
should present a continuous succession of rulers
ami secondly, that it should show a longer pedi-
gree, on the whole, and remain in our hands an
effective standard of comparison with which the other lines
of kings could be correlated. If the dynasty selected as the
standard should snap anywhere, the attempt at synchro-
nisation of the other lines would be brought to a stand-still
or could be carried out only in a very imperfect manner.
Such contingencies of the problem weighed with me at
first and led me to prospect for the choice of a secure
base-line. Of nearly forty sovereigns who appear in this

literature, more than twenty belong to the Chera line.

For this reason at least, this dynasty should naturally take
precedence of the others and serve as the requisite
norm. But in view of most, if not the whole, of the
Chera genealogy depending for its authenticity on
Patirruppattu, a work not of impeccable authority in
itself on account of its containing patent interpolations and

which moreover has already been consigned to the humble

role of mere secondary evidence, I could not bring myself
to makethat dynasty the standard for the construction
of the Tables. Of the remaining two dynasties, the

C 8
58 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

Pandiya, though unmistakably the earliest, not possessing

evident marks of a continuous succession could not be
taken up. Naturally, by this process of elimination, I
had to fall back on the Chola line as the most satisfactory
standard in the circumstances indicated. Two other
reasons also lent their support for this choice. The name
of Karikalan, the great Chola sovereign, has pierced
through the mist of ages and reached us with a halo
of glory of its own. Far and away he happens most
to be the

conspicuous figure of th<at illustrious line of kings, whose

military skill and humane administration laid the first

foundation of a Chola Empire. He
was, moreover, the
first and foremost patron of Tamil learning, in whose court
flourished a galaxy of poets, who drew their inspiration
from the vast exploits of their patron for leaving behind
them literary memorials composed, for the first time, on a
set plan and on a considerable scale. Karikalan 's towering
personality thus was one of the material factors which
confirmed me in the selection of his line as the standard. The
second reason which was equally decisive was the

commanding position of the great poet, Paranar, who,

seems to have attached himself to the Chola line of
sovereigns and sung about their remotest pedigree and
their individual achievements in a manner in which no
other poet has done. Like Karikalan the Great, among the
rulers of that age, Paranar stands head and shoulders
above the poets of the classic period. It would be no
exaggeration to say that alike in the quality of his poetry
and in the command over language, in the amplitude of
his imagination and in the width of his sympathies,
in the grip of contemporary life and. above all, in the
delicacy of his touch, he surpasses all the classic

singers, though many of these latter poets themselves, be it

observed, were artists of no mean order. True, in the false

estimation of a particular school of latter-day scholarship,
his name was permitted to be overshadowed by that of a
rival, Kapilar, who seems to have produced mass for mass
 THE TEN GENERATIONS. 59

a larger bulk of poetry. But is bulk of production the

measure whereby poetical merit should be judged f
Probably only a quantitative judgment of poetical merit
has allowed Kapilar to successfully contest with Paranar
for the premier place amongst the company of the Sangam

poets. If precedence goes by the priority of mention, the cur-

rent phrase 'Kapila-Paranar' should certainly be reversed.
Though Kapilar himself was a poet of high gifts, the
conviction cannot be resisted that Paranar out-distances
him in the supreme quality of poetic inspiration and many-
sided grasp of life. This digression apart, Paranar happens
to sing of a number of Chora sovereigns also and serves
as an important link of synchronism between these two
famous lines of kings. Apart moreover from the many
allusions to previous sovereigns strewn thick in his stanzas,
he brings the Pancliya family too within the scope of his
poetic survey. Utilizing to the full the advantages he
appears to have enjoyed as the premier court-poet of his
age, he Ivis recorded pen-pictures of the royalty not only of
his own time but of the preceding generations with a minute-
ness and faithfulness, all his own. This was the addi-
tional ground which fixed me
resolve to keep the
in my
Ohola line as the central stem of the Tables, with which
(he other branches should he brought into relation.

Starting then with Karikala Chola the Great, I began

jotting down the names of the contemporary poets of his
period. Paranar, who happened to sing of Karikalan's
father Urnvapahter Ilancetcenni and his predecessor
Vcrpahtadakkai Perunarkilli, could not reasonably be
brought to Karikalan's time. And yet one cannot but note
that some of his poems contain allusions to a Karikalan of
old. This led me to scrutinize with care the references in all

his stanzas bearing upon Karikalan; and the result of my

investigation the emergence of two distinct Karikalans
is

with separate historic achievements standing to their credit.

Till now the false lead of mediaeval commentators has been
followed with docile meekness by later scholars and two
60 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TAMILS.

distinct personalities have been jumbled up and their

deeds thrown together and ascribed to one ruler. This con-
fusion further opened the way for fanciful myths being
created to explain the significance of the name Karikalan,
as the 'Sovereign of the burnt-foot' and other equally
amusing fabrications. Setting aspect of the
aside that
matter for the present, the actual construction of the
Tables went to show that Karikalan 's generation was
preceded by five consecutive generations and succeeded
by four. Thus, on the whole, we get ten generations of
Chola sovereigns and on the accepted scale of 25 years for a
generation they cover in all 250 years. With the works at
our disposal no successful attempt seems possible to extend
the continuation of these generations on either end.
Blocked as our way is, in both directions, the ten genera-

tions, as far as they stand inter-linked, give us a glimpse

into the Cb,ola history for two centuries and' a half and that
in itself is no small matter. Furthermore, neither the Pan-

diya line nor the Chera is found to go higher up or

lower down the scale the Chola dynasty furnishes us with.
Accordingly, I came to the conclusion that the designation
of the different periods should be done in the name of the
respective Chola sovereigns appearing in each. This will
facilitate reference to the base-line for any future
comparison and checking.
I shall now go on to consider the Synchronistic Tables
in detail. The best would be to begin with the
course, I think,
earliest generation and then deal with each of the succeed-
ing ones in order of time.
18. Before we enter on a study of these Tables, we
have to disabuse our minds of certain
A New View-point. . , . ,.
prepossessions and even prejudices
sedulously fostered by the works of an uncritical
school of writers on the question of the origin
of the three Tamil monarchies. The prevailing opinion
of the orthodox Pandits is to represent these three
kingships as having, like Minerva from Jove's
 TfiE TEN GENERATIONS. 6l

head, sprung inio 'existence in full panoply of power from

either of tlio divine luminaries, the Sun and the Moon.
Political thought, much less political science, could hardly
have existed then and so the earliest Tamil commentators
and others believed as a matter of course that the great
kingdoms, whose glories have been celebrated by many a
bard, should have been from the very beginning of time as
1
extensive and powerful as they came to be in later days.
The promulgators of the doctrine of the divine origin and
divine right of kings, a doctrine mooted and elaborated
later on under religious auspices, could not brook
even in idea the rise of those old-time king-
2
ships from humble beginnings. The latter-

day glories of the Tamil sovereigns were trans-

ferred undimmed to the hoary part and those early
rulers too canie somehow to be invested with the accoutre-
ments of full-blown royalty from a time beyond the
reach of history and even tradition. The tribal or com-
munal kings consequently had to sink to the level of petty
miserable chieftains by the side of the three grand Tamil
colossi, chieftains whose very existence is said to have

depended largely on the goodwill and grace of those auto-

crats who had to bestow on them their own territories for
some service or other. Instead of dating the origin of
the Tamil kingships from the effacement of the antecedent
tribal rule as a patent fact of ancient Tamil history, later
writers with a strange want of historical insight arid pos-
sibly also by the inducement and -active connivance of the
later descendants of the Tamil triumvirs themselves,

began to relate for the edification of posterity that the

(1) Vide Pandit R. Raghava Ayyangar's 'Vanjinianagar', p. 11.

(2) For instance compare the spirit of the following very late panegyric
composed in honour of Karikfilan the Great

It means: 'I will not estimate him who occupies the lion-supported
throne as simply Tirumnvalavan but shall consider and worship him as th
great god Tirumal himself. Could blind adulation go further?
62 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

chieftains occupied from the very start a position of depen-

dence on the three great sovereigns owing fealty and allegi-
ance to them. By this view the sequence of historical events
actually came to be entirely reversed and a false picture
of the past created. 1 need hardly say that the current

speculation of .many in the field regarding the origin and

nature of the Tamil monarchies is quite erroneous and will
hardly brook a critical examination.
Whatever may be the origin of the Cheras and the
Pandiyas, the testimony of these Tables is positive as

regards the birth of the Chola power. They take us to

the very beginning and place in our hands much interest-
1

ing information about the establishment at Uraiyur of

the Chola power, which in subsequent times was destined
togrow to imperial dimensions little inferior to those of the

Empire of Asoka, of Samudragupta or of Sri Harsha of

North India. Tamilagam at the period here disclosed did
not extend even to Venkadam
or the Tirupati Hill, its
traditional northern boundary as laid down in the prefatory
stanza attached to Tolkdppiyam. No doubt, it is casually
mentioned by a few poets, all later singers in the group of
poets we have taken up for consideration. Even they
refer to as 'Pullikadu' (the forest region of Pulli, the
it

chieftain of the Kalva tribe). To the south of this lay

another forest region Arkkadu 2 (the modern Arcot districts,
North and South, and Ohingleput) which in subsequent
(1) Dr. Caldwell in deriving this word considers it as signifying the
'city of habitation' as if other cities and villages were not. The form
'Uraiyur' came into use at a later time, its earliest form being 'Urattur',
'
as is well evidenced by Ptolemy's 'Orthoura'. Urattur ' appears in the
poems of the earliest poets in the abbreviated and softened form 'Urantai',
just as Kalattur becoming Kajantai, and Kujattur, Kulantai. There was also
another Urattur in the Pandiya kingdom at that time, but the
poet carefully distinguishes it from Chola's Urattur as Urattur
in the Arimanavayihiadu or district (Agam 266). Bestoring the
name thus to its original form one would find it difficult to indulge in any
etymological speculation! In an agglutinative language like Tamil! wherein
attrition ofwords due to economy of effort is constant and is carried to the
highest and even sometimes to a whimsical degree, philology is beset with
peculiar difficulties.

(2) Vide Appendix IV. Note on Arkkadu and Aruvalar.

 THE TEN GENERATIONS. 64

times became the seat of power of the Tondaiyars or

Tivaiyars, another forest tribe who were replaced by the
still later Pallavas. General Cunningham's opinion that
Arcot is a later town and Dr. Caldwell's reference to the
myth of six Bishis performing tapas there once upon a
time are belied by the account contained in the early Tamil
classical literature. This Arcot was then ruled over by
one Alisi, presumably a chief of the Aruvalar or Naga
tribe. The fact that the Chola kings assumed the ar or atti

flower as their royal emblem later on would show that they

were connect od in some way with Alisi or it might be that
they assumed it as an emblem of thjeir victory over Alisi 's
descendants. In any view, we have to conclude that the
Chola power did not extend to Arkkadu at the beginning.
The following lines of stanza 100 trf Narrinai by one
unknown author, who must be evidently one of the earliest
poets, speaks of Alisi aiid his forest kingdom.

QuJoQ&jb

That Alisi must have been a ruler of some note may

be inferred from his country Arkkadu taking another name
too as Alisikadu. That he was an independent ruler is
1

clear also from Parana r's lines:

Qeufr&reurr GtflHeirujn
Q/J0/.0*
(Kuruntokai, Stanza 258)

(1) Nakkannai, a poetess appearing ii tho second generation snya in

tanza 87 of Narrinai.

.>., tho AHsikaclu or Alisi, which is in the possession of the

forest of
victorious Gholas. conquest of Arcot was made in Tittan's
Whetliei this

period or in that of his sou, we have hardly any

means of judging from
these poems.
64 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EAELY TAMILS.

Here Alisi is definitely described as the king or chief

1
of the Ilaiyar tribe. That ho or his descendant had to
lose this independence is clear from Nakkannai's verse

quoted in foot-note (1) of the preceding page.

At the early time we are now discussing, the Tamil
country was literally studded with numerous chieftaincies
or rather kingdoms, each in independent charge of its

separate clan-chief or communal ruler. According to

the Tinai classification of later Tamil Grammar, which
was based on facts of natural observation of the early

society recorded in Tamil Literature, the country was occu-

pied by five tribes confined to five different zones according
to their pursuit or occupation. The fishing tribes, the Para-
tavars, were confined to ihe coast and the hill tribes, the
Kuravars, found refuge in the fastnesses of the interior
hills. Between the hill region and the littoral were hem-
med in three other tribes, the Ayar or the shepherd or
cowherd tribes of the forest area, the agricultural tribes
or Ulavars in the plains adjoining the numerous river
basins, and the nomads or Eyinars (Vedars) plying their
natural vocation of hunting and also the disreputable
pursuit of plunder and pillage. These nomads could not
from their natural disabilities and the peculiarity of their
occupation develop even the rudiments of a tribal

sovereignty. Leaving this particular tribe out of account,

the remaining four tribes seem to have advanced, in vary-

ing degrees, towards a settled form of rule. The Parata-

vars and Kuravars, i.e., the littoral and the hill-tribes, in
their progress towards political institutions, could not
advance beyond the tribal chieftaincies. Their geogra-
phical position and their fluctuating economic condition
due to limited and even uncertain sources of income

(1) The name IJaiyar refers to a forest tribe known also as the Malavar.
It was from this tribe that Karikalau the Great after his conquest of their
forest kingdom seems to have recruited most of his army. Hence the term
Malavar or Mallar came to signify a soldier also in subsequent times.
Tondaiyar, Tiraiyar, Pallavar are other names under which this tribe or its
mixture is known in later literature.
 6
THE TEN GENERATIONS

to advance in political
were alike unfavourable any
after reaching
constitution. They had to stop short
two tribes, the pastoral
(he tribal rulership. The remaining
a stage
and the agricultural, appear to have advanced
farther and succeeded in establishing communal
and even
territorial kingships under the names, Ko or Vel. The first
idea of kingship in this part of the world arose amongst
them and in the struggle for existence which ensued the agri-
cultural kings or Vels, aided by their more flourishing
economic condition, their larger numbers, and greater
as the masters of the
organisation, came out eventually
field. The whole political history of ancient Tamilagam
was
1
the history of the conquest in the end of all thje other tribes

(1) The following excerpts from Semple's classic work, Influences of

Geographic Environment, will add their force to the views set forth above.
Hunter Tithes: "Relying mainly on the chase and fishing, little

on agriculture, for their sul sistence, their relations to were

their soil
1'
superficial and transitory, their tribal organisation in a high degree unstable.
(P. 515.)

Fisher Tribes: "Fisher tribes, therefore, get an early impulse for-

ward in civilization and even where conditions do not permit the upward
step to agriculture, these tribes have permanent relations with their land,
form stable social groups qnd often utilize their location as a natural high*
way to develop systematic trade." (pp. 56-57.)
Pastoral Tribes: "Among Pastoral nomads, among whom a
systematic use of their territory begins to appear, and therefore a more
definite relation between land and people, we find a more distinct notion
than among wanderinghunters of territorial ownership, the right of com-
mini a 1 and tho distinct obligation of common defence. Hence the
use,
social bond is drawn closer." (p. 57.)
"Hunter and Fisher Folk relying almost exclusively upon what their
land produces of itself, need a large area and derive from it
only an
irregular i'ood supply, which in winter diminishes to the verge of famine.
The transition to the pastoral stage has meant the substitution of an artificial
for a natural basis of subsistence, and therewith a change which more than
any other one thing has inaugurated the advance from savagery to civiliza-
tion. From the standpoint of Economics, the forward stride has consisted
in the application of capital in the form of* flocks and herds to the task
of feeding the wandering horde; from the standpoint of alimentation, in the
guarantee of a more reliable and generally more nutritious food-supply, which
enables population to grow more steadily and rapidly; from the standpoint
of geography, in the marked reduction per capita amount of land to yield
on adequate and stable food supply. Pastoral nomadism can support in a
given district of average quality from ten to twenty times as many souk
as can the chase; but. in this respect is surpassed from twenty to thirty-fold

C 9
66 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TAMILS.

by the agricultural and the establishment of the Tamil sove-

reignties in the valley-regions adjoining the Periyar, the
Tamraparni, then known as Porunai, the Vaigai and the
1

Kaviri. It would be a positive perversion of history to

describe these tribal rulers as subordinate to one or other
of the three Tamil sovereigns of that time. Allusions to
nine kings and eleven kings and Elumudi (Seven Crowns)
occur in some poems and these point directly to one con-
clusion that, before the Tamil triumvirate came into their
own, they had to contest for power with a large number of
tribal kings and had to wipe them out of existence or make
them their feudatories in a sort of easy political alliance.
The references to such a state in early literature are so
abundant that 1 think it unnecessary to load this paper
with specific quotations. The glimpse into the earliest
political condition of Tamilagam, afforded by Tamil
Literature, gives us a picture of the existence of many
independent rulers and that the picture is substantially a
correct one vouched for by the facts of political history
is

all the world over how extensive empires have been built

on the ruins of many smaller kingdoms comparatively

less organised than themselves for purposes of war and

military aggression. Bearing this in mind let us approach

the detailed study of the Tables and the facts they embody.
They throw a flood of light on the political history of that
far-off period.

by the more productive agriculture while the subsistence of a nomad requires

100 to 200 acres of land, for that of a skilful farmer from 1 to 2 acres
suffice." (p. 61.)
Agricultural Tribes: "With transition to the sedentary life of agri-
culture, society makes a further gain over nomadism in the close integration
of its social units, due to permanent residence in larger and more
complex
groups; in the continuous release of labour from the task of mere food-
getting for higher activities, resulting especially in the rapid evolution of
the home and finally in the more elaborate organisation in the use of the
land, leading to economic differentiation of different localities and to a
rapid increase in the population supported by a given area, so that the land
becomes the dominant cohesive force in society." (pp. 61-62.)
(1) This later name may perhaps be a '
corruption of Tanporunai ', the
Porunai. The name
'
cool Porunai' (meaning that which resembles) may itself
be taken as a part of the fuller name 'An-Porunai* that which resembles a cow.
 tBN GENfeRATIONS. 6t

THE FIRST GENERATION.

VELIYAN TITTAN PERIOD.
19. Veliyan Tittan, tli,e captor of Uraiyur and the
founder of thie Chola power, was one
The Chola line: of the many Vels or kings, who
Veliyan Tittan. i , -I. v* A
omipied terntories near the coast in
the basin of the river Kaviri (the modern Kaveri). Like
the predecessors of Alunturvel and Nankurvel, he was the
Vel or king of Virai, a coast town near the Kaveri delta.
As could not get contemporary poets for this earliest
I

period, 1 had to piece together the references contained in

the stanzas of some of the earliest poets and bring out a
fairly connected narrative of the times. Mutukurranar,
or as some manuscripts have it Mutukuttan&r, sings as
follows about this ruler of Virai in stanza 58 of
Xarrinaii

Qeoioiiflu

@/Pg)u Qurreti*
<?4f/rcu Qmtreaot

LD/r%\> e&etr&Qcbr"

We
understand from this that Tittan was merely a
Velman of Virai with no pretensions to the style and
1

insignia of a great Chola sovereign at that time. The term

Velmfm signifies Velmagan, one belonging to the commu-
nity of Vel king or ruler by pre-eminence. We
and also its

may justly presume that he .must have had under him a

number of Kilars or Kilavars holding subordinate autho-
2
rity and in charge of different villages. Tittan 's capital

(1) Vide Appendix V: Note 011 the Tamil Suffix JlfOft,

(2) The Primitive Tamils consisted of a number of village communi-

ties each under the headship of a Kilan or Kilar, the abbreviated forma of
the fuller name Kilavan or Kiiavar. These terms refer to the persona who
had the right of being the headmen or ehiefs of their respective village-
communities, composed of a single family and its numerous branches. A
confederacy of such communities was presided over by a
Vel or VSlmftn.
68 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TAMILS.

being Virai, near the coast, he had no connection with

Uraiyur, an inland town. That Virai was on the sea-coast
can be made out from the lines of Marutan Ilanaganar, a
later poet in Agananuru, S. 206:

The poet here describes the salt pans of Virai. Now

this Veliyan Tittan, probably more ambitious than his
brother Vels of his time, conceived the plan of extending
his dominions inland. He seems to have cast his eye on
Uraiyur, then in possession of a ruler named Sendan,

probably the son of Alisi whom we have already alluded

to as the sovereign of Arkkadu. Sendan succeeding his
father on the throne of Arkkadu must have extended his
kingdom to Uraiyur. Whatever may be our opinion about
Sendan getting the Uraiyur principality by inheritance or
by right of conquest, there can scarcely be any doubt
about his occupation of that city. Here is a stanza from
Kuruntogai (stanza 258) by Poet Paranar giving us the
information :

Qi i

Q/ i(r$v

<s&rwQ&{TLL

utflfiir

Here, the Poet, in the hypothetical love-scene

imagined and described by him introduces the maiden-
companion of the heroine as forbidding the lover from
further advance in his overtures to her lady. In request-
ing the lover not to visit their village or to send any more
of his garlands as tokens of love, the maid appeals to the
finer feelings of the ga-llant by the imagery that the fault-

less beauty of her lady too joins in the supplication for

 THE TEN GENERATIONS. 69

the discontinuance of his visits as they give rise to unfavour-

able comments of the whole neighbourhood and cause no
littleannoyance to the lady besides despoiling her of all
her beauty. Thus not only the maid but the lady's beauty
also has been dexterously woven into the lines as craving
for protection. In the ideal scene thus depicted the poet
following the conventions of the Tamil bards of that age,
introduces two similes to illustrate the faultless beauty
of his heroine. The capital of some ruler or other is

generally brought in by the poet as the object to whose

splendours the richness of his heroine's beauty should
be compared. Here Paranar, not content with one capital,
refers to two cities, Uraiitai of Soudan, on the banks of the
Kaveri, and Arakkadu of Alisi, probably to heighten the
loveliness of his heroine. Poetic idealisation apart, the
poet's reference to Uraiitai of Sendan gives us a veritable
bit of history. We
further know that neither Sendan nor
his father Alisi comes under the line of the Chola sovereigns
of Uraiitai. In all probability, Alisi was the chief of the
forest tribe, the original stock from which the Tiraiyars
or Tondaiyars of later times took their rise. They are
'Basamagos' by Ptolemy, who
1
called locates them just
to the north of the territory occupied by the 'Sornagos'
or Cholas. Sendan, not a Chola king himself, is thus
described to have been in possession of Uraiyur for some
time, and Veliyan Tittan, the ruler who actually founded
the Chola line of sovereigns and launched it on a career
of conquest and expansion, was then confined to Virai, the
coast town. Fired with ambition this Tittan seems to
1
have dislodged Sdndan from Urantai and established
himself there. Having secured the coveted prize, he
planned and carried out the fortification of Urantai and
made it impregnable for ordinary assaults. These

(1) If any conjecture might be offered the name 'Basarnagos' given

by Ptolemy may be Pasalai Nagar (uffts* nowf). Both u^feo and *<
mean the tender shoot or leaf of a plant, probably giving us an insight into
the origin of the Sanskrit name Pallava of later days.
70 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

facts are dedueible from the following references in the

stanzas of some of the earliest 1 poets, Paranar and Mutu-
kurranar.

Ljfl.W3flL
Paranar in Agcem., S. 122.

flrirs/H7 dsensrfl

Mutukurranar in Agam., 8. 137.

These extracts Veliyan Tittan had later

testify that
on come into the possession of TJrantai. Not content with
this conquest he or some one connected with him appears
to have carried war into the heart of Sendan's territory,
the old capital Arkkadu, and completely annexed the
Arcot2 territory to his own. The testimony of the poetess
Nakkannai, whom I take to be the Nakkannai, daughter
of Perunkoli Naikan, and who appears in the next gene-

ration, is decisive on the point. Following closely the

generation of Veliyan Tittan, she describes Arkkadu
as belonging to the Cholas. The line

Narrinai, 8. 87.

shows that Veliyan Tittan 's victory over Sendan not only
cost him the loss of Urantai but paved the way for the
annexation of his whole kingdom including the old capital
either during Veliyan Tittan 's time or in that of his im-
mediate successor. Thus we are forced to conclude that
the Cholas of Urantai had to build up their kingdom on

(1)The reign of Karikalan the Great is a landmark in the history of

this early period. Like a luminous band stretching almost in the middle
it serves to divide the incidents and personages of that far-off epoch into two

batches, the earlier and the later. The so-called "Sangain" poets who precede
this Karikalan I herein name as the earlier and the post-Karikalan poets, the
later.

(2) Sendamangalam in South Arcot District, though a later name, may

be held as testifying to Sendau's connection with that region in ancient
timtf.
 -
1

THE TEN GENERATIONS. '

71

the ruins of the Arcot power. It is true that the texts

of the early poets do not give us a connected and circum-

stantial narrative of this conquest and they were pre-
cluded from doing so for the simple reason that they were
not professional historians and their duty mainly consisted
in offand on panegyrizing their royal patrons but this
need not deter us from putting together the apparently dis-
connected facts and drawing therefrom the only inference
that could rationalise them. Itonly by justly disposing
is

these stray facts in their true order of sequence in time

can we get $t their significance and create a more or
less picture of the happening^ in a
understandable
closed chapter ancient
of Tamil history. Here the
disconnected facts are that the first king of the Chola line
wont by the name of Vlrai Volman Veliyan Tittan and that
his capital was Vlrai, a coast town, that Uraiyur, the
famous capital of the Cholas was then in possession of one
Sendan, who had no conceivable connection with the Chola
family of kings and that Veliyan Tittan seems to have occu-
pied Urantai and fortified it. All that I have attempted to do
is to place these three facts in their true inter-relation and

draw the inference that Sondan was ousted from Urantai

by the invading forces of Veliyan Tittan, who, thereby,
founded the first capital of the Cholas and made it an
impregnable fortress. Paranar's poem in Agananuru,
from which I have already quoted a few lines, may be
transcribed in full for the relevancy of their closing
lines :

LO&(I>
72 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

peureuir
i>/flOuiL/
L/L!^. Ginriruuu
tr QuirSiu urrujuifi

In this beautiful stanza, the poet makes the heroine

recount one by one the anany obstacles that be&et the path
of her lover's approach to herself. She winds up the

graphic account of the disconcerting impediments by a

telling simile that they were as many and as insuperable
as the obstructions to an advance on Tittan's fortress at
TJrantai. From this we may reasonably conclude that im-
mediately after the conquest of Urantai (Uraiyur), Tit-
tan put its defences in thorough order and made that city
impregnable. An ambitious sovereign like himself, with
projects of conquest seething in his mind, could not have
done anything else.

20. It is not possible to trace out a Pandiya repre-

sentative for this period for want of
The Pandiya ttnenn- But subsequent
literary references.
texts imake it clear that at about this
time the Pandiyas were confined to their capital, Korkai
at the mouth of thie Tamraparni river, and had not yet
even established themselves at Madura, whose earlier
name appears to have been Kudal. Kudal at about this
time was probably in possession of one of Akutai's
ancestors, his father or grandfather.
 THE TEN GENERATIONS. 73

21. We
have also no means of knowing who the
Chera sovereign was at this period.
The Chera line un- B U ( one
may fairly infer that the
Chera kings were still confined to
the West Coast, their
being Kuttanadu,
initial seat
the Kottanara of the Greeks, in the western sea-
board of North Travancore. They had not yet extended
their dominion north and east. They had yet to con-
1
quer Karuvur which later on gave them the most con-
venient vantage-ground on the basin of the Periyar
river for further conquests north and east. But this

military expedition to Karuvur and its annexation prob-

ably occurred in the next generation, which I shall discuss
in detail later on.
22. Among the chiefs, referred to in the verses of
some earlier poets, Soudan was the
The Chieftains.
^^ ^^ w io j could be considered a
contemporary of Veliyan Titian. He seems to have been
the last of the .Arcot line of sovereigns, who was forced
to give way before the superior military skill and organizing

power of the ruler of Virai, Veliyan Tittan. Though

Tittan reported to have occupied Urantai, his dominion
is

presumably did not embrace the environs of the Kaveri

dell awhich went by the name of Kalar. This part of the
country, at the mouth of that fertilising river, should have
been in the possession of one Matti or his immediate pre-
decessor, wielding power over the fisher-folk of the coast
as their tribal sovereign. Matti comes into prominence
in the second generation and his story may therefore be
taken up later.
Veliyan Tittan, the conqueror of Uraiyur, had a son
named Tittan Veliyan, with whom he seems to have been

(1) Dr. Vincent A. Smith and Kanakasabhai Filial were at one in

holding that the Ktiruvur of the ancient Tamil classics is not the modern
Karur in the Trichiuopoly District but is represented by the ruined village
Tirukkarur, about 28 miles north-east of Cochin. The testimony of the
Greek writers and the early Tamil poets goes to support this view. For
a fuller discussion refer to Appendix VI: Note on Karuvur, the Cher*
Capital.
C 10
74 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

not on good terms. This is hinted at by poet Sattantaiyar

in a stanza celebrating the martial prowess of Tittan

Veliyan, his contemporary, displayed in a personal contest

with Mallan of Amur. It runs as follows:

ujffSssr
u&B3r(Lpujp]ii

Puram., S. 80.

The poet expresses his wish that Veliyan 's splendid

victory over Mallan and the exhibition of his personal

valour in the battle-field deserve to be witnessed by Veli-
Til tan, the great warrior. In expressing this
yan 's father,
wish the poet manages to interpolate into his verse the
'
phrase '*&&*& K&*Tmiflj&iA meaning whether he is
pleased with the feat (and thus brought to relent in his hos-
tile attitude towards his son) or not'. The commentator
adds the note in explaining the significance of this phrase
that Veliyan Tittan and his son were not on amicable terms
at that time. If a conjecture might be hazarded from the
peculiar relationship between Veliyan and the poetess
1
Nakkarmaiyiir, the daughter of Peruhkoli Naikan, the
love intrigues of the prince with a daughter of one of his

(1) Uraiyur was also known as Kojiyur or Perunkoliyur to distinguish

it from Kurunkoliyur, probably the capital of the Aayi kings, which
must have been situated near the southern border of the Coimbatore District.
Ptolemy refers to the latter town as 'Adarima Koreour', i.e. Atiyarma or
9

Atiyarman Koliyur. These ancient towns probably took their names from
Koli, a banyan tree. Compare with this the name Peralavayil which may
have been another ancient name like Kudal for Madura. These namesr, in
course of time, have given rise to the fanciful myths of the Cock and th
Serpent which hare stood and still stand in the way of their correct
derivation.
 THE TEN GENERATIONS. 75

commanders, in charge of Koli or Urantai, may probably

have been at the bottom, of the great king's displeasure.
But, however that be, there is little doubt that the Chola
sovereign who was destined to succeed his father and ex-
tend and consolidate his conquests, had to start his career
illan atmosphere of parental wrath and misunderstanding.
That Veliyan Tittan had also a daughter Aiyai is
(ggomj)
clear from Parauar's reference:

Affam., 8. 6.

but of this princess we know little beside her name.

As no contemporary singers appear to celebrate Veliyan

Tittan 's victories, I had to construct this imperfect account
of that early period from the stray allusions culled from
a few early poets. The known relationship of Veliyan
Tittan and Tittan Veliyan, (he succeeding sovereign in
the Chola line, supplies UH with a strong linear-link to
connect this period with the next.

THE SECOND GENERATION.

TITTAN VELIYAN alias PORVAIKKO-PERUNARKILLI PERIOD.

23. The second Chola sovereign of the line was

Tittan 's son, Veliyan. known also as

Porvaikko-PerunarkilJi
" ( Perunar-
The Chola line: Tit- .

tan Veliyan alias For-

kilh, conqueror and king of
the
vaikko-Pcrunarkilli.
Porvai). Sattantaiyar and Nakkan-
naiyar, two contemporary singers,
bestow high praise on him for his famous victory
over Mallan of Amur, which must have been gained
in the lifetime of Veliyan 's father Tittan. Whether

Tittan, before he died, was reconciled to his erring son

Veliyan or not, the latter appears to have succeeded him
on the throne of Urantai (Uraiyur). Like Prince Hal, he
proved himself a worthy successor of his worthy father,
76 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

by his great military talents and organising power. Though

in his earlier years he seems to have caused some parental
pangs to his aged father, once on the throne of Uraiyur,
he straightway forced the neighbouring chiefs to feel the
weight of his arms. His first aggression was directed
against Palaiyan, king or Por or Porvai, a province at the
basin of the Kaveri, near the Coimbatore border of the
Trichinopoly Por territory was then an
District. 1 This
independent principality as one can make out from the
following lines:

LI IT

Agam., S. 186.

Later on Palaiyan sinks to the level of a dependent chief

to do the bidding of his great Chola overlord. Paranar's
lines :

UL-U69>ULJ

Agam., S. 326.

definitely refer tobecoming a commander

Palaiyan 's
under the Chola king. It might be urged whether
Palaiyan could not be assumed as one of Chola 's com-
manders from the very beginning. Such a supposition hardly
explains Veliyan's assumption of the title 'Porvaikko',
king of 'Porvai' or 'Por'. Surely Veliyan's father
Tittan was not" known under that name. Nor did Veliyan
himself assume it at the beginning of his career. One may
justly infer from the circumstances that after the occu-

(1) Mahfmmhopadhyaya Pandit V. Swaminatha Aijar identifies this

town as the modem Tiruppur in the Coiinbatore District. But this takes
us to the very heart of the Kongu country, which is certainly not warranted
by the texts.
 THE TEN GENERATIONS. ?t

pation of Uraiyur by his father, the son was bent on

further conquests towards the West and while carrying
them out must have brought the king of Por also under
subjection. This conquest was merely the opening of a
more protracted campaign and on a "wider th.eatre, the
Kongunadu lying to the west of Por. Here is the testimony
of a poem from Narrinai, the poet's name unfortunately
missing, tq prove that the Oidlas had to avail themselves
of Palaiyan's services in their fight with the Kongu tribes
in the West:

ir QasrriEi&iru

up-iufTcfasru Qurrgui

Narr'mai, S. 10.

In the war with those tribes, Palaiyan with all his

bravery could not unake any headway. The forest chiefs,
probably under the direction of Nminan, a king of the
country adjoining tho northern-half (Elilmalai) of the
Western Ghats and whose sway then extended far
3
to the

(1) lly a curious parallelism in the change in denotation of certain

geographical names of ancienl Tuiiii]ng:iin, the- fililmalai, which once referred to
the whole of the Western (rhatR to the north of the Ooimbatore gap as
1

the 'Pothiyil' referred to the entire range to its south, came later on to
be applied to 21 prominent peak near Cannanorc, which now goes by the; name
of Mount D'cly, the name of
its southern partner likewise being restricted

Agastiyarkudam, to the north of South Travaiicore.

to the present 'Potliiyil' or
The shifting was very probably due to tho political vicissitudes which over-
took the rulers of these two hill-kingdoms, by which they had to lose the
central portions of the Ghata to the two powerful lines of sovereigns, the
Cheras and the Choljis on cither flank and had had to be satisfied with the
hist remnants, the northern and southern parts of the Ghats in Tamilagazn
from which also they were subsequently dislodged by the three conquering
Tamil kings. Such a line as (
sjtglQear<<suS>au u(TL$#&&>u}if
shows
conclusively that Pali was a fortified hill belonging to the filil,
whicl^Jtf^
described as a long range of mountains. EJil had other hills also, suw as,
Cheruppu, Param, Ayirai, etc. The modern Mount D'cly in inhering 'th^ji
ancient Tamil name has given rise to quite a crop of fanciful <jrivatirfns,
from Sapta SaiJam to Rat Mountain. No wonder that Tamil naines .

thus stand as a riddle even to the nfost accomplished SanskritistsJ The 1

fijil, from the proximate

root elu ( to rise, means an elevated table-land
etQg )
f8 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TAMILS.

south and even into the Kohgu country to the east of the

Ghats, offered him a stout resistance. Palaiyan had to lay

down his life in the field of battle which
graphically is

described by one of the early poets, Kudavayil Kirattanar

in Agam., 8. 44:

Ljsarjp'S&p

&6ST{D6UlT (5,^^ GJfffTUUriTjIBJ

SlLtS* U
uQGgtJUL-LJ uemsatflu uenLpujeitr uiL.Qi-.esf"
The coalition of the chiefs, Errai, Atti, Kankan, Katti,
Punrurai, evidently chiefs of the hill and forest tribes
inhabiting the Kohgu land and the northern borders of the
Chola country, must have been brought about by Nannan
who appears to have held a dominant position in the north-
ern half of the Coimbatore District at that time. The south-
ern portion was thenknown as Pullunadu and was ruled over
by Atiyan and Eyinan. Evidently, these names appear to
be tribal names and hence may stand for their chiefs. Aayi
Eyinan, i.e., the king of the Eyina or Villavar tribe, had
his capital at Vakai and enjoyed his independence till
Veliyan appeared on the scone and annexed his kingdom:

"Oo/sarQpfl (Lpir&Gsr Geu&p

UJGSTGST

Puram., S. 351.
f
These few lines contain a cryptic account of
Eyinan s
loss of independence. Aayi Eyinan thenceforward had to
hold a subordinate position to the Chola king and become
even the commander of his forces, in the battle with Nan-
nan. At the engagement of Pali, however, fates turned

plateau and then the mountain rising from *it. The name 'Pothiyil* also
may have first meant the low country (the land in. the hollow) before it came
to signify the mountain region in it. I consider this as a more fundamental
derivation than the one suggested by me in an appendix to the book AgastyA
in the Tamil Land.
 THE TEN GENERATIONS. 1$

against him and he fell in the battle with Mignili, Nannan's

commander. Thus Veliyan's scheme of conquest in the
west received a check for a time. Of the many references
Paranar's pieces, I shall content
to this battle contained in

myself with extracting one here:

ujfr&ar u9<u<3/D7

LDUJIEI&LQT

Agam\., S. 208.

In Agant., stanza 142, however, referring probably to

the same battle the namo Eyinan is found replaced by
Atiyan or Atikan. It may bo due to an error in reading
or refer to another battle of Pali with Atiyan. Or more
probably still both of tli?m may have taken part in that
battle. In any case, we can reasonably assume that the
incursions of Narman from the west and of Veliyan from
the east were hotly contested by the forest chiefs of the

Korigu country:
ui

These lines from Agm\., S. 142 show that the southern

portion of the Coimbatore District, then known as Pullu-
nadu, was in possossion of Atiyan, probably of the Aayi
house. It was on account of Naiman's invasion of this

territory that the battle of Pali was fought by Eyinan, in

which he is said to have lost his life. Vide also Paranar's
lines:
11
* * *

GRresresreir

/7/r HJT /

tS<6fy&Qtuii(8
."

Agam., 8. 396.
80 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EAELY TAMILS.

As
the stray allusions contained in the stanzas of
Paranar are the only source of information about this early
time, the picture of events cannot but be fragmentary.

Kalar, the territory covered by the Kaveri delta, was

then in possession of one Matti, the tribal chief of the
Paratavars or fishermen of the coast. Paranar refers to
him in the lines:

atp/rjy/f
Agam., S. 226.

He too seems to have been conquered and his terri-

tory annexed by Veliyan or by another Chola leader of
that community. That Veliyan became the lord of a part
of the coast territory also can be inferred from Paranar's

description :

pnSsarp f&ppm Qeu&Riu

ITLI

Agam., S. 153.

The picture fame and military exploits

of Veliyan
'

will not be complete without the following incident nar-

rated by the pool in a life-like manner, how Katti, a forest
chieftain, who came for a fight with Veliyan, lost his
nerve and took to his heels at the sound of even the peace
music at Veliyan Vi durbar nt Urnntni. Here is the graphic
description :
rf n
f

Q]&P.iu

Qpsnr&Ssasru
CoL//rjr firSssrA &L-.U}.

Quff-jrirJif (Spirty-iLi eurrfiui9<gpiL&

Agam., S. 220.

Through this overlaid poetic picture the martial glory

of Veliyan still shines for us. Nevertheless one would be
justified in concluding from the attempted attack by Katti,
a petty forest chief, that Veliyan could not then have ruled
 THE TEN GENERATIONS. 81

over an extensive dominion and been a full-blown sove-

reign like his successors of the post-Karikalan age.
24. Who the Pandiya king was at that time, we have
absolutely no means of knowing. As
lld **
regards the Chora line, I insert
tentatively within square brackets the
name of apparently one of the earliest rulers of that family.

Karuvur-riya-ol-val-ko-Peruneeral Irumporai, the great

(Jhera king with the shining sword, who conquered and
occupied Karuvur and was thenceforward known as Irum-
porai.
1
He was the first sovereign to launch the Ohera line
on a career of conquest. Before his time that royal house
must have been confined to the coast country of Kuttana^u
(roughly North Travancorc to the south of the Periyar
river) Kulumur 2 for its capital. Beyond this
with
to the north lay Kudanadu at the basin of the
river Periyar, known probably also as Perumpacjappai,3
the modern Cochin State and its sea-board. Quite likely
by
the pressure of population in Kuttanadu, hemmed -in as it
was then between Kudanadu in the north and th,e
Aayi country in th/3 south and the east, the com-
munity under the leadership of their ruler over-

(1) The name Irumporai literally men us the big mountain and is the
exact antonym of Kurumporai the small hill. The signification of this word
was extended first to the country and then to its king by a common
linguistic
usage in Tamil akin to the rhetorical trope, 'synecdoche'. The kings oJL Kut-
tanadu (the country of lakes and swamps), so long as they were confined to
their coast territory, could not assume this title. But the victory over the
old ruler of Karuvur gave them an access into a mountainous region and
led them add thereby a significant title to their names. The first Chora
to
sovereign who adopted this title should have been this conqueror of Karuvur.
(2) Whether this name appears in a changed form in 'Kourellour' of
Ptolemy, one of the inland towns mentioned as situate between the rivers,
the Periyar and the Baris (Palayi), should bo further looked into.

(3) Ths Cochin Royal House belongs to the '

Perumpadappu
'
Swarupam.
Padappu hero is evidently a corruption of Padappai which literally
means the environ or adjoining land of a river or a hill or a
homestead. The terms firelifiuuL^ueou 9 Queaa^ess!iuuiUU.umu
9 occurring
in these poems mean the lands at the basin of the river KavSri or Pennai.
Perumpadappai thus refers to the country round about the banks of the
river Periyar and the name must have been later on
corrupted in popular
parlance into 'Perumpadappu'.

011
82 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TAMILS.

flowed into Kudanadu and occupied its capital. Who the

king was who was thus dispossessed of Karuviir it is not
possible to make out. Still there are indications to show
i&at Kudanadu was then in the occupation of a pastoral
tribe under a chieftain Erumai, evidently a tribal name

appearing in the line of a later-poet

Agam., S. 115.

This name, however, should not be confounded with Erumai-

uran, the head of a northern tribe living at the
basin of the river Ayiri, not certainly the Periyar, whatever
other northern river it may denote. Not commanding the
Coimbatore Pass, the only way of entrance into the
southern-half of the Kohgu country, the conqueror
of Kudanadu could not have moved his forces into
that region, without first
subjugating the northern
king Nannan whose Pulinadu otherwise known as Konka-
nam extended far down to the south as far as that strategic
gateway. This powerful sovereign had already led
his westerners into the sheltered land of the Coimbatore
District and occupied at least its northern portion.
We found him engaged in serious conflict with the forest
tribes of South Coimbatore. The Cheras had not yet pene-
trated the Kongu country. They were engaged in consoli-

dating their conquests near the Periyar basin. Southern

Coimbatore known as Pullunadu was then occupied by cer-
tain hill and forest tribes known as the Ayars, the Eyinars,
1
etc. Congeries of such primitive tribes as theKongars on
the west coast together with the Aruvalars and the Mala-
vars on the east, who were also of the same extraction, form-

(1) The origin and characteristics of this tribe are involved in much
obscurity. If language alone could throw any light, this tribe must be
assumed to have immigrated into Coimbatore from the Mysore plateau and the
adjoining western sea-board, known then as Konkanam, comprising
roughly the Malabar and Canara Districts. The terms Kon, Eonku,
Kondu may probably have originally signified the high table-laud held between
the Eastern and the Western Ghats, which meet near the Nilgiris somewhat
close to the western sea. Henco the strip of the western littoral
adjoining Kon or Konku may have been called Konkanam. The names of
 THE TEN GENERATIONS. 83

ed an impenetrable zone of protection both to the Chola and

the Chera kings of the Tamil land from the incursions of
1
the northern powers. The Kurumbars, an allied tribe, also
came in as a wedge between the Chora kingdom of the we$t
and the Chola power in the east, and if early Tannil litera-
ture testifies to anything, their country, the Kongu land,
should have been the theatre of incessant warfare among
the three aggressive Tamil potentates. The arrival of the
Cheras near the basin of the river Periyar brought them
nearer to this battle-ground.
I enter ai this generation the name of Karuvur-
Eriya-Ko-Perunceral-Irumporai, first because the inser-
tion keeps in line with the historical events as disclosed in

Palirruppattu, and in a way unifies the double-line of

Chera sovereigns whose achievements are therein sung
about and secondly because it accords with the definite

testimony of Ptolemy himself. By the time of this last

writer, Karuvfir had become the capital of the Cheras and
it is impossible, in the light of the account given by Patir-

mppattu, to credit any of its eight kings with the exploit

of thu annexation of Karuvfir. In fact, at least the
iruinporai branch of the Chera family seems to have been
well established in that capital ever since th,e time of
Antuvan Cheral. This would justify the inference that the
father and predecessor of Antuvan Cheral and Udiyan

the coast tribes and their chiefs Konkar and Konkan may thus have arisen
from the place-name Konku. Koiigar may then bo taken as referring to
the whole body of coast and highland tribes who had moved inland and
to the lowland by ovcr-populiitiou in their original scats or by sheer pressuia
of incursion from the north. As Konkanam was corrupted into Konganam
in the mouth of name Konkar too may have assumed the
the people, the
popular form Korigar before readied the hands of the early poets. In this
it

view, the term Kohgar (a tribal name derived from their habitat) must be
held as bearing on its face the impress of greater popular currency than
the names Konkan and Konkanam preserved in literature.
(1) Mr. J}\ J. Richards writes in his Salem Manual, p. 45, as follows:
"The Southernmost Mauryan inscription is at Biddapur, in the Chitaldrug
District ofi Mysore, and between the Mauryan Empire and the Dravidian

Kingdoms a broad belt of forest intervened. It is possible, therefore, that

in the Mauryan period Salem District was covered with primeval jungle.
If it were worth claiming, it must have belonged to Chera or Chola."
84 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

Oheral should have been the conqueror of Karuvur and that

he should be identified with the Chera king, the hero of the .

missing first decad of Patirruppattu. The conquest of

Kudanad and the occupation of its capital Karuvur being
a land-mark in the history of the Cheras, the collector of
the poems comprising Patirruppattu may be held to have
assigned the place of honour in that collection to the decad
celebrating the conqueror of Karuvur. Cogent as these
reasons are for bringing in the conqueror of Karuvur in
this generation, still as the insertion stands unsupported

by a link-name, I have distinctly marked it with square

brackets.

All that goes to commemorate the military feats of

this Chera king, Karuvur-Eriya-Ko-Perunceral-Irum-
1
porai, is only a solitary stanza of poet Nariveruttalaiyar

(1) I am
myself loath to translate proper names, such as this, of persons,
who lived since, especially because we have not yet got
some twenty centuries
the key to their correct interpretation. At present, almost all persons in
Dravidian India take the name of some God or Goddess of the Aryan
pantheon. Still some writers evince a tendency to translate these practically

non-significant personal-names in Tamil Literature as if by so doing they

could get nearer their right interpretation, which if at all

practicable should proceed on the correct appreciation of the

conditions of those times which had made such names possible.
Instead of throwing any additional light on the matter, their

procedure makes the whole look bizarre and

only ridiculous to our
modem and tastes. Taking, for instance, the name 'Smith 1 ,
ideas, beliefs
what conceivable purpose would it serve to trace it to one who followed a
smith's profession at a far-off time in the past? Mental associations work
in such diverse and unexpected fashions in the matter of naming an object
or person that even trained Psychologists can scarcely hope to reach the bottom
here. Nariveruttalaiyar may literally mean either one who lived in a village
called Nariveruttalai or one who belonged to a family called Nariveruttalai or
one who
possessed a head which did or could frighten foxes, or one who, if
later methods of nomenclature were current at that time, had taken his name
from a deity known as Nariveruttalai. In any case, it is a hopeless attempt to
translate many "of these old-world names with a view to pierce into the

mystery of their significance. What havoc has been played with ancient South
Indian geography by the craze of the early Aryan colonists and their
followers, in the translation of proper names of mountains, rivers, cities,
te., is indeed another story. Mr. J. D. Anderson writes thus in pp. 53 and
54 of his book Peoples of India: "Indigenous names are frequently san-
skritisedmuch as we turn French cltaussce into "Causeway". Sometimes the
change is so complete that the original cannot be identified. In some cases the
alteration is easily recognised. In northern Bengal, for (instance, is the
 THE TEN GENERATIONS. 85

(Puram., S. 5) in which the king is exhorted to hold a

parental rule over his subjects.
The editorial note appended to the stanza evidently

imports a miraculous occurrence characteristic of a later

age and stands to this day a veritable conundrum for
scholars to solve.

Palaiyan of For, Eyinan of Vakai, Matti of Kalar,

Nannan I with his numerous forest
The t

chiefs, firrai, Atti, Kankan,

and Punrurai, all appear in this generation.

Though link-names are absent to connect this gene-

ration with the next, Patirruppattu
--*'*'
Link-names
supplies us with a strong link.
Nallini, daughter of Tittan Veliyan, was married by
Udiyan, the Chera king wh,o appears in the next genera-
tion. The latter accordingly stood in the relation of a son-

in-law to Veliyan, the second Chola sovereign.

THE THIRD GENERATION.

MUDITTALAI-KO-PERUNARKILLI PERIOD.
25. The next Chola -sovereign was Mudittalai-Ko-
Pernriarkilli, i.e., Perunarkilli, the
The ohoia line: crowned head. He may have as-
Mudittaiai-Ko-
(i)
gumed this name to Distinguish him- .

(2rKarikaian i. self from the other Kos or Velirs not

relationship with his

crowned. His
predecessor though nowhere brought out was in all prob-
ability that of a son. According to the Chera genealogy
given in the verses appended to the various sections of
Patirruppattu, we find the eight sovereigns therein cele-
brated falling into two groups of five and three, the five de-
riving their descent from Udiyan Cheral and the three from
Antuvan Cheral Irumporai. In that incomplete work, these
river Ti-std, a name which belongs to a large group of Tibeto-Bunnan river
names beginning with Ti or Di, such as Tb-pai, DMru, Di-kho, Di-sang, etc.,
ete. Hindus say the name Ti-sta is either a corruption of Sanskrit
Tri-srotis, "having three streams" or of Trsna, ''thirst". Etymology and
legend, in fact, give but doubtful guidance to the ethnologist, etc,"
86 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TAMILS.

two collateral lines now stand wholly disconnected. If the

missing first 'Ten' of Patirruppattu could be restored,
it would doubtless throw some necessary light and bring
about the connection we now miss. In the absence of such
direct testimony, I have been led from the attendant facts
and circumstances to consider the great conqueror of
Karuvur as the stem from which both these branch.es have
sprung. Both Antuvaii Choral Irumporai and Udiyan
Choral lived in one and the same generation and come into
line with Mudittalai-Ko-Perunarkilli, the Chola king,
certainly the successor and probably the son of Veliyan
of the second generation.

Poet Enicceri Mudamosiynr serves as a lateral link,

connecting Mudittalai-Ko-Perunarkilll and Antuvan Cheral
Irumporai, about both of whom as meeting at Karuvur,
he has loft a record in a Purawanuru stanza. Udiyan
Choral, the other Chera king, is said to have married
Princess Nallini, daughter of Veliyan. Circumstances such
as these warrant the inference that Mudittalai-Ko-
Porunarkilli succeeded his father in due course, on the
throne of Uraiyur, and that lie was a brother-in-law to
Udiyan Cheral.

This relationship apart, so perfectly do the subse-

quent generations of the Chera kings fit in with the facts

concerning the other royal houses of the period, as dis-

closed in the Tables, that I have not the least doubt that
Patirruppattu, in spite of its redaction by a later hand,
contains facts of authentic history which are worthy
still

of our general acceptance.

Of
Mudittalai-Ko-Perunarkilli, we know nothing
except the meagre fact of his adventure into Karuvur in
rather peculiar circumstances. Probably the Chola king
wanted pay a visit to his brother-in-law's brother or
to

cousin, Antuvan Cheral Irumporai, and journeyed to

Karuvur riding on an elephant and followed by his
retinue of officers and domestics. While nearing
Karuvur,
 THE TEN GENERATIONS. 87

the elephant, in one of its periodical ruts, seems to have got

out of control and entered Karuvur with the helpless king
on its back. The poet, fiiiicceri Mudamosiyar, who would
in all likelihood have preceded his sovereign to convey to
Antuvan Choral the news of the intended visit and who
was with the Chera king at that time, extemporizes a
poem on the incident and prays fervently that his royal
master should not come to grief.

r ujrruSl
Q/rsirgcwa;

uastLQiifi&r
QturrQesr

LtesriS

arpJissrp pssrssr eurQenirlr QLQTILJULJ

L>iPjg)(5ttj/r irtSiutrgi

mpeur
i5Br f
/f G?6i/60 vir(B8Lp Gain Gear."

Puram., S. 13.

I have given the stanza here in full, especially in view

of the vast superstructure of deductions built upon a mis-
interpretation of it by Pandit
Baghava Ayyangar. R.
The learned Pandit argues from the circumstances in
which this particular piece is said to have been composed
that Karuvur should have been close to Uraiyur. He
imagines that the Chola king went about his kingdom rid-
ing on his elephant when it rutted and took him to Karu-
vur against his He
imagines further that the whole
will.

of his armed retinue followed him from the boundary of

hiskingdom all the distance to KaruviTr, without rendering
any assistance to bring the animal under control. The
poet further represented to have played the r61e of a
is

peace-maker and to have interceded with the Chera king and

allayed his fears of an invasion of his kingdom by the
88 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TAMILS.

timely interpretation of Chola 's entry into the Karuvur

kingdom as due to mere misadventure and not a military
expedition. Thepiling up of such improbabilities is entirely
due to the missing of the exact situation in which the

poet had to compose his verse. Moreover, in the interpre-

tation of a poem, straining too much at words to evolve
their literal meaning is the surest way to miss
the poet's mark. Neither Poetry nor good
good
History could be thus got at. I have gone into this

digression for showing that the stanza has not the least
bearing on the location of Karuvur, whether near or far,
from the Chola frontier.

A
comparison of the names of the first three Chola
sovereigns whom we have thus far brought into the Tables
does in itself open a fresh point of view re the origin of
the Chola kingship. It shows, in as clear a manner as
possible, the successive stages passed by the Cholas before
they attained the rank of a crowned sovereign. The first
ruler, the conqueror of Uraiyur, was merely a Velman of
Vlrai; his son and successor assumed the title of Ko and
was known as Porvaikko, the king of the Por country; and
the third in the line advanced a step further and adopted
the still higher title, 'Mudittalai Ko', the crowned king.
This last fact alone will entitle one to infer that the first

two Chola sovereigns of the Tables did not wear the

crown, the emblem of full-blown sovereign power. Though
in actuality they must lifive been holding sway over a

fairly good extent of territory, probably they were still

closely wedded to the older ideal of communalistic king-
ship and its ways. The bearing, in any view, of these early
facts on the origin of the Chola kings and their significance
can hardly be underrated.
Another Chola king by name Karikalan appears in
this generation to have held his court at Alundur and later
on at Kudavayil also in the Tanjore District. Whether the
present town Kumbakonam or Kudavasal in the Nannilam
taluq represents that ancient capital, it is difficult to say.
 THE TEN GENERATIONS. 8i

It is more than
likely that while Tittan of Virai, conquered
Urantai, another Velman of Alundur 1 may have established
himself at Kudavayil and pushed the Chola conquests
towards the north. The Urantai family must have been
then known as the 'Killi' and the Alundur branch, the
'Chenni'. The exact nature of the relationship of these
two branches cannot be known at present. However,
from the invariable practice of the early poets referring
to Cholar (GWjpr), a plural name denoting the Chola
community or its rulers, we may consider that the Cholas
at the very beginning lived under a number of communal
heads and had not yet got the unitary type of kingship
of a later day. The Urantai or Killi family went on
expanding the kingdom to the west and the Alundur or
Chenni branch, confined to the coast, pushed its conquests
to the north. The annexation of Arcot, in all probability,
should have been effected by the latter family of rulers.
At the beginning, the two branches may have maintained
the most amicable relations or even acted in consort; but,
when their kingdoms expanded and territorial kingship

began to replace communal ruler ship, rivalries must have

sprung up and brought them into conflict. The dispute,
which according to tradition occurred later on about the
succession of Karikalan the Great to the Chola .throne,
and the disputes, which arose again after the death of that
sovereign as testified to by literature, are wholly explain-
able in the light of these earlier facts of their family
history. During the time of Chetcenni Nalankilli, the
successor of Karikalan II, whom we may call Karikalan
the Great, on account of his great conquests and consoli-
dation of the Chola Empire, these two names were actually
assumed by one and the same ruler probably owing to the
merging of the two kingdoms brought about in the time
(1) This name appears in the contracted form as Aluudai (^(zp/Bsa)^)
and may be a variant of Ajumbil (^/(Zpu>L9a>), referred to in S, 44 of
Affandnuru. Poets refer to two other cities known as Alumbil, one in the
Chera and the other in the Pandiya kingdom. The Alumbil of the Chera
kingdom known also as Alumbur may most probably be the town noted by
Ptolemy as 'Arembour*.
C 12
90 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

of Karikalan the Great or his father and enforced further,

after his death, by the intervention of the mighty Chera

monarch, Velkelu Kuttuvan. The two names 'Killi'

and 'Chenni' ever since that time have become
almost synonymous and have been used indifferently to
denote the Chola king. This later use, however, should
not lead us to confound the names in the verses of pre-
Karikal poets. For instance, Poet Paranar, in comparing
the beauty of his heroine's tresses to the magnificence of
three capital cities, refers to 'Chenni', as 'Chirukol Chenni',
i.e., Chenni who ruled a small kingdom.
eBeoQedtrir

euirir

aj/rirj pssresr

Narrwai, 8. 265.
Doubtless here the poet refers to a period
when Karikalan T, or another chief of the same
family, hadonly a small extent of territory in
his possession. This description will hardly be in
keeping with the superior position of the Cholas of the
'Killi' branch at that time nor with our later
conception
that the Chola Eimpire began from the
very start with an
extensive dominion to its credit. It would be instructive
to compare with this, this other verse from Narrinai
wherein the so-called chieftains are described as 'two
great
kings'.

(i QuifltLJ

"
Gu/reo
Nar rinai, S. 180.
Whatever the first sovereign in the Chenni line who
it be,

widened the frontiers of the Chola

monarchy seems to be
Karikalan I, known also Perum-Pun-Chenni. '
 THE TEN GENERATIONS. 91

Here I have to point out the great confusion that has

resulted from a mistaken identity brought about between
the two Karikalans, appearing in this literature, in all
probability the grandfather and the grandson. Paranar,
who sings of the two immediate predecessors of Karikalan
the Great or Karikalan II alludes in many of his stanzas
to aKarikalan of an earlier time. Paranar himself was
not a contemporary of Karikalan the Great and has not
sung a single stanza in his honour. The references inci-
dentally occurring in some of his poems are all about an
afore-time Karikalan who was not living in his time and
whose achievements lie seems to have celebrated from
mere tradition or hearsay current in his days. This
interesting discovery naturally loci mo to scrutinize the
texts further and soc whether tho recorded biographical
incidents of tlu two personages should be held apart or
according to later interpretation ascribed to one character.
As a result of this investigation thereemerge two Kari-
kalans one preceding and the other succeeding Paranar
and that they could properly be distinguished from each
other by their distinct acts and achievements. The battles
fought and victories won by the first Karikalan stand
altogether apart from those of his later and more illus-
trious namosake. Not one of tho numerous poets who have

sung of the has a word to say about any of those

latter
earlier victories of the; first Karikalan. Their common
silence, not broken by even a solitary reference, justifies the
inference that tho laurels of those first-won contests should
go to crown another brow. Poet Kalattalaiyar, whom
Parana r's contemporary Kapilar himself acknowledges
as having lived before his own time, and one Venni-Kuyat-
tiyar have both sung as contemporaries about the victory of
Karikalan I over Peruiicheralatan 1

(QLi<Tfj&x<Fira>'rpesr)
or Porun tola tan in the battle of
(QL*($i<3pirenirp*r)
Venni. The memorable incident of the Chera king receiv-

(1) The names, Perunchoralutan and Per uin tola tau, appearing in the
manuscripts are unmistakably duo to a misreading of the correct form
Perunohorratan, the sobriquet of Udiyan Cheral famous for his feasts.
92 THE CHBONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

ing a wound in his back and of his self-immolation for this

blot on his heroism by the practice prevalent then of

Sallekhana or what in Tamil is called e>iL-8@pprt (i' e *>

seating oneself facing the north and thus meeting death

by starvation) occurs here. Evidently there was a second
battle of Venni fought by the later Karikalan in the

description of which this characteristic incident does not

find a place. In the poem, Poruwrarruppadai, composed

by poet Mudattamakkanniyar, the second battle of Venni

is described as follows :

th,e battle was against two kings, a Chera and a

Here
Pandiya, and both of them were wiped out in that engage-
ment. If this were identical with the first battle of Venni
celebrated by Kalattalaiyar and Vennikkuyattiyar, the
omission of Pandiya 's death by the earlier poets requires
an explanation. Nor is the peculiar manner of Chera 's
death, recorded by th,e earlier singers, even so much as
hinted at by Mudattamakkanniyar, who composes a very
long poemfor the express purpose of describing the vic-
tories of Karikalan II in detail. In these circumstances,
we have to conclude that there were two battles of Venni,
each with its different combatants and different incidents.
Mere similarity of names should not lead us to confound
these two battles, especially as it tends to badly dislocate
chronology. As a flagrant instance of such distortion I
need here point out only how according to the orthodox
misidentification we are forced to transport Kalattalaiyar
and Vennikkuyattiyar, two very old singers and admittedly
predecessors of poet Kapilar, not only to Kapilar's time
but much lower down still to the time of Karikalan II.
Full two generations intervene between these earlier poets
 THE TEN GENERATIONS. 93

and the poets who group themselves round Karikalan II

and hence by no conceivable manipulation can one effect
such a transposition. On the strength of the contemporary
testimony of the two poets referred to above, we have to
1
posit the existence of an antecedent Karikalan. The
assumption of an earlier Karikalan is all the more neces-

sary by three other incidents in the life of Karikalan I

incidents which have not the least connection with Kari-
kalan II, if his biography, as recounted in the poems of
his numerous poetic satellites, is a reliable guide at all
in the matter.

Paraiiar refers to two other battles fought by the first

Karikalan and also connects his name with another char-
acteristic incident, th.e accidental drowning and death of
Attan-Atti in the river Kaveri during a festival. Though
Paranar narrates Atti's sad loss in a natural, matter-of-
fact way, in more than one stanza of his, incredible myths
have gathered round it in course of time so much so that
the poor dancer Atti and his wife Atimanti, who went mad
by her terrible bereavement, are now presented to us in
the transfigured light of royal personages.

Coming to the battles, here is a short account of the

battle of Vennivayil :

LOOTTOTT/

QurrQj&tsrrp QpT

Quif)($/6."
Agam., S. 246.

Whether Vennivayil is the same as Venni or

Vennil before referred to need not be considered here.
Here we are given a different set of opponents. Eleven
(1) In the notes appended to stanzas 65 and 66 of Purandnuru, the
redactor has evidently confounded the earlier Karikalan with his later name-
sake by the identity of the name Karikal Valavan borne by both the rulers.
94 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TAMILS.

Velirs and kings are distinctly mentioned. In another

battle Vakai, nine kings are said to have been routed by
him:

eurr&nsu upisf&Sft tutrfSQup

LL6SJ&rrir Quired
eur
Losir|g)0i)

Agam., S. 125.

These battles find no mention in the elaborate poems

of the later singers, who would not have passed them over,
had such victories been really won by their patron,
Karikalan the Great. Furthermore, the Chola king being
forced to fight eleven Velirs and kings in one field, and
nine kings in another, gives -us a picture of events of an
anterior time in which the Ch,ola power was just in the
making- and had not yet developed into full-blown sove-
reignty as at the time of Karikalan the Great. No doubt, the
latter too had to fight against Aruvalars and Poduvars;
but the necessity of warring against Velirs of his own class
had been long past by his time. In the case of the earlier
Karikalan, however, it is more than likely that
some Velirs themselves would have been stirred
by jealousy
when one of their number should try to go ahead by fresh,
territorial conquests and have sought the earliest oppor-
tunity to contest with him for power. But this class rivalry
and jealousy would be active only
during the infantile
period of the new power. After this had grown into
maturity and established its claims, naturally one should
expect such class feelings to wane and disappear. Such
feelings, even, had they existed, would have been
replaced,
in course of time, by others of a different
cast, while the
Velirs themselves would have taken a
pride that one of
their own had founded a kingdom and readily owned
class

allegiance to him. In this view, it would be

absolutely
incongruous to try to graft these occurrences of an anterior
period on the life of Karikalan the Great, who had on no
 THE TEN GENERATIONS. 95

account to face such miscellaneous foes as his ancestor.

Another fairly decisive ground also must be urged here. If
these Tables are of any value, they prove beyond a doubt
that there was no Chora sovereign by name QuQ$fi*ir
a** par or either during th,e time of
Qi'tynQpireirapwi
Karikalan the Great or of his immediate predecessor or
immediate successor. By no conceivable process can we
twist the names of any of the Cheras of that time to give us
a sovereign with this particular name. From considerations
such as these I am inclined to hold that the postulation
of an ear lie?- Karikalan is something more than a mere

hypothesis must be received as an authentic fact

nay it

in the ancient history of the Cholas. Here is certainly an

instance how posterity has come to lose sight of an ancient
historical hero and it is wholly due to the circumstance
that genuine historical facts embedded in literary texts
have been somehow either overlooked or misinterpreted.
That Karikal I belonged to th,e Alundur family of -the
Cholas we may infer from Paramir's lines in Agam..

quoted in p. 93. The sad incident which befell

S. 246 already
Anni Mignili by her father's two eyes having been put
1

out by the fierce Kosars, evidently the soldiers in the

employ of Titiyan, the commander of the Chola king Kari-
kalan 1, and her wreaking vengeance on them by appeal-
ing to Titiyan seem to have taken place in Alundflr, the
head-quarters of the Chenni branch of the royal family:
"* * *

s Gs/r^/fi Q&.TesrjpiQporGisr QuirQuj

Agam., S. 196.

These lines of Paranar narrate that interesting

episode.

(1) Pandit Narayanaswami Aiyar, Editor of Narrinai> has given a

confused and incorrect version of this incident in his introduction to that
work. (Vide p. 86.)
96 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TAMILS.

This family, as distinguished from the Urantai family

of Cholas, carried out their territorial expansion
as already stated along the coast and to the
north towards the Palarbasin and beyond. Their
portion of the kingdom was known as Neytalankanal,
i.e., the region of the sea-board from the mouth of th,e
Kaveri northwards. There need scarcely be any doubt
that when the Cholas, wfyo had been living till then as

village communities under their Kilars or chiefs, in the

Tanjore District,began to expand their territories west

and north, they did so under different leaders. Th#t these
leaders themselves may have been related to one another
is probable enough; but this assumption should not lead
to the mistaken supposition that all th,e Velirs of that
period were under the sway of one monarch. No doubt
that unitary type of kingship was founded later on; but
in the times we are dealing with times in which the
Chola monarchy was still being hammered into shape we
have no right to assume th,e central authority being vested
in one ruler or sovereign. At best, all that we can assume
is a confederacy of communal rulers or Ko& bound

together by ties of blood or relationship. The failure to

reach this point of view has in fact created a linguistic
problem for the Tamil grammarians, in such lines as,
ujsr stored \uirssr

Agam., 8. 96.

In explaining away the' grammatical irregularity of a

singular noun 'Tantai' being followed and referred to by
the plural form 'Cholar' in this passage, Naccinarkkiniyar
assumes that each one of the Cholas stood in the relation
of a father to Akutai. The absurdity of a girl being the

daughter of many or all the individuals of a community

seems to have strangely escaped that hair-splitting com-
mentator. The fact is that at that time there were many
communal heads who went by their common or group name
and the poet who wanted to identify a particular individual
of that group adds to his common name a restrictive
 TEN GENERATIONS. 9t

epithet thus: 'the Chola king who has Akutai for his
daughter'. Even here the use of the plural form Cholar' for
4

the king requires a justification and that must be

found by supposing that royalty then was joint
and not individual. At all events, he must be assumed as
the executive head of a ruling assembly and not an abso-
lute monarch in himself. There are numerous references
to the Chola people, probably different branches of that

community, living in different places as Urantai, Vallam,

Kudantai, Paruvur and Perumturai. That the term
'Cholar' in the plural signified a community at first can
be gathered from such verses as the following:
" * *
QeuAGcudr
Lor/fi tuLb&esr LnG&LppQpr p (S&/r tpfr

u>/5sjr
(J5.jp/

Agam., S. 336.

Qufr /Tjswrt

Agam., 8. 338.

Also that the chiefs belonging to different branches

of this community exercised sway over different parts of
the country can be inferred from such verses as :

Agam., S. 375.

s^uj/rSssr^ Q&irtpir L&qfjx

Qe8r(3fEi&$ir

Agam., S. 356.

It is most probably on account of such communal

kingships that the early references to the Chola rulers
happen to contain the plural name to denote the ruler.
We have to consider this ruler more as the president or
executive head of a republican village community than as
a unitary absolute sovereign of a later day.
C13
36 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

Fromthe foregoing discussion it must be clear that at

the opening period of the Chola history that community was
ruled over by a number of communal sovereigns and among
them a few, more ambitious an$ more powerful than the
rest, tried toexpand their possessions by the conquest of
the adjoining territories. Of these, Karikalan I evidently

belonged to the Cenni family of Alundur, and Tittan and

his descendants to the Killi branch of Virai and later on
of Urantai.

In this generation, the very first Pandiyan known to

~~
Nedtunter-u e
(alias)
,
l
*****''
iy a n
literature appears to emerge from the
long-continued isolation of that line of
Nedum- rulers at Korkai, their capital situated
yan
at the mouth of the Porunai, the modern
Tumraparni in the
Tinnevelly; have District. We
to remember that Kudal, whose site must have
been somewhere near modern Madura, was then in the
possession of a ruler called Akutai. The only authority
for this statement is the reference contained in one of
Kapilar's stanzas in Purananuru, stanza 347. Unfortu-
nately the stanza comes to us in a mutilated form by the
imperfection of manuscripts; but the relevant lines which
help us to picture the vicissitudes of Kudal come to us
without a flaw and leave no room for doubt:

Lfl/r/ffSJsir
LcpuQuir

Knowingthe convention widely and almost invariably

followed by the early Tamil poets in comparing the beauty
of their heroines to the splendour of one or other of
the capitals of the rulers of the land, we shall not
err in holding that Kudal was held by Akutai at that time
and was the capital of his state. If it had then been in
the possession of the Pandiyans, as later on it came to be,
surely the poet would not have sung in this strain. Though
two or three Akutais are alluded to in this literature, it is
not at all difficult to identify this particular ruler of Kudal.
 THE TEN GENERATIONS. 99

The references by Paranar in the following verses may

justly be taken as concerning this earlier occupant of

the Kudal (Madura) throne:

QL.//T-
(75/5/7

8T
QuanTy-i."
Agam., S. 76.

Kuruntogai, S. 298.
The description of his hall of audience and the account of
his lavishing costly gifts as elephants on the songstresses
and actresses visiting his court will hardly be in keep-
ing with Akulai playing any role inferior to that of an
independent ruler. It was also very likely that this ruler
of Kudal must have come intp conflict with another ruler
Ewi I, 2 whose dominions lay somewhere along the coast
between the Kaviri and the Vaigai. In this war of
aggression Evvi I seems to have lost his life. Poetess
Vellerukkilaiyftr composes more than one piece on this
encounter and bewails Evvi's death in Puram., stanzas 233
and Whether Evvi's dominion was annexed by Akutai
234.
to his Kudal territory as a consequence we are not informed
of. But this victory of his against a minor chieftain on the
north could hardly save Akutai from the incursions of a
more formidable foe from the south. The details of the in-
vasion by the Pandiya king of Korkai are not given; but
the incident itself, I am sure, is definitely alluded to by poet
(1) The reading here is certainly corrupt. The words s&flprS esr and
firb&>& should be amended as s&reifi&r iul <l ^/irrespectively to restore
the correctness of the original.

(2) This name too looks like a tribal one. It evidently refers to
the chief of the forest tribe Evviyar
(<7QJo9aj/f) literally arrow-shooters or
bowmen. Ptolemy assigns a portion of the east coast in this region to
"Batoi" or Vedar, a name which probably refers to this community.
1W THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

Peralavayar in Agam., 8. 296. This poet was a contemporary

of Ollaiyur-tanta-Putappandiyan of the next generation and
his reference to the invasion of Kudal by the Pandiya king
of Korkai may be taken as an allusion to a past event of
memorable importance. We may even consider it as hav-
ing taken place in the lifetime of the poet himself. Th#
stanza is a very important one for my purpose and so I
transcribe it here in extenso :

vBestair
gjj^/E/js'/r/D xi^Su
njpivpr psoafiiyp &-&JB
U)Qf>tpS6Nff LO/Tjy GlLJfT Q&T ,1 (3

ir a/<3a>ttJ ajeuQstrrr

LQtririQSssr

Q<3S/rsr?LJeu/f

rtpsBsyr L&&LpQv>'i<ss)L<
Qsirfbs&su Qurrfifjivsyr

U^IT&JITILJU

Agam., S. 296.

The situation created by the poet contemplates the

snub given to the lover by the maiden-companion of the
heroine of the piece. When the lover seeks the aid of the
maiden for arranging an interview with the heroine, the
maid is made to refuse him that favour by the reason of
his amours with another beauty. She roundly takes him
to task for his unfaithfulness and impresses the unhappy
lover with the many details of what he considered a
secret love-adventure of his own. To illustrate how the
affair was not and common
after all a secret but the talk

property of the whole village the maid borrows a telling

simile from a recent occurrence the invasion and occupa-
tion of Kudal by the Pandiya king of Korkai. She com-

pares the attendant circumstances of the public comment,

 THE TEN GENERATIONS. 101

the lover 'sso-called secret amours had caused, to the

open and
talk publicity consequent on the occupation of
Kudal by th,e king of Korkai. There is no doubt that the
poet herein took advantage of a recent historical occurrence
well known to the whole country and used it to illustrate
or embellish a widely-known fact. Here I have to diverge
a little and call attention to a point of interpretation of
the word $^m occurring in this stanza. I take the phrase
* L.* tfw meaning 'who had advanced or come to
as
Kudal and occupied it'. 1 It also means 'overstaying
5
beyond a definite period of time as in :

enupjyi
A gam., S. 42.

Ainkurunuru, 8. 467.

This latter meaning is hardly applicable here. If the

phrase were so interpreted, it would leave unexplained
why the Pandiya king of Korkai should come

(1) The words Q/B and f formed from the root &r originally
meant increase in height, length, size, quantity, distance, duration, etc. The
early poets invariably used these words and their derivatives to signify any
one of these ideas. The word (& when used to express 'time-excess*
9

such as overstaying, was interpreted us PIEI&&) in the sense of

prtppft^
or delay. But unfortunately //&&&, in later Tamil, got the meaning
of mere staying or
)($jipe\) and so
the word f L_ <a> too came to be infected
with the new meaning 'staying or being in a place'. Evidently this has no
connection with the original root-meaning, nor is there a single instance
iii the old
poets of the use of the word in this novel significance. Not only
this, here are two lines from a stanza in Puranan&ru, which confirm the
correctness of the interpretation. I have here adopted:

PwrananUru, 8. 328.

The poet here describes a hare nibbling the leaves of the Munnai creeper
which had shot its tendrils towards the Tali plant, reached it and entwined
itself round its stem. The phrase ptetfl Qf. potfunL',
for purposes of

interpretation, is exactly on a par with the expression i_L.6Hf^L(u

and can hardly bear the modem interpretation that the stem of the T&li
plant should be taken as the hnbitat of the Munnai creeper from its very
birth. This instance must serve to teach how careful we should be not to
import any later meaning into the texts of these early poets lest we should
miss their true significance.
102 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

all the way from his capital and staybeyond

a period in Kudal, and why that commonplace
incident should lead to so much public talk and com-
ment as the poet requires us to imagine. If Kudal were,
at that time, the capital of the Pandiyans, it isunimaginable
how a Pandiya king's overstaying in it should have become
the talk of the whole neighbourhood. To obviate such diffi-
culties we should simply put the most natural and appro-

priate construction on this particular word of a very early

poet. Taking also the other attendant circumstances into
consideration one may even surmise whether the name
Nedum-Celiyan, which stands to this day unexplained, is

not after the first

all significant title assumed by this parti-
cular Pandiyan of Korkai for the grand achievement of his
life conquering Kudal and extending the bounds of his
kingdom to th.e basin of the river Vaigai. The poet does not
give us the proper name of Ihis Pandiya king. The
descriptive phrase, Qsifinsn QU*Q)*& Q<wG6&> O/*/*
Gf''#Q*ifliu*sr, gives
us the poet's characterisation of this
hero, perhaps definite enough for contemporary identifi-
cation.
1
He may, however, be taken as Nedunceliyan I,
the conqueror of Kudal. The Pandiyans, who had till then
been confined to the environs of Korkai at the mouth of
the Tamraparni, were by this stroke of fortune in aggres-
sive warfare brought to Kudal at the basin of th,e Vaigai
and made to play their illustrious part in a larger theatre.

The occupation of Kuda]

by Neduntercceliyan
alias Nedunceliyan I must naturally evoke the jealousy
of the other neighbouring kings and stir up their opposition.
At- the beginning of his career in the new capital the
southern victor was not allowed to have an easy peaceful
time of it. He had to establish his claims by a further
fight with two kings, whom
not possible to make out
it is

from the incidental and altogether scrappy nature of the

account of this battle of Kudal. Paranar, an early poet,

(1) Later traditions refer to one Verrivel Celiyan and to identify him
with this early victor of Kudal must for the present stand undecided.
 THE TEN GENERATIONS. iOS

refers to it as a past event. Here are his lines :

Qc5/7 syr
tt.ii
afl/uswjrsy/^ pi .1
Ln3<gpiti
Agam., S. 116.

These are the only glimpses we get of the great con-

queror of Kudal, who, if not the actual founder of the
Pmidiya dynasty, should at least be considered as having
In id the first foundation for the sovereignty of that line
of kings on an extended scale.

27. Turning to the Cheras of this period we find

The ohera Antuvan Choral Irumporai is sung by

line:
r i cc( r i
:]? Mudamosiyar and Udiyan
-,

(ii) Udiyan cherai

Choral, celebrated by Mudinagarayar of *

(alias) Psrmnchor-
rutiyan chcraiatan. Muranciyiir and referred to by Ilanki-

ranar in stanza 113 of Narrinai

tu

0U T 6YT

Udiyan was a great warrior and had the reputation

of having extended the boundaries of his kingdom by fresh
and immense conquests. Mamulanar, a later poet, in
Agam., S. 65, describes, in a pregnant epithet, the annexa-
tion policy of this conquering monarch:

n>>i(S)&sssr tsaarzprSuj ^^ILJ^ Q&irp

"
GlJTGti-

Fromthe lines of another later poet, Kottampalattu-

tunciya-Cherariiaii, the Chera king who died at Kot-

tampalam, we get the information that he resided in
Kulumur, a town not yet identified. Probably Udiyan-
perur or Diamper of the Christian Synod is another town
founded by the same monarch.
 104 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TAMILS.

gjrir/fi/p

n
(5/ ;/rv\

Agam., 8. 168

The poet here describes the sumptuous kitchen of

Udiyan 's palace at Kulumur. 1 This king seems to have
displayed such lavish hospitality in treats to his visitors
and soldiers that he was dubbed by his admiring people

Perufichomi-Udiyan-Cheralatan, the
Udiyan Chcralatan
famous for his feasts. It is probably this fact that was
caught hold of by a later panegyrist for the elaboration
of a grand legend thatUdiyan actually fed both the contend-
ing armies in th.c field of Kurukshetra throughout the
entire period of the Mahabharata War. Apart from the
physical and historical impossibilities involved, surely chro-
nology is hereby thrown to the winds. If the great war of
the north took place, say somewhere about
1,000 B.C., by
what conceivable legerdemain can one transport Udiyan
coming near the opening centuries of the Christian Era
to that far-off early period? The hiatus is too big to be
bridged unless one assumes that there were two Udiyans
separated by a thousand years at the lowest and that these
came to be somehow confounded
by an undiscerning
posterity.
It is perhaps to avoid at once this prepos-
terous conclusion and the obvious
corollary that the
solitary stanza standing in the name of poet Muninciyur
Mudinagarayar is a clear forgery, one writer suggests
that the allusion to the Mahabharata War is not to the
actual war but to a scenic representation of it
by a stroll-
ing theatrical troupe. The verses, however, do not seem
pliant enough to bear even that charitable interpretation.
They purport to record the actual fight as a contemporary
event and if the stanza containing this reference should

(1) This place hns been wrongly identified with Kulumam in the Coimba-
tore District.
 THE TEN GENERATIONS. 106

stand as a genuine piece, we have no other alternative than

to conclude that both the king and his panegyrist rubbed
shoulders with, the great heroes of the Mahabharata War.
However much the antiquity of Dravidian civilization may

suiTer, hanging for its support, in the view of some, on this

solitary stanza of a late court-poet, to assert and ex-
pect us to believe that this piece is genuine is indeed
too big an order on our credulity. Like 'Single Speech
Hamilton' of the
English Parliament of former days,
Mudiiiagarayar stands as a single-stanza poet among the
worthies of the 'Tamil Sangam' period. Keaders may
remember that he appeared in the company of divinities
which graced tho First Saugazn with their presence. Going
as he did with Agastya, Siva, Subramanya, Kubera, he
was considered as not belonging to the human kind but
as Adisewa himself, the mythical serpent, by the late Prof.
Seshagiri Sastri. Are v,e to follow him in this practically
useless identification or rescue Mudiiiagarayar his name
by the way sounds somewhat incongruous for that early
time to the ranks of flesh and blood humanity? In any
case we shall have to leave this ancient
personage to sail
or sink with the Saugam vessel, elaborately rigged and
floated down the times by that famous artist, the com-
mentator of Iraiyanar AgapporuL It is more than likely
that when the PurananS.ru poems were gathered into their
present shape, under the patronage of prabably a later
Chera sovereign, some such editorial addition, as the piece
under discussion, was considered necessary to enhance the
dignity and antiquity of the Chera line as against the rival
houses of Uraiyfir and Madura. However it be, Udiyan
Choral's historical character need scarcely be doubted. He
goes into the Tables not on the strength of this interpolated
verse but on the reference by Ilahklranar, corroborated also
by the account in Patirruppattu.

28. There appears also in this generation Aayi Andiran,

lhe great uler of a large kingdom extend-
*
The chiefB
ing over the mountainous tracts from
C 14
108 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

the Goimbatore gap in the Western Ghats down to Cape

Comorin in the south. The whole of central and south
Travancore thus belonged to him and his capital seems to
have been situated somewhere near the southern border
of the Ooimbatore District. Ptolemy, in enumerating the
important inland cities between Pseudostomos, i.e., the
mouth of the river Peviyar and the river Baris (Palayi)
mentions a town then known as 'Adarima Koreour'. I
take this as 'Adiyanian Koliyur' or 'Koliyur', the seat of
Adiyan or Adiyaman, a contracted form of Adiyarmagau.
We have already found one Adiyan in southern Coimbatore
coming into conflict with Nanuan, the northern king. I
think that Adiyan belonged to the Aayi tribe or a branch
1
of it and held his court at Koliyur, not yet identified. Aayi
Andiran was a powerful sovereign of the Ayar or shepherd
tribe and his dominion ran north and south right through
the middle of the southern corner of the Peninsula and
divided the Tamil kingdoms of the Chdlas and the
Pandiyas in the east from the territory of the Cheras in'
the west. He patronised the Tamil poets most liberally
and three poets, Mudamosiyar of Enicceri, Uraiyur (in
Puram., S. 374), Kuttuvan KTranar (in Puram., S. 240)
and Odaikilar of Turaiyur (in Puram., S. 136) have sung
his praises as contemporaries. Another poet Karikkanna-
nar also refers to him in Narrinai, S. 237. Of these,
Mudamosiyar, who has sung about the Chola king Muditta-
lai-Ko-Perunarkilli and the Chera sovereign Antuvan
Cheral, serves as the lateral link to establish the contem-
poraneity of Aayi Andiran with the rulers mentioned above.
It must be noted that Andiron was an independent sove-

reign himself like any one of the three Tamil kings of that
period and that the later literary tradition which assigned
him a place only amongst the chiefs was due entirely to a
misreading of the facts of early Tamil History as the
sequel will show.

(1) Kuruftkoliyiir, a town mentioned in the 'Saiigam 1 works may probably

be this city. It may have been so called to distinguish it from
PeruAkolyur,
another name for Uraiynr, the capital of the Chdlas.
 THE TEN GENERATIONS. 107

Before passing on lo the fourth generation I have

to observe that the detailed information about the three

generations we have already dealt with have been gathered

mostly from the references by later poets. In this I have

generally refrained from bringing in the references by such

poets as como after Karikul the Great. This, I trust,
has saved the Tables from the inclusion of any dubious
material. 1 have largely drawn on one of the Pre-Karikal

poets, Parana r, and utilized his information for the con-

struction of the earliest genealogies in each line. Though
this must have contributed to some extent to the accuracy
of the data handled, I am aware that absolute certainty
which can proceed only from contemporary references can
hardly be claimed for the first three generations. Still

as far as the Cholu line is concerned, I have not the least

apprehension that future researches would in any manner
unsettle the order of succession herein indicated. But that
however is not the case with the first names that appear
in Pfmdiya and the (-hera dynasties of sovereigns.
the

They might be shifted, if at all, a generation or two earlier.

The Pandiya king of Korkai, whom I have taken as Nedun-
celiyan I, is placed in the third generation on the
strength of the reference by poet Peralavayar, who
belongs to the fourth. It is quite likely that Peralavayar
may have been a contemporary of Nedunceliyan I and
his immediate successor. Still if the poet's reference to

the conqueror of Kudal were taken as bearing upon a past

event, there is no reason why that sovereign should be made
the inimediate predecessor of the second Pandiya king in the
line. The conquest of Kudal might be supposed to have
been effected a few generations earlier. Both Kapilar
and Paranar, who allude to Akutai, the previous occupant
of Kudal, being later poets do not help us in definitely

fixing Akutai 's or Korkai Pandiyan's time; nor does

Vellernkkilaiyar who sings of Evvi I, Akutai 's opponent,
in any way serve our purpose, for that poetess
stands isolated, with absolutely no connection with
108 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

of the other in the Tables. In

any personages
these circumstances I had to bring in other consi-

derations to settle the place of the first Pandiya king. From

the Tables one will see that the third, the fifth and the
seventh Pandiyans go under the same name, Nedunceliyan.
There would be some appropriateness then I thought of
the first place going to a Nedunceliyan, the individual
whose achievement alone has given rise to that distinctive
Pandiya name. Nedunceliyan II, the third, in the
Pandiya line, otherwise known as Pasumpun-Pandiyan
fought with Evvi II, while Korkai Pancliyan's opponent
Akutai seems to have killed Evvi I, probably the grand-
father of the previous Evvi. Facts such as these, though
not of much decisiveness in themselves, have weighed
with me in giving the conqueror of Kudal his present place
in the Tables. This arrangement further brings him
closer to poet PPraluvftyar, and no useful purpose would
be served by shifting the incident referred to by that poet
to a remoter antiquity than is justifiable by attendant
circumstances. The place of the second Pfmcliya king, Putap-

pandiyan, the conqueror of Ollaiyur, being definitely fixed,

the shifting of the conqueror of Kudal to a higher antiquity
only tends to create a gap between himself and the second
Pandiyan in the line, a gap which certainly cannot be filled
in by any of the Pandiyans known to us from literature.

Thus, instead of leaving the first Pandiyan, the conqueror

of Kudal, disconnected with the Tables, I have taken the

only legitimate course open to mo of placing hfrm as the

immediate predecessor of Piitappandiyan. Furthermore,
there occur events in the next generation which add to
the reasonableness of this arrangement. Still for purposes
of scientific certainty, which I confess has not been attained
in this instance, Imay leave the question open for future
research to decide, though the chances of any
variation, I
should think, appear to be very little.

In the Chera line, however, the first sovereign the

conqueror of Karuvur is no better than a hypothetical
 THE TEN GENERATIONS. 109

insertion. The poet Nariveruttalaiyar who celebrates him

does not tune his lyre to sing of any other sovereign in
the Tables. He too stands isolated, and hence his king
and himself might brook a shifting. I have, however,
already explained the reasons which have led me to assign
him his present place in the Tables. Here too I cannot
but leave the question open and shall be the last to claim
any absolute accuracy for the disposition T have made.
It is only on account of the extreme pau?ity of literary evi-
dence that I have be^n thus compelled to leave this matter
in some uncertainty. Still in constructing a system of
Tables which must stand criticism and be absolutely
reliable I cannot hide from myself, still less from

my readers, the fact that complete certitude has

not been attained as regards the position of the first Chera
sovereign in the line. It is quite possible that further
may throw some light into a region where we
research,
have now to grope our way with uncertain steps. To
mark, however, this want of scientific certainty, I have
adopted the expedient of enclosing this king's name in the
Tables in square brackets and expect my readers to take it
with the reservation herein indicated. As for the seven
generations that follow the very fact that they have been
arranged on testimony wholly contemporary should invest
them with as much exactitude mid certainty as are possible
in the valuation and use of literary materials. From
the great care bestowed on their arrangement I feel con-
vinced that the Tables are reliable and will stand the test
of any fair criticism. In our progress through them we
can plant our steps securely on solid ground and feel that
we are not in a dark and uncertain region.

2JX The linear links connecting the third generation

with the fourth are supplied by two
The link-names.
poets, Kalattalaiyar and Mudamosiyar
of Enicceri. Kalattalaiyar, as a contemporary, sings of
the next Chola sovereign in the line, Velpah-taakkai-
 fHE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.
r
110

Perwviral-Killi, Killi, the great hero with many javelins

in his hands. Mudamosiyar seems connected with Mosi-
klranar, a poet who sings of Aayi in the generation after
the next. The was in all probability the son
latter poet
ofMudamosiyar with his father's name prefixed to his.
Some are inclined to construe Mosiklranar as Kiranar of
Mosi, a town. I am not at all disposed to take that view of
1

the matter. Then, as now, the practice in the Tamil land

seems to have been to prefix the father's name to the son's.
Thus Mosi KiraiiHr should be taken as Kiranar, the son of
Mosi. Until other evidences of a more compelling nature
lurn up, this I think is the only feasible method of interpret-
ation. Both Mudamosiyar and Mosi KTranar appear a
generation apart and this fact naturally suggests the rela-
tionship stated abovo. Even if our readers are still disposed
to consider this suggested link unsatisfactory, the s'ecure link
of Kahlttalaiyar should commend itself as unimpeachable.
The poet Pc'ralavayar, who refers to the conquest of
Kiidal, appears as a contemporary poet of Putappandiyan,
the second in the Pandiya line of kings. This fact too
pro-
vides an additional means of connection. As
regards the
Chora genealogy the account of relationship given by the
redactor of Patirruppattn has been followed and I see no

(1) The editor of Agananuru converts Mosiklranar into Mosikkaraiyanar

aud assigns the poet to a town Mosikkarai. The editor of
JV<wrtnai, while
admitting Mosiklran as Kiran of Mosi, a town, furnishes another bit of
information that the poet is in other places called Padumamlr Mosikiran a
circumstance which hardly bears out the view of
construing Mosi, as
a town name. In his notes on another poet Mosi Kaimattanar the
latter editor mentions Mosippatti in
Tiruppuvanam Taluq and Mosukudi in
Par?makudi Taluq as helping the identification of the poet's village.
Tt is clear in their efforts to
that, clear up tho mystery of a personal
name, these editors have only added to the uncertainty on hand the
uncertainties attendant on the identification of a Pinattur Narayana-
place*
swanii Aiyar, the editor of Narrinai,
forgetting for the nonce that Muda-
inosiyar had a definite village and district assigned to him, for that poet is
reported to have belonged to Enicceri, in the District Uraiyur tries to transport
him to any one of the highl'y doubtful modern villages
Mosippatti or Mosuk-
kudi. Such identification of places offhand on the
strength of mere simi-
larity in which is generally in vogue, cannot be too
sound,, strongly
deprecated. The ancient geography of Tamilagam should form a
separate
study by itself to yield any positive results.
 THE TEN GENERATIONS. Ill

reason to deviate from it. The details as can be gathered

from that work tally beautifully with the facts otherwise
brought on the Tables. This will be made clear as we
proceed further.

THE FOURTH GENERATION.

VEL-PAH-TADAKK AJL-PETIU VIRAL-KILLI PERIOD.
30. The relationship between Mudittalai-Ko-Peru-
narkilli and VCl-pah-tadakkai-Peru-
The Choia line: viral-Killi is nowhere even hinted at;
Vel-pah-tadakkai
Peruvirai- Kiiit still it may be presumed that the latter
was the son of the former. Vel-

pah-tadakkai-Peruviral-Killi, who may .be supposed to

have succeeded his father on the Uraiyur throne had to
meet with an early death. Himself and one Ohera king
Neduilcheralatau, presumably iinaiyavaramban
1
Nedun-
cheralatai] of later day nomenclature, met in a field of
battle and in the fierce conflict that ensued both of them

(1) It would be interesting to t.iace the history of this name 'Imaiya-

varainban', which does not find a place in any of the four primary works
we are handling, nor even in the body of the secondary work Palirruppatlu.
In the portion of the latter work devoted to this king, known as the ''Second
Ten" he invariably referred to as
is
'
Neduucheralatan ' or ' Cheralatan '.
'

However, in the first verse, the poet in eulogizing the king's victory over the
'Kadamba' tribes introduces a simile that the food encountered by him were
considered the front-rank heroes among the rulers of countries extending from
the Himalayas Gape Comorin.
to This isa mere poetic hyperbole to heighten
the heroism of Neduncheralatau and depict him as having won his victory
even against such terrible odds. The verse runs:

ii osew/fl

ir (j>Ulfi<S8>&
gJGUGBTjBuJ

The Patigam or colophon later on added to this piece,

however, stretches
the poetic figure to supply biographical matter and attaches the
epithet
Imaiyavaramban to Neduncheralatan. This seems to have been taken
up still
later by the author of Chitappadikaram and expanded with numerous details
of imaginary victories over the Aryan kings in North India a
description which
no historian conversant with the conditions of India at that time would
even entertain as a serious hypothesis.
112 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TAMILS.

had to lay down their lives. We do not know with whom re-
mained the fortunes of the day in this bloody duel. The un-
happy close of the conflict ending in the death of both the
combatants was a sufficiently pathetic incident which could
not but evoke the mournful numbers of two contemporary
poets, Kalattalaiyar and Paranar. Both bemoan this sad
event in poems of singular beauty and pathos which
directly touch our heart-strings. To have a taste of the
power and beauty of the Tamil elegiac muse the reader
should only attune his mind to the sombre necessities of
that fateful moment and himself spend a few minutes over
stanzas 62 and 63 in the Puranawu.ru collection. The
unknown collector of Purandnuru informs us by an
appended note that the scene of this memorable battle
was Per, a place somewhere near the upper reaches of the
Kaviri and on the borders of the Trichinopoly District.
If so, we have to assume that the Cheras had already begun
to advance into the Koiigu country and carry out their
policy of conquest. The Chdlas too seem to have had
1

the same objective in view. Naturally enough, two such

powers swooping down on a common pvey could not but
come to grips sooner or later and that happened in the
battle of Per, which ended so disastrously to both.

31. The second Pandiyan, who comes in the Tables is

Putttppandiyaii. He is also known as

The Pandiya line: <j.lk iyur-taii
* ta-Putappaiidiyan, i.e.,
Putappaadiyan. .
, ,
Putappaudiyan who conquered
-,

and
annexed Ollaiyur kingdom. Poet Peralavayar, who
to his
alludes to th,e annexation of Kuijlal by the preceding

Pandiya king, appears to have been a contemporary of

Pfitappandiyan, for his poem, composed on the occasion
of that monarch's queen ascending the funeral pyre of

(1) The first Ghera king who entered the Koiigu country must be
Udiyan Ohcral, the king who is described as sear east sp/Stu
/s/r

fi.^iu@ Qffiffedj the Ohera king who expanded the Ghera dominions.
Peruficheralatan, who fell in the battle of Vcnni fought with Karikal I, was,
as suggested previously, Udiyan Cheral himself, who should thus be supposed to
have come into the Koiigu country, to render that engagement possible.
 TtfM GENERATIONS.

her husband, enables us to definitely fix his time. Two facts

are worthy of notice in respect of this king, first his
position as the ruler of Kudal was not that of a sovereign
of a very extensive dominion round about that capital,
and secondly that he occupied a rank much inferior to that
of Titiyan, the Aayi king of Pothiyil and his own contempo-
rary. Putappandiyan was himself a poet and the testimony
for the afore-menlioned facts can very easily be drawn
from one of his verses. Only the reader is expected to
free his mind any prepossessions due to the later tradi-
of
tions about the extentand importance of the Madura Power
and rightly appraise the direct testimony proceeding from
the mouth of one of the earliest Pandiya kings. In stanza
71 of Purandnuru the royal poet conveys his determination
to overcame his enemy kings and expresses the
strength
of his resolution in an oath as was quite usual with the
old-time warriors :

p pnSssr (Sewtp
urr^^ QLGGOTU
tfj/r /rtn

QumtJiurj tu from IT

LAGSlQeOTIlS

(S&eifiQirn

Purom., S. 71.
C-16
114' THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

In this stanza what interests us more than the many

evils which the furious monarch calls down on himself in
the event of his not fighting his enemies to the finish and
overcoming them is the manner in which he refers to a
number of rulers, all perhaps not above the rank of a

chieftain, as his friends and compeers. It is clear that nt

least some companions of Putappandiyan wera

of these
then independent chiefs ruling over different states near
the basin of the river Vaigai. If these had been merely
his tributary chiefs, his reference to them would have been

pitched in a different key. The existence of a number of

small independent states scattered about Kudal does in
no way justify the assumption of an extensive Kudal king-
dom covering the entire Vaigai basin at that early time.
Though the Pandiya king Neduntdr-Celiyan of Korkai
might be supposed to have become the master of a fairly
extensive state in the vicinity of Kudal, he should not be
considered as having conquered the whole country on
either bank of the river Vaigai. He conquered the Kudal

principality and left it for a branch of his family as a

nucleus for further expansion. His successor had still to
meet the implacable enmity of the other kings and
face them in battle to keep possession of the new acquisi-
tion. Putappandiyan had to make common cause with a
number neighbouring chieftains, till he felt himself
of
secure from the attacks of such enemy kings. Such facts as
these should give us an idea of the modest dimensions of
the Kudal kingdom annexed to Korkai. In another poem
of his (Agam. S. 25) appear
y the following significant
lines:

pi sens u

SITU), ps
In these lines the
royal poet expresses his great
respect towards Titiyan, the Aayi king of Pothiyil and
 THE TEN GENERATIONS. 116

conveys also in a way his estimate of the latter 's

status as the ruler of an extensive mountain-

dominion. A lady -love bewailing the separation of
a lover is generally made by the Tamil poets and
it seems almost a convention with most of them to
describe the having gone beyond the farthest
lover as
corner of the Tamil land known to her. Titiyan's domi-
nions being taken here as the utmost stretch beyond which
the heroine could not transport her lover, even in her
imagination, it is but reasonable to conclude that the
Pothiyil dominions then served as the ultima thule for
marking the distant wanderings of the absent lover. The
extensiveness of the Pothiyil kingdom need not, however,
be based upon this literary argument alone, which may
not be convincing to the general reader, not familiar with,
the conventions of the Tamil poets. The significant
descriptive phrase 'Pothiyilcelvan' (Qunfifip Q*A*n&),
the prosperous lord of Pothiyil I confess the trans-
lation does not convey half the expressive strength of the

original proceeding from a royal poet of Putappandiyan's

standing and pedigree strongest and the most
is the

unexceptionable evidence to establish the higher status

and consequently the larger donninion of the Aayi
king Titiyan of that period. I am all the more inclined
to emphasise this aspect, because distance of time and

intervening historical accidents have now prevented

posterity from appreciating the greatness and independence
of the Aayi kings of those early days. In the works of
later commentators and scholars the Aayi kings have not

only been described as the rulers of a petty hill-state but

have been degraded to the position of mere chiefs and
dependents on any one of the Tamil triumvirates. At any
rate, this specific reference of Ollaiyur-canta-Putap-
pandiyan is not at all consistent with such a view. It
establishes in the clearestmanner the independence of the
Aayi kings of the south and a greater testimony than this,
proceeding as it does from the mouth of a rival sovereign,
few will be inclined to demand. Still to clinch this infer-
116 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

ence I draw the reader's attention to the following words

of a contemporary poet Mudaimosiyar of Enicceri in Pwram.,
S. 128,

<L//T
jytu L&snLppsuy) QuirfiuS

LDSWSW/

Aayi king had been merely a petty chieftain de-

If the

pendent on any one of the Tamil kings of thiat time, surely

the poet would not have sung in this strain. These lines
1

then should place the independence of the Aayi

suffice to

kings beyond any reasonable doubt.

32. The Chera line had three sovereigns for this

period. Of these Celva-Kadunko was
m
(1)
*., M~
Celva-Kadun-
n t so famous for his war-like qualities
^
ko-Aii Atan (alias) as for the gentler virtues which made
owkkarpaiii-tunci- h m a gmit patron of the poets. He
j
-
ya-celva Kadunko, _ _ ,.
, , . .. .

(alias) Mantaran- was noted for unstinted munificence and

Poraiyan-Kadunko. reported to have made a present of the
k0 Ne
* owu Okandur, not yet identified, to some
dimc\ie^atMi
(3) Paiyanai- unknown person. Paranar, who sings
'

Oel-Kelu-Kuttuvan

latan. Nedufichcralatan, the so-called Imaiyavaramban,

and his brother Palyanai-Cel-Kelu-Kuttuvan, 1 Kuttuvan,
'the possessor of battalions of elephants' were great
warriors. The former had extended the Chera dominions
to the confines of the Ayiri mountain, north of the southern

(1) The meaning of the phrase uj r$esrffiQ#<*) in the apparently

of the Oliera king cannot be clearly made out. The later
significant title
meanings of cloud, thunder and sky given in the Tamil Lexicon and the
Sangam Dictionary are obviously inapplicable here. However from the follow-
ing lines of stanza 323 of Agan&ntiru.

sQuu
pear &> ear s&un
we may infer that Qff& means a drove or row of elephants. Beferring
to a moving column of the animals it may be connected with the verbal root

Q*a'j to go. It is also highly probable that the words Q^s>/ and Q^a/ii
which at present mean wealth generally must be traced to this possession of
elephants as furnishing a concrete standard of wealth in ancient times.
 THE TEN GENERATIONS. 117

border of Tulunacto and seems to have fought some battles

with the Aryan kings beyond that limit. The redactor of
Patirruppattu gives a graphic account of how Nedufi-
chgralatan punished some Yavanas or Greeks by
pinioning their arms behind their backs and pouring ghee
over their heads as a mark of disgrace. What those
Yavanas were guilty of to deserve this humiliation we are
not informed of. The account, however, is too circum-
stantial to be dismissed as a concoction. Assuming it as
a historical fact strengthens the hypothesis of a Greek
it

colony
1
in the West Coast at that time. The Prriplus of
the Erythrcean Sea .mentions a place called Byzantium to
the north of Tyndis, Naura, and the White Islands in the
West Coast of the Peninsula. It may have been the Greek

colony, some of whose were thus openly disgraced

citizens

according to Patirruppattu. Probably -owing to the

chastisement administered by Neduiicheralatan, the colony
must have declined and by the time of Ptolemy disappeared
altogether, for the latter has absolutely nothing to say

regarding This conqueror, as we have already pointed

it.

out, had to meet with his equal in the Chola monarch Vel-
pah-tadakkai-Peruvirarkilli and also his end in the field
of battle. His brother Palyfumi-Cel-Kelu-Kuttuvan,
first appears to have conquered Umparkadu (literally the
Elephant Forest) and gained a permanent footing in the
Kongu country. Although we have no means of definitely
identifying this territory, we may take it as the borderland
of the Coimbatore District adjoining the present Anaimalai
Hills. Probably by this conquest of the Elephant
tracts he may have secured the honorific addition
to the general name 'Kuttuvan' to
distinguish him
from the other Kuttuva rulers of that time. I

(1) Prof. Dubrcuil wants to make out that tin* Temple of Augustus
was a temple dedicated to Agastya! What a dislocation of South Indian
Chronology !
Compare in this connection the following finding of A. C.
Haddon: "Pahlava or Parthians of Persia, and Yavaiia or Asiatic Greeks
settled in Western India about this time (middle of second
century, B.C.)
Wanderings of Peoples, p. 28.
118 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EABLY TAMILS.

have my own doubts whether this

qualifying adjunct
'Palyanai-cel-kelu' did not supply the cue for the coinage
of a later myth that that sovereign brought the waters of
the eastern and western seas in one day to his capital

by means of his elephants posted in a continuous line from

the Arabian Sea to the Bay of Bengal. Poetic exaggera-
tion notwithstanding, th.ere need scarcely be any doubt
that by the conquest of the 'Elephant country' or forest,
this king was in a position to bring into the field more of
these ponderous pachyderms than any of his rival kings.
Poet Palai Kautamanar, who eulogizes this king in Patir-
ruppattu, gives him credit for having subjugated the whole
of Koiigunadu. From poet Ammuvanar's verse
(Narrinai, 8. 395) we learn that Mandai, a town in the
West Coast, was then in the possession of the Chera kings.
Whether Mandagara of the Periplus in the Pirate Coast
in South Konkan could bo identified with this town should
be looked into.

33. Aayi Titiyan the king of Pothiyil, should be

I,

. ^i ** i considered as the successor of Aayi *

The Chieftains.
Andiran of th,e previous generation.
Strictly speaking his true place is not among the chiefs
but amongst the other sovereigns of that period. Since,
however, his dynasty comes to a close a generation hence, he
has riot been given a more prominent place in the Tables.
In A gam., poet Paranar refers to this ruler and his
S. 322,

Pothiyil kingdom. A
number of chiefs, such as Anci of
the Kudirai Hill, Pari of the Parambu Hill, Ori of the
Kolli Mount, and Kari of Mullur appear in this generation.
All these forest chiefs should be located near the northern
borders of the.Koiigu country which included in its extent
the southern corner of Mysore and a part of the Salem Dis-
trict. Of these, Pari and Ori seem to have been defeated
and killed in this generation. And by the next, sundry
v

oth,er forest powers go o ut of existence. It was by the

vigour, military skill, the land-grabbing tendency and ambi-
tion of the Chera sovereigns, that the northern boundary
 THE MN GENERATIONS. lid

of their dominions was pushed still further north, to the

basin of the Palar river.
A
Poets Paranar and Kapllar form the linear links con-
Link-naues. nectiiig this generation with the next.

THE FIFTH GENERATION.

TJnUVA-PAH-TER-lLANCEDCEN N I PERIOD.
34. After the death of Vel-pah-tadakkai-Peruviral-
killi, the throne of Uraiyur had to pass
' ' '
The Chola line:
a
. .

crisis.
m ,
That
. .

trruva-pah-ter- iian- through sanguinary

cedcennl.
engagement t For in which Vel-pah-
tadakkai-Peruviral-killi lost his life must have con-
siderably shaken the military power and prestige of
th,e Killi family. There should have been none in
that line to succeed the ill-fated sovereign immediately
and bear the burdens of an expanding monarchy. Uruva-
pah-ter-Ilancddcenni, al ias Ney talaiikanal Ilancedcenni,
alias Cheruppali-Yerinta-Ilancedcenni, being a scion of the
northern branch, was then in charge of -.the coast country
of the CHolas. 1 have already suggested that he
should be considered as the son of Karikal I alias
Peruimpfmcemii. He was
great warrior and had a
already won his spurs in the battle of Ceruppali. He
had an army behind him to back up his claims. He seems
to have ascended the Chola th.rone a t
Uraiyur and by that
act paved the way in times to come for much bitterness of
feeling and animosity and sometimes even open conflict
between the Killi and the Cenni branches of that
family.
Though Ilancedcenni, by his superior might and general-
ship, kept down the forces of disorder, in his lifetime, these
appear to have flamed out into open violence at the time of
liisdeath and effectively stayed the chances of his son
Karikalan II quietly succeeding him on thie
Urai}
throne. This will be noticed later on.

Thissovereign appears in literature und

different names and considerations of order, s
and consistency demand that they should be taken
120 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THfi JSA&Lt TAMILS.

ring to one and the same individual and no more. During

the time of Karikalan I, the great Cenni, his son should

naurally be expected to be Known as Ilancedcenni, the

young Cenni, who as heir-apparent was ruling a distant
province. I have interpreted Ihe word 'G^^' in the same
Cedcenni in the light of the political circumstances
1
may mean
*

obtaining at the time; but the term also noble.'

He was also called Ncytalaiikanal Ilancedcenni, because

he was in charge of that maritime district,noted by Pto-
7

lemy as 'Paralia of the Soretai . His conquest of a

northern hill fort and his victory over a forest chieftain

presumably gained for him the additional title Cerup-

paali-Yerinta-llaficedccmii. He should have been a season-
ed warrior and pretty well-advanced in years when lie
succeeded the ill-starred Killi of Uraiyur. For an account
of this sovereign's character and acts readers are refer-
red to the poems of the contemporary poets noted in the
Tables.

35. In this generation appears one of the greatest

The Pandiya line:
warriors of the Pandiya line. It is no
Pasumpun-Pandiyan doubt by a strange irony of circum-
tarU
stance that his name, like that of his
ruvii-PanSya^
(alias) Pannadu- still greater predecessor and founder of
a
(BUM) vadtaabaiam-
^ie
Kuflal lino, should happen to be
baninra-Pandiyan. buried so deep in th,e stray references
of the texls as to escape the notice of the casual reader. By
a still stranger irony the 'common herd' of the later Pandi-
ya kings have thrown into the shade the earlier heroes
the real builders of the Pandiya greatness and have
secured from posterity a larger share of its attention. We
have to console ourselves with the reflection that time
has swallowed up and swallows still many greater names
than these. The Pandiyan of Korkai, Neciuiiceliyan I,

(1) Poet Kapilar uses C?#, a variant of this word, in the line

es^iurr^Bsr^QffLL^^iKiQsirQ&j'' (Pimm., S. 201), in the sense 'noble*. The

ideas, high, noble, etc., must have evolved subsequently from the initial physical
conception of distance.
 THE TEN GENERATIONS. 121

and Pasumpun Pandiyan or Nedunceliyan II have,

to all intents and purposes, become mere shadowy
figures and have almost lost their place amongst the his-
torical Pandiyans of this famous line. Still patient research
in the archives of ancient literary remains has enabled us
to exhume and resuscitate these heroes of antiquity from
their undeserved oblivion and bring them once more before
the foot-lights of the Pandiya history. The name of this
great conqueror, Pasumpun Pandiyan, is as usual merely
a descriptive one. It imports 'Pandiyan, the be-jewelled'.
Although, this was a common enough epithet in the mouths
of all the Tamil poets of that time, I find that in the usage
of the earliest of early band of poets thie name
that
seems to have been invariably used to denote this parti-
cular Paudiyan of that line and none other. Invariable usage
has converted this general name into a proper one and
I believe we have no right at this distance of time to try
to translate that name and make
it generic. This parti-
cular Pandiyan has been ignored by posterity not only
by
what appeared to them a generic title but by a medley
of oilier names under which ho appears in literature.
By
his victory over the Aayi king and the and
Koiigu people
the consequent annexation of their territories to his domi-
nion, he was known as Pannadu-tanta-Pandiyan
(//^^
pfcp urresnu^uj<ssr} or the Pandiyan who conquered and
annexed many nti/lus (Agam., 8. 253). This name was later
on converted into what they considered a more
dignified
form Nilam-tarn-Tirnvil-Pfindiyaii, a name, with all which,
its different phraseology, conveys the same meaning as
the previous one (Agaw., S. 338 and Pit
ram., S. 76). Since by
these victories of his the Pandiya dominion till then con-
fined to the coast of tho Eastern Sea was extended to the

very rim of the Arabian Sea in the West, he came to be

justly known as Vadimbu-alamba-Ninra-Pandiyan or the
Pandiyan who so extended his kingdom as to be literally
washed by the two seas. To celebrate this stroke of rare
good fortune he is said to have celebrated a sea-festival
C 16 ,
 122 THE CHBONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

on a grand scale (vide Puram., S. 9). Naturally enough

these different names scattered throughout later literature
later generations who were
presented a puzzle to still thus
various names to one his-
prevented from ascribing the
torical character. The tangle thus created is however
straightened by a careful collation and comparison of the
texts of the most ancient poets. From t^em all one his-
torical figure stands out clearly and rivets our atten-
tion. In all probability Pasumpun Pandiyan may have
been the grandson of the conqueror of Kudal and the son
of Ollaiyur-taiitti-Puta-Pandiyan, his predecessor. 1

Immediately after his succession to the throne, he

turned his attention to the north of Kudal and found Evvi
II blocking his expansion in that direction. Evidently
Akutai's victory over Evvi I, presumably th,e grandfather
of Evvi II, did not lead to any annexation of Evvi's

territory to the Kudal kingdom. The lines of Paranar:

euirtueurr Qerr&jeS GOJGUSST

Gti
&rriLJpp
/r/f)u>693r euiriB gH/Dprgir ir/r /zbasssar

Agam., S. 266.

convey that Evvi II was defeated by Pasumpun Pandiyan

and probably also brought under subjection. Then the
king turned his attention to the great western kingdom,

(1) I assume this relationship by the following topographical facts.

Immediately after his conquest of the Aayi or Pothiyil dominion Pasum-
pun Pandiyan appears to have renamed one ancient city of that kingdom,
now situated in the Tovalai Taluq of the Travaneorc State and just near
the foot of the Ghats as Alagiapandiyanur or Alagiapundiyapuram. In ancient
documents I understand that the name of this town appears as jfQujggyr
Qgearp jftpQujiJiTea*t$.iLjLjffu). Atiyan was the Aayi king at that time,
who had been conquered by this Pandiyan, and T find the recitation of the
name in the documents true and appropriate enough. The names Pasumpun
Pandiyan and Alagiapandiyan almost mean the same thing. What strikes
me as peculiarly significant is the existence of another town with a rock-cut
temple, just three or four miles to the south, Putappandi by name, the head-
quarters of the taluq. Probably after the conquest Pasumpun Pandiyau
founded this town in memory of his father Pnta-Pfindiyan. These facts
predispose me to assume Ollaiyur-tanta-Puta-Pandiyan as the father of .the

great conqueror of Pothiyil.

 THE TEN GENERATIONS. 123

the Aayi territory of Potlriyil. He

ma'de no delay in in-

vading and permanently occupying it. Paraiiar describes

graphically how th.e victorious flags borne on the backs
of the elephant-troops of the Pandiya king waved over the
Pothiyil hills. Here are the lines:

Gatrretrp) ajjUujiru LjaJiEjQ&(ip

u
dsOuu
Agam., S. 162.

No doubt the description appears incidentally in the

stanza; but I have little doubt that it refers to the down-

fall of the Aayi house in tln south Atiyan thereafter

became a tribrtaiy chief of the Kfidal king and had to take
command of his forces Against ^ie Koiigu people. Since
before this memorable victory the Aayi kingdom extended
up to the southern borders of Coimbatore, it effectively
blocked the way of the king of Kudal in gaining access to
the Koiigu land. But Pfuidiyan's success
Pasumpfui
against thePothiyil king opened a ready means of
approach to the coveted region and no sooner was Pothiyil
occupied than we find L.im carrying the war into the heart
of the Kongu country. Stanza 393 in Kuruntogai by poet
Paranar has reference to this war:

Though Aayi Atiyan fell in this battle, the Kongu war

must have been prosecuted with considerable vigour and
brought in some fresh addition of territory to th,e Ku^al
kingdom. The verses of Nakkirar, a later poet though,
may be taken as decisive on that point. He says :
124 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

D QJJ/T/BJJ

Agam., S. 253.

By a vigorous policy of expansion Pasumpun Pandiyan

brought the limited kingdom of Kudal for we know how
modest its extent was at the time of Ollaiyur-tanta-Puta-
Pandiyan to embrace the whole of th,e central and south
Travaiicore. Naturally enough this expansion of the
Pandiya kingdom from the eastern sea to the western
should Donate to he looked upon as the finest feat of arms
by the later Pandiyns and its protagonist was since given
by them the honoured surname Nilam-taru-tiruvil Nedi- '

you', i.e., the king Nodunccliyau who conquered and

annexed many territories to the Pandiya kingdom.
36. Three Chora sovereigns appear in this genera-
tion. Of those, Kuttuvan Irumporai,
The cam line:
ruling at Karuvur, extended the Chera
(1) Kuttuvan Irum- ,.-,,,, ,
__
porai, (alias) Perum- kingdom by the coiujuest ol north Koiigu.
,

(S
1

Yerinta-Pcmncherai-
wK Whilci Pasl]m P fll

Atiyan of the
Pandiyan swept away
-i

south, this Chera king

lod his arm > r
uorth and Conquered Taka-
STSnkaykkanm
Narmudi-Oherai. duj-, the seat of another branch of the
K me Aa vi
Stiya TelS" s -
famil Two P oct ^ Mosi
>;
Kuttuvan. Kiranfir and Arisil Kilar, have sung
about this victory cf Takadur. The
other IAVO Chora kings, tlie sons of
Nedimcheralatau, must
hnvo boon ruling over the coastal region
extending north
from KuUamulu. KalaiikSykkaiuii Narmudi-Cheral had
to ro-conquor Pfiliiifidn from Namian II and thus gave
that northern power its final quietus. Vel-Kelu-Kuttuvan
had also to complete the work of his father in
fighting the
Kndamba had been giving much trouble
tribes, wh.o
by their
piracies. Poet Parana r has composed the 'Fifth Ten'' *

in Patlrruppattu to celebrate the victories

of this hero.
There is
absolutely nothing in Paranar's account of this
king which could justify th.e identification of this character
with Cenkuttuvan Chera, the hero of
Cilappadikaram,
 THE TEN GENERATIONS. 125

a work of later days. To the achievements of this king

narrated by the poet, the editor of Patirnippattu adds a
few more in his poetic summary called 'Patigam'. This

siege of Idnmbil and the conquest of Viyalur

and Kodukur
1
my be allowed as actual occurrences in
the life-time of a war-like king. Bui along with this enu-
meration is introduced the historically impossible feat of
the king's incursions into North India, all for fetching
a piece of stone from the Himalayas for the effigy of the
'
'Chaste Wife" deified. This entry is flagrantly apo-
cryphal;" and the problem presented for solution is not to
find out thegrain of historical truth it may contain but
to determine its relation (o the Ciluppadikarain, story.
Did this supply the suggestion for the later account in
CiltipiwdikiltttM or was it inserted in Patirruppatlu,
after the competition of that epic to add some authenti-
city to its narration? The question cannot be confidently
answered either was just now. In any case, the sooner
we give up the practice of appealing to the highly imagi-
native poems, CilappadikfiraM and Maylntekalai for
facts of ancient Tamil history, the better it is for sound
research.

37. Among the chiefs, Kvvi II and Aayi Atiyan have

already
*
been mentioned in connection
The Chieftains. ... _ >- i- rm 11
with I asumpun ramuyan. They call
for no further remarks here. Klini, who belonged to the

Atiyar family, n branch of the Aayi kings of the south,

(1) Tin
1
'Paligani' in Ptilitrupjtnlln is responsible for HUMP details.

(2) Tt docs not find a place in Vf-l-Ki-Jn-KiittuvauVi biography. Nor

do tho genealogies of tins historical character and of the epic character,
C/efikut tuvan, Mjjji-ci
1
in ll.e
lows!. According to the Patirruitpattu version
Vel-Kelu-Kuttuvan son of M'dimcheralntan and Manakkilli, a Chola
\uis tjie

princess. Acliyurkkunallar, tho commentator of CilfipiwdikAram, says he

was tho son of Nc'dufu-lifralatnn and Xarconai, tin- daughter of
oo

Thus the two Kuttuvans had two different

mothers, unless
we take 'Manakilli 9 and 'Nareoiiai' as referring to
one queen. Further,
their identification will scarcely fit in with the facts of
contemporary Chola
history. If Ccnkuttuvau, i.e., Vel-Keluttuvan by the hypothesis,
 W OF TBE EARLY TAMILS.
to have been
killed by th,e Chera
king Perunchera)
inonporai and his kingdom annexed. Nannan
II, pro-
bably a grandson of Nannan was defeated and sent into
I,
exile by Kalankaykkanni Narmudi-Cheral. Thus was
Pulinadu, the coastal region which, extended north up to
Tulunadu, finally annexed to the Chera dominion. Perunalli,
the king of Kandiram, a place probably situated about the
Sattimangalam Pass leading from the Mysore plateau into
Coimbatore appears to liave been praised for liberal
gifts by, among other poets, one Kakkai Patiniyar Nac-
cellaiyar. The poetess's name received the singular
addition Kukkaipfitini from the accident of her men-
tioning in a verso the crow's cry as a prognostication of
a guest's arrival! Another important circumstance which
I cannot but notice with reference to this poetess is that
one of hjcr beautiful similes appears to have been bor-
rowed by a and greater genius and sot in his justly
lator
celebrated work. 1 refer to the famous author of Kural.
The original of the fine couplet,

is doubtless contained in the last line of the following

stanza :

&j60juj
(y>6Yr/fl LD^tEjSear (LpfiQiurr&r

&L-.<GS>3>

/Lo Qu/fl pa//i'

.
Puram., S. 278.
were the son of Narcdnai, the sister of K'arikalan the Great,
he should conic in the generation which immediately succeeds that of Karikalan
the- Groat and his father Nedunphoraliitan should appear as Karikalan 's con-

temporary. But both the Chera kings stand two generations higher up
in
the Tables. This fact alone is sufficient to establish the unteuability of identi-
fying Ce&kuttuvaa with Vel-Kelu-Ku^uvan.
 THE TEN GENERATIONS. 127

The natural setting of the thought and phrasing in

th,e piece of the ancient authoress and their ethical setting

in the Kural must settle the ouestion of priority. I cannot

believe that this coincidence is accidental and is an
instance of 'great wits jumping together'. Tiruvalluvar
seems to have taken the gem from the ancient poem and
given it a finer setting.

Another chief Perumpekan, the king of

also,

'Vaiyavi', identified with the modern Palncy Hills in the

Madura District, must hero be mentioned. He comes into
prominence in connection witli a domestic affair, which
would not have reached us but for the zealous mediation
of a number of poets. Perumpekan had a wjfe named
Kannaki and after living happily with her for some time
he seems to h.ave deserted her for some other lover or
courtesan, who had caught him in her meshes. This mis-
conduct on Perumpekan 's part brought about an estrange-
ment between himself and his wife Kaimaki and thereafter
li,e was not even on visiting terms with her. The open
amours of a ruler like Pdkan and his harsh treatment of
his spouse must have given rise to much unseemly public
talk. A
number of poets, among wh.om we find the lead-
ing poets Paranar and Kapilar, moved by sympathy for
the injured wife as well as by their affection and regard
for the reputation of their patron Pekan, came forward
and exhorted the ruler to receive back Kannaki into his
favour. Whether the erring king was in any way brought
to senses by this honourable intercession of the poets
h,is
1
is not known. Unlike the later Kannaki, who is evidently
a character created to answer a floating tradition, Kan-

(1) This incident, from a chapter of ancient Tamil history, may in a

manner have supplied the initial motif for the Cilappadilcdram story of
later days. Apart from the similarity of the names of th* hero and heroine
1

Kovalan being taken as a variant of Ko-vallfin, the strong king, the

episode of separation between the husband and wife brought about by a
courtesan is too striking to be omitted. Poets get their materials from diverse
sources and fashion them in many different forms. Take for instance, the
Tirumavunni incident alluded to in Nar., S. 216, who can say that it has not
supplied Ilango-Adigal with another striking episode for his story f
128 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TAMILS.

naki, the disconsolate wife of Pekan, was undoubtedly

a
real historical character who had to suffer the slights and
humiliations heaped on her by an imperious and faithless
husband and whose sufferings would in time have given
birth to that tradition itself. We 'are, however, more
concerned with Pekan 's time than with his domestic feli-
cities. Th.at he belonged to this generation need hardly
he doubted nor is there any scope for shifting Perunalli's
time in the tables. Viceikko and Irunko Vel, Princes
of Vicci and Iruriko, to whom Kapilar is reported to have
taken Pari's daughters, may belong to this genera-
tion. So densely, however, has later tradition gathered
round th.e name of Pari, that it almost impossible to
is

separate fact from fiction in that pathetic story of Pari's

downfall and numerous other incidents that followed it.

The whole must be separately studied and interpreted.

The personages of this generation are held together

Link-names.
by the names of Parana r, Perunkunrur
Kilar, Arisil Kilfir, Kapilar, Vanpara-
appearing as the lateral links almost throughout, and
as a means of linear connection with the next generation,
we have Perunkunrur Kilar and Kakkaipfitiniyar Nac-
cellaiySr. With; these we have the known relationship
of Uruva-pah-ter-Tlancodcenni with his son and succes-
sor Karikalan the Great.

THE SIXTH GENERATION.

KARIKALAN THE GREAT'S PERIOD.
38. In coming to the time of .Karikala Chola the
Great, we come to a turning point in the
ne:
history of that dynasty. Tradition,
which is a blind dame at best if we have
not the eyes to guide her foot-steps in the proper direc-
tion,has woven round this great figure many legends. It
has been responsible for many whimsical stories for ex-
plaining away his strange name. But so far as the second
 THE TEN GENERATIONS. 129

Karikalan concerned no mystery need attach to his name.

is

He bore probably because it was his grandfather's

it

name. How entirely baseless is the legend of the 'burnt

leg' in respect of our gfeat hero needs no further eluci-
dation. If these fantastic stories should gain in signi-
ficance and relevancy, they have to bo bodily taken and
grafted on the first Karikalan the 'I'usumpuii-Cciiiii' of
Paranar's lines. Since we are aware thai a good many
ancient legends 1 are etymological at bottom having arisen
to explain away some name or other, their explanation
of factsand events cannot for that mailer be convincing.
Instead of explaining those facts and events, the legends
themselves owe to them their origin and explanation;
they are in short wholly ex post fficto and should never
be mistaken ft>r real explanations. In the present instance,
the name Karikalan, the origin of which is still wrapped up
in mystery,must have e:. cited the curiosity of later minds
and driven them on to coin new and fanciful explanations.
Setting aside the etymological constructions of Karikalan 's
name, tradition is strong in maintaining that Karikalan's
succession to the throne after his father's death did not
take place nncontested. Ho had to face many ene-
mies and get rid of many obstacles from his path. In
this we are assured that he had the strong support of

Irumpidarttalaiyar, his maternal uncle, who held a high

officeunder the Pandiya king of that time, it was quite
possible that the Pfmdiya king, Pclsllai-I\ludukudumi-
Peruvaludi, lent his powerful support to Karikalan by
allowing the intercession of his official Irumpidarttalaiyar

(1) As a striking and amusing instance of such etymological fabrications,

I shall extract the following:

"The Nyaya-Kosa mentions two legends to account for the name

Akgapada as applied, according to it, to Gautama. It is said that Gautama
was so deeply absorbed in philosophical contemplation that one day during
his walks, he fell into a wHl, out of which he was rescued with great diffi-

culty. God therefore mercifully provided him with a second pair of eyes in
his feet, to protect the sage- from further mishaps. This is a ridiculous
story manufactured merely to explain the word "Ak^apada" as composed
of 'Ak^a' (e\e) and 'Puda' (feet) 9 '. Dr. Satischaudra Vidyabhusaaa's.
History of Indian Logic, p. 48.

0-17
 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EABLY TAMILS.

and the interest of such a powerful sovereign must un-

doubtedly have turned the scales largely in favour of the
distressed Chola king.

Considering the absence of any amicable relation

between the Killi and the Genni branches, the whole
trouble about Karikalan's succession to the throne may very
well be ascribed to the intrigues of the members of the
Killi branch. By their successful machinations Karikalan
must have been incarcerated for a period; but it was of
little avail. He escaped from his prison in time and with
the help of his friends fought his way to the throne and got
it. Both Porunararruppadai and Pattinappalai, composi-
tions by two contemporary poets, included later in the

Pattuppattu collection (the Ten Idylls), give us this picture

of events. Excepting the stray pieces of the poets
appearing in Purananurn, these are by far the most
authoritative sources of information about the period of
Karikalan the Great. Inclusive of the authors of the two
poems mentioned above, half-a-dozen poets have sung
about the great king and his exploits. He was one of the
most successful of the empire-builders of his time. Not only
did he extend his conquests far and wide but also worked
hard to give his subjects the blessings of peace and plenty.
He seems to have cleared up many forest regions in the
north and encouraged colonisation on a scale not even
attempted by any of his predecessors. Excavation of tanks
and execution of other works of irrigation were also
attended to. He renewed the fortifications of Uraiyur
and beautified that city with many architectural build-
ings. Development of internal trade and foreign com-
merce too did not escape his attention. In short, with the
supreme courage, daring and skill of a military genius,
he seems to have combined the gentle virtues of
liberality, love of justice, and a deep attachment
to the interests of his people. Till his time the
Tamil kings were not so much courted by the
poets as th,e so-called minor chiefs were. Many a
 THE TEN GENERATIONS. 131

poet makes uncomplimentary comparisons' between the

unbounded liberality of the chiefs and the self-centred
existence and pomp of the Tamil kings who would not
deign to patronise the minstrels. But with Karikalan the
Great, a new era dawned for letters. His unstinted
patronage drew round him a brilliant group of poets of
the first order and brought about the first efflorescence of
Tamil literature. Longer compositions on set themes
take their rise in his reign and to these earliest rills un-
doubtedly must be ascribod the glory of having fed at the
source the broad stream of Hie present-day Tamil literature.
He encouraged the performance of Yilgas by the few
Brahmans whom he could invite for the purpose and
opened the way for planting the first seeds of the Aryan
religion in the Tamil country. These are the few facts
ono may gather from the early poems, regarding this great
sovereign of the Chdla line and if the opinion of later
generations furnishes any gauge for measuring th,e great-
ness of a person, the mere fact that posterity could not
conceive of Ihe andeut line of the Cholas without Karikalan
the ("Jreat as its central figure must be taken as sufficient
evidence of the greatness and glory of this ancient hero.
After a long and brilliant reign hie breathed his last in
Kurappalli. Thenceforward he was known as Kurap-
palli-tunciya-Perum-Tiru-Mavalavan.

39. Poet Karikkannanar of

Kfivirippumpattinam
has composed a stanza on the occasion
The Pandiya line: of Karikalan II and Velliyambalattu-

JS^^JSSi tunciya-Peruvaludi, sitting together

(alias) paiyaga- in afriendly tete-a-tete and gently
d
advisod them to continue in their ami-
SSvaiu^? ^aS
Veiiiyambaiattu- cable alliance and be a source of
tnnciya-Peruvaludi.
strength to each other- j am inc lined
to identify this Velliyambalattu-tun-
riya-Peruvaludi with Palyagasalai Mudukudumi Peru-
valudi, on the
ground that onlythere could be
one Pandiya king to come between Nedunceliyan TL
132 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

and Nedunceliyan III in the Tables. The general

practice of coining a new name for a king from the place
where he died should be noted and we should not be led
away by such new names to create new personalities to
answer For instance, Celvakkaduiiko-Aliyatan
them.
gets a new name after his death, Cikkar-palli-tunciya-
Celvakkaduhko. Karikalan
Perumtirumavalavan,
II, alias
comes to be known after his death at Kurappalli as
Kurappalli-tnficiya-Perum-Tiru-Mayalavan. In the same
way, Palsalai Mudukuclumi Peruvaludi who happened to
die at Velliyambnlam was thereafter known as Velliyam-
balattu-tunciya-Pernvaludi. I am strengthened in this
identificationby another material consideration furnished
by Maduraikkanci, a piece composed in honour of
Talai y alaiikana ttu-C'eru- Ven r a -Pandiy an of the next
generation. There the poet evidently refers to the father
and grandfather of his patron in the lines:

HGSSTtT5k.il. 6WTL--

Poet Nettimaiyar's lines in Puram., S. 9, will show

that Nilamtaru-tiruvil-Pandiyan who celebrated the sea-
festival on the shores of the western sea after the conquest
of the Aayi country was a predecessor of Palsalai Muduku-
dnmi Peruvaludi. In wishing long life to his patron he prays
ihat the king's days should be as many as the sands in the
Pahruli river, a river which owed its existence to the
zeal, keen foresight and wisdom of his predecessor.
Thus certain facts of Tamil literature and the order of
events in the Synchronistic Tables alike justify the identi-
fication of th,etwo variously-named kings, viz., Palsalai
Mudukudumi Peruvaludi and Velliyambalattu-tuficiya
Peruvaludi. The three poets, Karikilar, Nettimaiyar and
Nedumpalliyattanar, who sing of Pals'alai Mudukudumi
 THE TEN GENERATIONS. 133

Peruvaludi stand disconnected with the Tables and hence

offer us little help in the matter. At any rate, their com-
bined testimony does in no way stand against the identifi-
cation I have herein adopted. Irumpidarttalaiyar, the
uncle of Karikalan, whose real name is lost to posterity but
isreplaced by one coined from the descriptive phrase 'Irum-
pidarttalai' (^Mfi^n ppfo) occurring in his stanza which
has come down to us, refers to the same Pandiyan by
another descriptive appellation Karunkai-ol-val-perum-
peyar-Valudi, i.e., the Valudi with the hard hand bearing
a shining sword:

Puram., S. 3.

This PFindiyan iff said to have been a terrible warrior,

a chip of the old hero, the great Pasumpun Pandiyan,
the conqueror of the Aayi country. In the words of the
poets he carried devastation into the enemy's countries
in all his wars.

40. Yet some poems composed in his honour contain

references to his hiaving performed
Yagas with the aid of the Brahman
priests. Poems of a like tenor appear also in respect of
his Chola contemporary Karikalan the Great. I extract
here a few verses which sound a clear religious note and
convey to us the impression that those old-time warriors
were zealous upholders of the Vedic Yagas :

(Vj<snL-.(ouj
)jii /9</f

Ql

Puram., S. 6.

effujrr& SpuiSesr Qeuerr^S

184 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

Puram., S. 15.

m6S>6WLIp&
(Lprjgppu

Puram., S. 224.

Whether these verses are genuine and give a correct

picture of the religious leaning of those ancient Tamil

kings is just possible to doubt. Take poet Karikilar.
What does Kari denote in this name? If it were a place-
name as I suspect it is not the phrase Karikilar would
go on fours with ancient usage; for, I am sure, in the
all

usage of the early poets, one solitary instance of Kilar

being attached to a personal name cannot be quoted. It
always goes with, a place-name. If Karikilar were a

genuine name, we should assume the existence of a town

or village under the name Kari 1 and I do not know how
far we would be justified in such an assumption. It is not
unlikely that Karikilar may be a later creation, in whose
mouth a preposterous direction is put which no living poet

(1) In Ids biographical notes about Karikilar Pandit Mahamahopadyaya

V. Swaminatha Aiyar says that there was a village by this name 'Kari' in
Tondaimandalam and it is now known as Bamagiri. It is not clear from
what source the ancient name for Ramagiri was ascertained. Even granting
the existence of a village with this peculiar name in Tondaimandalam, it would
hardly servo to identify this particular poet, a contemporary of one of the
oldest PSndiya kings of the time of Karikalan the Great. Tondai-
mandalam then was a sway of the Tamil
forest region entirely outside the

kings. Tt is inconceivable how a poet could have hailed from that quarter
so early as this. The attempted identification is clearly based upon much
later facts and is historically of little value. Not stopping here the learned
Pandit introduces facts of still much later period as for instance Karinayanar
of Periyapuranatn and Kariyar of Tiruvilaiyddal-puranam. These, however,
1
only go to confirm my view about the personal character of the- name 'Kari .
But. why should we come down to later history when the Sangam Literature
itself furnishes many examples, e.g., Kari of MuQoor, Malaiyaman Tiru-
mudi-Kari, poet Kari-Kannan, etc.
 THE TUN GENERATIONS. 138

to a living sovereign would ever have the hardihood to

address. Take
also the couple of references as regards
the Yajna post and its detailed description. Could these
not have been inserted at the time of the Hindu religious re-
action to give the impression that Aryan Hinduism had
come Tamil country even before the Aryan hete-
into the
rodox systems and had secured the support and patronage
of two of the most prominent of the ancient kings? In
the circumstances of the case, the interpolators could not
have pitched on more illustrious kings than Palsalai
Mudukudumi for the Pandiya line and Karikalan the Great
for the Chola. The change of Palsalai 1 into Palyagasalai
adds to the general suspicion. We must further take into
account the thorough manner in which the Buddhist and
Jaina vestiges were destroyed or converted to other uses,
during the period of the Hindu reaction. Jain tradition is
strong that most of thc-ir manuscripts were committed to
the flames and their Chaityas converted into Hindu
temples. Dr. Vincent Smith writes in a foot-note in
p. 473 of lus Early History of India: "It seems toler-

ably certain that some of them were converted at a later

date to Brahxnanical use. This is clearly the case with,
the Buddhist apsidal Chaitya hall at Chazarla in Guntur
District, converted into a Saiva temple of late Pallava
style." He
then refers to the late Mr. T. A. Gopinatha
Eao's 'Bouddha Vestiges in Kancliipura' and writes:
"In twelve hours the author discovered iive images of
Buddha, two being inside the Kamakshi temple, which
probably occupies the site of a Buddhist Tara Temple,
etc." Then in p. 495, about Mahendra Varma's conver-
sion to the Saiva faith, he says: "The king, after his con- 1

version, destroyed the large Jain monastery aft Patali-

(1) Salai, in the usage of the early times, was also the namv of a monastic
cave-bed to which the Buddhists and other monks retired for rest and medi-
tation. In North India I find mentioned a mountain with such a cave-bed
known as Indra Sfila Giri. One might consider Palsalai in Mudukudumi 's name
as denoting a sovereign who created numerous cave-beds for the monks
and
nuns of the heterodox sects. But we should beware not to
spin out history
from a name.
136 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EABLY TAMILS.

puttiram in South Arcot, replacing it by a Saiva fane/'

These are only a few instances to show the mentality of
the orthodox reactionists in effacing the marks and
monuments of the older faiths. Would it be unreasonable
then to suppose that the old literature too should have
been considerably tampered with by the zeal and bigotry
ol* the orthodox party? To add to the general suspicion

regarding the 'Yagas' none of the longer compositions such

as Porunardrruppadai, Paitinappdlai, and Maduvraikkand
has a word to say about such rites. If those kings
had really celebrated the Yagas, the contemporary poets
would certainly have described them in these

longer compositions. Their silence regarding this

Vedic rite a new introduction in the Tamil land is

inexplicable. Moreover, the conditions of that period do
not seem to favour any such religious activity. Weighty
as these considerations are, I cannot see my way to lightly
brush aside these poems as interpolations. That can be
done only after subjecting their materials to a more
searching critical examination from the standpoint of
religion than has been undertaken yet. Still, i have called
attention to these doubts to emphasize the high prob-
ability of some poems having been composed and added
to the genuine ones at the time of the redaction of these
collections carried out at about the dawn of the religious
epoch. Even as they stand these references only prove
that the first introduction of this Aryan religious rite
cannot be pushed earlier than this period.

41. The two Chera contemporaries of Karikalan the

Great were Cheraman Kudakko Ilan- "

Th* Chera line: T n * -r ^ - .

(l) Oheraman X-
^eral Irumporai, the son ot Perun-
dakko Uancherai <*hfral Irumporai of the previous
irum-* generation and Atfukotpattu Chora-
Ku- latan, the
porai, (alias)
younger brother of Kalankay-
dakko-Cheral Irani- . . . 1 _
porai. kanin Narmudi Cherul. Kudakko Ilan-
cli?ral Arumporai, i.e.,young Chera
the

king called Irumporai, was the king of

 THE TEN GENERATIONS. 13?

Kuflanaciu, and he was celebrated by poet Perunkunrur-

Kilar the same poet who sang of Karikalan's father too.
This poet's life seems to have overlapped those two gene-
rations and furnishes us with a strong linear iink. We
learn from Patirritppaltu that this Chera king held his
court in his capital Naravu, the Naoura' of the Periplus
4

and the 'Nitria' of Pliny, situatod to the north of Tyndis

or Tondi. Yule h,as correctly identified this place as Manga-
iore on the banks of the river Neiravati. As in the case of
the name 'Damirica', which instead of being derived direct
from the Tamil word Tamilagam is sought to be derived
from the Sanskrit form Dramidaka here also Nitria'ff
'

',

original, they say, shiould be Netrlivati. in explaining

Tamil names of that far-off period, the attempt to derive
them from a supposed Sanskrit original is really putting
the cart before the horse.The name Notravati itself should
be taken as a laterform and its origin traced to the ancient
Tamil name Naravu. The earlier testimony of the Peri-
plus itself, which gives the form 'Naoura', leaves us no
other alternative, it is clear, then, that by this time the
Chera dominions had come to embrace the South Canara
District in the West Coast.
As regards the next sovereign, Atu-Kotpattu-Chera-
latan, it might be urged that ho, being a brother of Kalan-
kaykkapani Narmudi Choral of the previous generation,
should be placed with the latter in that generation and
not where he now stands. Two considerations, however, have
weighed with me in the present disposition. First, his
regnal years which come to 38 according to Patirrup-
patlu exceed those of his predecessor by 13 years and
cover more than the normal period of a generation, viz., 25
years; and secondly, the previous generation has already
two Chera kings of one and the same family wielding sway
and nothing would be gained by overcrowding that gene-
ration with too many rulers. Further, Vel Kelu Kuftu-
van's reign according tu PaiirruiJ^ulLu extended over 55
years, that ib, it practically covered a little over two gene-
rations. Even if we allow that as un exceptional case, the
G 18
188 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TAMILS.

reigns of both Kalankaykkanni and Atukotpattu Cheral

would in succession slightly exceed that figure and come
to only 63 years. Moreover, th arrangement of the
poems in Patirruppattu does not seem to be arbitrary.
It follows a chronological order in respect of the two lines
of the Cher a kings therein treated, Udiyan Cheral 's
descendants claiming the s'econd, third, fourth, fifth and
sixth 'Tens' in order and Antuvan Cheral 's successors, i.e.,
the Karuvur or eastern branch, being given the seventh

eighth and ninth

'
Tens' of that work. By this als'o, Atu
Kotpattu Cheral has to come at the lower end of the
western branch of the Cheras. In these circumstances I
preferred fixing Atukotpattu Cheral 's reign to the gene-
ration of Karikalan the Great.
The name of this Chera king furnishes another inter-
*

esting instance of a curious Etymological Myth'. This

particular sovereign derives his name evidently from his
1

practice of celebrating his victories in the battle-field by

a war dance with drawn uplifted swords in which he also
took part with the common soldier. This is clear from
the following references in Patirruppattu:

Patirru., S. 52.
0U/1 (GKILJil
(Lpff&tk gp6B)6ULU
'

j$
ufflssr
QurreowQiBiTiy.
bQ U(TFj

Patirru, S. 56.

Patirru, S. 57.
The first extract describes an incident in the life of
this Cheru king and refers to a fine situation it
brought
about. The Chera queen, being desirous of
welcoming
 THE TEN GENERATIONS. 189

back her lord from the battle-field with all joyous ostenta-
tion, was holding in her hand the crimson Kuvalai flower
to pelt him with, as a mark of her love and regard. To her
great consternation however she found her royal spouse
approaching her engaged in the unsightly dance and had to
desist from carrying out her tender plan. With these literary
memorials before us there can hardly be any two opinions
on the significance of his name 'Atukotpattu Cheralatan*.
And yet we find later-day myth-makers missing the key
of explanation, and coining a story to suit the phrase
Atukol (^(SG^n er ) which uufortiunately means 'capture
of sheep' also. Forthwith the story of capturing a flock
of sheep in the forest of Dandakaranya was brought into

shape in all its details and even the destination and dis-
tribution of th,e herd were therein specified with absolute

precision !

O X'l L
l&jEg$ LI IJiTH UL IfT II
vi'QdS

Patigam to Patirru., VI.

To make
the gift of sheep acceptable to the Brahmin-

donees, a village each and also cows were added. How

incongruous that a great king like the then Chera sove-
reign should go all the way to Dandakaranya to wage war
for a flock of sheep and how more incongruous that
still

this petty incident should

1

have been considered dignified

enough for perpetuation in the cognomen of the king! With
all itsludicrousness this story is even now passed on as
serious history by certain school of scholars, who h#ve no
excuse for being so uncritical in examining later literary
data. Although foreign to the purpose on hand I have
dealt with this incident as a typical case, to show how
valuable historical truths in ancient Tamil history should
sometimes be dug out of the worthless debris heaped on
them by the myth-makers of later generations. Turning
to the subjectproper we find the poetess Kakkaipatiniyar
Naccellaiyar, who appeared in the previous generation,
composing one of the 'Tens' in the "Ten Tens" in honour
140 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

of this particular Chera king. This fact gives us an addi-

tional linear link.

42. One Irungovel said to have been conquered by

is

Karikalan the Great, according to the

The chiefs.
account in Pattinappdlai. This appella-
tion does not seem to be a proper name. It may be taken

as a generic title for all the chiefs of 'Irungo'.

If so, a chief of that line in all probability may
be considered as the person to whom Kapilar is

reported to have taken Pari's daughters for arrang-

ing their marriage, supposing that event to be
historical. Two other officers, whoso titles indicate that

they were commanders hi th,e employ of the great Chola

king, Enadi Tirukkilli, and Enadi Tirukkuttuvan, appear to
have flourished in this generation. Karikalan the Great
seems to have instituted titles of honour to be bestowed
on his and, from this, one could well read the far-
officers

sighted policy pursued by that monarch for the first time

to win and hold the affection and attachment of his' officers.
Like Napoleon this great, warrior of the Tamil country,
who had definitely embarked on a policy of conquest of
the surrounding territories, seems to have surrounded
himself with a select company of gifted warriors like him-
self and by their aid carried out all his plans of conquest
1

to a victorious close. It was during his reign that those

troublesome northerners, the Aruvalars, who could not
meekly submit to the Chola yoke but rose now and then
in open rebellion, were finally subjugated and made peace-
ful citizens of the state. By a steady policy of colonising
the land with settlers drawn from his old subject popula-
tion even more than by the might of his arms did he carry
out. the great object of reclaiming the forest kingdom
of Arcot to the ranks of civilized
1

life. The Pallava rulers

who appeared in this theatre later on had only to build on
the foundations securely laid by this great Chola ruler and
to complete the work begun by him at least three centuries
earlier.
 THE TEN GENERATIONS. 141

It will be seen that the names of poets, Karikkannanar

of Kavirippattiuam and Madalan Madn-
Iiink-names.
raikkumaranfir of Ericcilur serve as
lateral links, and Madalan Maduraikkumaranar again and
Damodaranar, a physician of Uraiyur, supply the linear
links with the succeeding generation.

THE SEVENTH GENERATION.

CEDCENNI NADAM-KILLJ PERIOD.

43. When Karikalan the Great died, the empire he

The Choia line: built up was not allowed to quietly
cedcenni Na- nto t jie hands of his son and
lam-killi Ha-
pass j
(alias)
vantikaippaiii- successor. The old Cenni-Killi rivalry

king hi mself had to

tunciya.Nalam-killi. which the greaf
face and overcome before he came to
the throne appears to have again cropped up. It was only
driven underground for a time by the genius' of
Karikalan the Great whose military power and statesman-
ship wore? of too high an order to bo set at naught by
his rivals. But no sooner was the strong arm of that
monarch removed than the forces of disorder skilfully
engineered by the claimants of the Killi line made them-
selves felt in an open 'war of succession'. Nednm-killi,
the leader of the Killi family, contested the throne with
Karikalan 's son Codcenni Nalam-kilji who was evidently
staying at Kavirippattinam at that time. Nedum-killi was
besieged at Uraiyur by Nalam-killi, and Kovur Kilar, an
eminent poet, seems to have intervened to bring about a
friendly understanding between the contending princes'.
His stanza composed for the occasion admits us to the
inwardness of events in that critical period of Chola
history. Kovur Kilar appeals as follows to the sense of
family prestige and the tie of family affection which the
combatants might still possess:
142 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

r
pi
ii
\Seup

irssrssr

lLja/fiB)JS

Pwram., #. 45.

That the fighting princes were not brothers is plain

enough from the poet's words. If th,ey were, he would have
strongly driven home his by condemning a
arguments
fratricidal war. All that the poet could urge was that
both the princes belonged to the Chola family and wore
the atti garland as a token of that descent. Further, the
poet had such a keen sense of justice and fair play that
he distinctly avoided being, a partisan of any one prince
in the struggle. He knew each had as good a title as the
other for the throne. Nedum-killi, probably a descendant
of Vol-pahrtadakkai-Peruvirarkilli, was a scion of the
royal house founded by Titian, the captor of Uraiyur. He
had a right by direct descent from the founder of the
Uraiyur throne. On the other hand, Cedcenni Nalam-
kijli was the son of Karikalan II and grands'on of Uruva-

pah-ter-Ilancedcenni, both these previous rulers having

been in actual possession of the throne of Uraiyur and
done much for the expansion and development of the Chola
kingdom. Thus Nalam-killi had a right by virtue of
descent from the two immediate dc facto rulers of
Uraiyur.
When the individual rights of the warring princes were
so nicely balanced, Hie poet could not take
up the cause
of either party and sacrifice his own sense of
justice. As
a matter of fact, the poet appears to have
adopted a
middle course and condemned neither for
putting forward
a claim to the throne. So far as that was
concerned, he
put them on the same level but deprecated their fight as
affecting family prestige and honour and as giving a fillip
to the other kings to gloat over their
dissensions. Thus
 THE TEN GENERATIONS. 143

then Kovur Kilar 's stanza throws a flood of light on the

Cenni-killi rivalry I have alluded to in a previous
section of this work. Whether the poet's appeals
had any effect inpouring oil over the troubled waters
of that domestic warfare we do not know; nor is any
glimpse afforded us about the conditions which brought
Cedcenni Nalam-killi to the throne. That he was the im-
mediate successor of Karikalan the Great admits of little
doubt. Four poets attached themselves to him, viz.,
Madalan Maduraikkumaranar of Ericcilur, Mudukannan
Cattail ar of Uraiyur, Alattur Kilar and Kovur Kilar and
have left memorials in their verses of his courage and
The " Seven
heroism. signal victory of conquering the
Forts" (orQtpifldrt stands to the credit of this king. It
would be incorrect to suppose that the Seven Forts were
wrested from the Pandiya king of that time. The prob-
abilities are that the forts should have been in possession
of the forestchiefs, whose territories still lay between
the Chola and the Paudiya kingdoms and should have
been captured from them,. Even at a still later stage in
the Pandiya history we hear of Ukkira Peruvaludi storm-

ing the great fort called 'Kfmappercyir. Such skir-

mishes indulged in by the Tamil rulers now and then show
that within Tainilagam itself, as in its northern borders,
there were still a number of Naga chieftains stubbornly

resisting the Tamil kings and maintaining their ancient

independence under the shelter of their skilfully -con-
structed forts and earthworks.

Nedum-killi who died al Kariyuru and Killi-VaJavan

who breathed his last at Kurappalli were two other Chola
princes of this time, about whom Kovur Kilar has* left
some verses. These princes must have been prevailed
upon to acquiesce in Nalam-killi 's mounting the throne.
I am inclined to hold that this politic ruler after estab-

lishing himself on the throne must have assumed the name

Nalam-killi, the good Killi, along with his original name
Cedcenni to prevent the recurrence of such
family
144 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EABLY TAMILS.

1
squabbles in the future. Since this memorable reign the
ancient distinctions of Cenni and Killi have been obli-
terated and the hatchet of that obscure family feud buried
for ever. If the Cilappadikaram epic could be credited
with containing some shreds of true tradition in the

highly imaginative fabric of its story, Vel Kelu Kuttuvan

might be taken to have intervened in bringing about an
amicable settlement in this war of Chola succession. To
render such an intervention possible, we have to assume
that Vel Kelu Kuttuvan [(alias) Chenkuttuvan according
to Cilappadikaram] lived a little lower down the gene-
rations as arranged in the Tables. Both he and his father
Neduncheralatan, who are given very long reigns by
Patirruppattu, i.e., 55+58=113 years, should be made to
cover at the least four generations in order that Vel
Kelu Kuttuvan might be in a position to help his brother-
in-law Nalam-killi. How far that could be allowed is a
point wherein even scholarly opinions must legitimately
differ.

44. Another great warrior appears in the Pandiya

line in this generation. He takes a
The Pandiya line: surname by the famous victory won
by him at Talaiyalankanam. He was
Nedunceiiyan,
Nedun~
quite a youth when he succeeded his
(alias)
ceiiyan in. father Mudukudumi and this circum-
stance seems to have tempted the other
sovereigns and chieftains to measure swords with him
and share his kingdom. Though young in years Ne^un-
celiyan IIIhappened to be more than a match, for the
enemy-confederacy and on the plains of Talaiyalan-
kanam, probably somewhere near Ni^amangalam in the

(1) Compare Hie following verses:

sijF) ise^isiQeir&fi''

Puram., S. 27.

*iT^Q)Br
Purani., S. 225.
 THE TEN GENERATIONS. 1*6

Taiijore District, routed their combined armies and won a

brilliant victory. Four poets, Kalladanar, Kudapula-
viyanar, Edaikkimriir Kilar and Marikudi Kilar, have cele-
brated the character and achievements of this hero, of
whom Mahkudi Kilar, otherwise known as Maiikudi
Marudan, has also Maduraikkdnei, one of
composed
the "Ten Idylls" in his honour. Like Karikalan the Great,
whose example he seems to have emulated, Neduiiceliyan
III became a great patron of the poets. In one of his
poems for apparently he had also courted thje Muses' he
vows that an> failure on his part to overcome his enemies
should make him lose the high honour of being sung by
Mankudi Marudau and other poets of his court:

Puram., S. 72.

Those give some idea of the literary tastes of this king

and his poetic proteges. The name of hiis capital Kudal,
undergoes a transformation and puts on probably from this
time or perhaps from Mudukudumi's period, the Sanskrit
garb 'Mathurfi'. At thai period Mathura in North
India was' an important strongliold of the Jains and the
firstimportation of the name into the south may have
been under the Jaina auspices. Fiul literary texts do not
contain any direct c\ idence on this point. As suggested
already, the history of religion should be taken up sepa-
rately and studied in its entirely before we can hope for
any reliable results in that direction.
None of poets of this Pandiya king, however,
the
happens to sing of any other sovereign in this generation/
1

Their isolation would have been really perplexing in locat-

ing the victor of Talaiyalaiikanam, if we had not other
resources at our command. The testimony of Maduraik-
kaiici is positive in fixing the anteriority of Nilam-taru-
tiruvil-Pan^liyan and Mudukutfumi Peruvaludi to Ne^ufi-
018
1*6 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TAMILS.

celiyan III. Another circumstance also has been

found helpful in deciding the matter. It will be seen that
the next Pandiya king llavantikaippalli-tunciya-Nan-
maran is sung by two poets, Karikkannanar of Kavirip-
pattinam and Marudan Ilanaganar. Since one Karik-
kannanar of Kavirippattmam appears in th.e previous
generation as a contemporary of Velliyambalattu-tuiieiya-

Peruvaludi, it is but natural to place llavantikaippalli-

tunciya-Nanmaran in closest proximity to the Velli-

yambalattu-tunciya-Peruvaludi's generation. But I have

purposely refrained from that arrangement for this weighty
reason: that ilavantikaippalji-tunciya-Nanmaran being sting-
by Marudan llanagan, a son of Mankudi Marudan, the
poet should necessarily follow the generation of the victor
of Talaiyalaiikanam to whose court was attached the

father-poet Mankudi Marudan. As a necessary result of

this disposition the Karikkannaii, who appears in the third

generation from that of his namesake

probably a grand-
father of his is designated in the Tables as Karikkannan
II. Thus Mankudi Marudan by his known relationship
with Marudan llanagan and also by his poem Maduraik-
kdfici has helped us in fixing the place of the victor of

Talaiy&lankanam in the Tables with tolerable certainty.

45. The double line of the Chera kings, who are cele-
brated ralirruppatlu having come
in
The Ohera line: to a close by the previous generation,
Oheraman Kut-
tuvan Kodai. the Chora who appear in this and
t*

succeeding generations should stand

only on the evidence of the four primary works I have
already referred to. Clieraman Kuttuvan Kodai finds his
place in this generation by the verse of poet Madalan
"Maduraikkumaranar in Puram., S. 54. He does not
call for any special remarks.

46. Among the chiefs, Nakkirar's verse (Agam., S.

36)
8 ives us Titi yan II, Elini III,
m.4 *
Oaieis. __ __ Irungovel
II and Erumaiyuran, as the opponents of
 THE TEN GENERATIONS. M7

Nedunceliyan III at the Talaiyalankanam battle. Of

these, Titiyan II taken as the successor of Atiyan
may be
of the Pothiyil kingdom and he probably took advantage
of the confederacy to see whether he could get out of the

Pandiya yoke. But the independence his predecessor had

1

lost could not be won back from so formidable a foe as

Nedunceliyan III. Talaiyalankanam battle appears to
have set its final seal on the fate of the once powerful Aayi
kingdom. Poet Kalladanar's references bring into view
a number of chieftains. Ambar Kilan Aruvandai (Puram., S.

385), Poraharrukilan, (Puraw., S. 391), and Pnlli, the chief

of the Kalvar Vonkata Hill (Af/am., S. 83),
Iribes in tho

may be assigned to this generation. Mankudi Kilar in

Puraw., S. 396, sings of one Elini Atan of Vattaru and he
too may belong to this period. One Pittan of Kudirai-
malai sung by two po^ts, Damodaranar, the physician
of Uraiyur (Puraw., 8. 170) and Vadama Vannakkan
Damodaranar (Puraw., S. 172), should find a place here.
It will be seen hereafter that this Piftan was succeeded in
the next two generations by Pittan Korran probably his
son and thereafter by Pittan IT probably his grandson. To
distinguish Pittan of this generation, the grandfather,
from Pillan, the grandson, I have designated them as
Pitman T and Piltan II respectively.

This generation is internally held together by three

lateral link-names, viz., Kalladanar,
Mankudi Kilar and Kovur Kilar; the
linear-links connecting ii with the next generation being
also three. The known parental relationship of Mankudi
Kilar alia* Mankudi Marndan with Marudan Ilanagan
is one of them. And the remaining two are Alattur Kilar
and Kdvilr Kilar, whose lives overlap into the next gene-
ration. Among the chiefs, Pittan being succeeded by
Pittan Korran and Elini Atan by Atan Elini may also
supply subsidiary linear-links, if their relationship is
properly understood and assumed.
148 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS,

THE EIGHTH GENERATION.

KTTLAMTJBRATTIT-TUNCIYA-KILLI-VALAVAN PERIOD.
47. How Killi Valavan, the next Ch5la king, was
related to his predecessor is nowhere
* tated or oven hinted Yet we ma y infer
'

tunciya-Kim- from his name for names supply im-

Vaiavan.
portant information of relationship in

respect of Tamil kings that he was tho son of Nalam-killi

and grandson of Karikalan the Great, who also was known
as Pernm-tiru-Mavalavan or Valavan simply without any
of those adjuncts. In his patronage of poets, Killi Vajavan

appears to have surpassed all the other kings of

his lino or even of tho other linos. So many as ten
poets, of whom Idaikkfidar 1 was one, gathered round
him and addod to the brilliance of his court. True to his
descent he proved himself a worthy successor of the great
Karikalan and carried the war to the gates of Chera's*
capital city. He is reported to have laid siege to Karuvur
and reduced the Chora power to insignificance. The con-
temporary Chera king, Chora of the Elephant Look', who
'

had already Buffered defeat and imprisonment by the

Pfindiya victor of Talaiyalankanam, should have been dis-
possessed of his throne for some time by this great Chola
rival. An incident throwing a flood of light into the autocra-
tic ways of these early kings may be mentioned here. This

great warrior and patron of letters was on the point of

executing the unoffending children of Malaiyaman, prob-
ably a descendant of Malaiyaman Tirumudi Kari of the
fourth generation, when Kovur
Kilar, one of the leading
poets of his court, intervened and by a pathetic appeal
prevented the great king from blotting his escutcheon by
such an act. The timely intervention of the poet does
honour to this day to his great heart as well as to the
noble profession he belonged to. Further biographical
details of this king are omitted as they are not pertinent
to our purpose.

(1) Vide Appendix VII: Note on Poet Idaikkadar.

 THE TEN GENERATIONS. 149

48. The PSndiya line for this period shows' the

existence of two kings, viz.,
Nanmaran,
The Pandiya line: who died at Ilavantikaippalli and
CD navantikaip- Maran Valudi, who died at Kudakaram.
palli'tvnciya*
Nanmaran. Their relationship with their prede-
(2) Kudakarattu-
cessor the victor of Talaiyalankanam,
tunciya Maran
Valudi. cannot be known. Both of them appear to
have enjoyed the rule and may have
succeeded to the throne at short intervals. Of these,
Nanmaran was sung by as many as five poets, Marndan
Tlanagan, the son of Mfmkndi Kilar of the previous gene-
ration, celebrating him as well as the other Pfmdiyan who
1

died at Kfidakfiram. This is why both these rulers have

been assigned to one and the same generation. Karikkan-
nfir TI of Kuvirippattinam. another poet of this generation,

should be kept distinct from his namesake of the period of

Karikalan the Great. Due might suggest that these two indi-
viduals should bo and shifted to the centre
merged into one
of the previous generation so as to allow him to slightly

overlap the preceding and succeeding generations. But

such a shifting would leave the poet unconnected with the
other personages of that generation. Hence T have chosen
to leave each of these names
to the generation to which it
1

rightly belongs and thus avoid the confusion which might

otherwise arise.

49. The Chera of 'the Elephant look 5 who succeeded

to the Cher a throne after a series of
The cmera line: reverses appears to have been sung in
hi h strai ns by four contemporary
porai, (alias) Man- poets, Kuruiikoliyur Kilar, Kudalur
Wa
porai. Kilar, Poruntil IlankTranar and Vada-
ma Vannakka Peruncattanar. Their
descriptions of their hero must, however, be taken with
some reserve; for during his time both the Chola
and Pandiya thrones were occupied by great warriors
against whom he could not have made any headway. The
Chera line had already begun to show signs of exhaustion
150 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

and its symptoms and causes need not be gone into at

present.

50, Among the chiefs of this generation, Cirukudi

^Kilan, by name Pannan, claims special
The Chiefg.
Mention. The great king K^ Valavan
himself has composed stanza in his honour (Puram.,
a
S. 173). Some four other poets have also glorified him
in their verses.Pittan Korraii of Kudiraimalai, probably
a son of Pittan of the previous generation, also comes' in
hero. probably a son of Elini Atan of the
Atari Elini,

preceding general ion, should bo brought in here according

to Aiyiir Mndnvanar's verso in Agam.. S. 216. Taman
Tanrikkon or Tonrikkon was another chief of this
period. T have given those chieftains as no bettor than
1

mere literary names for the present. They will become

historical only when the geographical position of their
torritorios becomes definitely fixed.

This gonoratiori contains tho largest number of link-

namos, both lateral and linear. The
Link-names. i

Interest connection
1*11
is supplied by
(1) Vadama Vannakkan Poruiicnttanar, (2) Marudan
Tlanfiganar, (3) Mudavaniir of Aiyiir, (4) Mulam
Kilar of Avur, (5) Nappasalaiyar of Marokkam, and
(6) Kovur Kila,r; and tho linear-links with the next gene-
ration by (1) Mulam Kilar of Avfir, (2) Marudan Ilana-
ganar, (3) Nakklrar, and (4) Tayan Kannanar of
Erukkadu.

THE NINTH GENERATION.

RA.TASUYAM VETTA PERUKARKILLI PERIOD.
51. The noxt Chola king was the great Narkilli, who
celebrated the Rajasuya sacrifice. He
The ohoia line: seems to bear the namo of his grand-
Eajasuyam Vetta
Perunarkiiii. father Nalaim-kilh and may be taken
as having succeeded to the prosperous*

empire his father Killi Valavan had consolidated by his

 THE TEN GENERATIONS. 151

war and policy. The Chola power must have risen nearly
to its zenith for thisking to have performed the great
Rajasuya sacrifice, which is generally performed only by
great conquerors or empire-builders. Avvaiyar, the
famous poetess, celebrates this sacrifice in a stanza

(Pur&m., 367) which has a definite chronological value.

fc>.

She blesses therein the kings who attended that function

and the editor adds the valuable note thflt Ukkira
Peruvaludi, the conqueror of Kanappereyil, and Oheraman
Mari Vanko, or Mari Venko or Ma Vanko were the royal
guests on thai occasion:

L/eynrtui dS/rswr/L-dS

The above are the closing lines of her benediction.

The synchronism conveyed by this poem is strengthened
by the references of the other pools too. As there is little
1

to add about this royal celebrant of the Yaga, 1 shall pass

on to the I^ndiya line.

o Two Pfmcliya kings appear again in this gene-

ration. Their relationship with the
Pfu.ldiyans of the previous generaHio'n
The Pandiya line:

(i) Musiri Mur- [s nowh.cru slated. So many as five

n
*(2) Ukkira-Peru- poela sing of them but absolutely little
;

vaiudi, the con- o j; all y value could be

genealogical
queror of Kanap- .

pereyii. gathered Irom any ol their verses. The

king who tops the column
Pandiya
appears to have laid seige to Musiri of the Oheras and
won two poets, viz., Tayan Kannanar of
the praises of
Erukkadu and Nakklrar. Both these poets belong to the
previous generation loo. This circumstance would require
this king being taken to the preceding generation. But
152 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

certain other *
reasons have guided me to the present
arrangement. First, the suggested disposition would
bring about an unnecessary overcrowding of personages
in one generation. Secondly, the name 'Celiyan', how-
ever generic it might look, may still be supposed to have
a specific relation with 'Nedunceliyan' which seems to
alternate in the Pandiya line till this point in the Tables.
And thirdly, the poets Nakklrar and Tayan Kannanar,
though appearing in the
eighth generation, should be
assumed to have lived as well into the ninth. As a matter
of fact Nakklrar 'H name stands coupled with that of
another king Clieramuii Ko Kodai Marpan who distinctly
belongs to the ninth, generation only. Taking all these
into account 1 deemed it not only expedient but
proper
*
to keep the besieger of Musiri' to the ninth, generation.
1 have not found anything to enable me to identify him
with any other Pandiyan in the line. 1 considered it safer,
therefore, to give his name a separate entry till further
light is thrown oil him by future research.

Ukkira Peruvaludi, an accomplished poet himself (vide

1

his poem, stanza 26 in Agcmaniiru), receives the

poetic tri-
bute of Mulam-kilar of Aiyur (in Puram., S. 21) and Katu-
van Ik Mallanar
(in Narrinai, S. 150). His relentless war
against Veiikai Murpuii, the chieftain of Kanappereyil, and
his reduction of tli,at fortress have received the high
praises of the poets. If this king had any hand in the
organisation of a Sangam or
in patronising uny of the
collections of the Sanganj works, the
contemporary poets
would have been the first to sing his praises for such an
honour conferred on letters. Their testimony, on the other
hand, is sadly 'lacking and hence the Saugam hypothesis
sh ould stand unsupported by
;
contemporary evidence.

(1) Of the kings who appear in the Hynehronistie Tables, this is the
onlj ruler whoso name appears in the Sanskrit
garb. Very likely it may
be a translation, done at the time of the redaction of the
poems, of the
Tamil appellative Kay Cilia Vajudi
(;7ujr
&,w&) which happens to
figure also in the Sangam legend.
 THE TEN GENERATIONS.

53. It has been already remarked that the Chera

king Ma-Venko or MSri-Vanko was
oue of the royal guests on the occasion
Mari-vanko. of the Bajasuya sacrifice of Perunaj-
!* The name of this khl S is 8tiU
involved in hopeless obscurity. It only
shows the imperfections of the manuscripts which have
1

transmitted it in all its variant forms. Another Chera king

by name Ko-K6dai-Marpan is referred to by Nakklrar in

Agam., S. 346, and by Poigaiyar in Puram., Ss. 48 and 49.
These two names may refer to the same king; but there is
nothing to confirm such an identification. I have, there-
fore, allowed the names to stand separately for the time

being. It is curious to note that Nakklrar in stanza

(Agam., has taken the trouble to record the glee of
S. 346)

Ko-K6dai-Marpan over a victory of Palaiyan Maran against

one Killi-Valavan but has not given us an idea of anything
else regarding that king.
54. Quite a large number of chieftains fill this gene-
The chieftains. ration. V<~nkai-Marpan of Kanappere-
yil, the opponent of Ukkira-Peruvaludi, and Adiyaman
Neduman Arid, the great chieftain and patron of Avvai-
yar, belong to this period.
1
From Anci, Avvaiyar is said to

(1) 1 have to raise mi import ant point of interpretation as regards a

particular reference to Paranar decidedly not a contemporary of Avvaiyar
in one of Avvaiyar's stanzas composed to celebrate Ariel's conquest of
liovalur. In Puram., S. 99, the following lines occur:

ar unif-soreer t&pQ&ircsr
i&( (o&rrsuQjfliT jpjfl&es
m ,&ifl Giu&fStu

The commentator of Puran&nKru in explaining the passage says that AT-

vaiyar actually refers to Anci as having been sung by poet Paranar on the Kdva-
lur victory. This is no doubt entirely wrong. The commentator has mistaken

C 20
154 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EAKLT TAMILS.

have undertaken a sort of political mission to another ruler

whom the editorial note identifies as Tondaiman. The occa-
sion of a visit to Tondaiman 's armoury was taken advant-
age of by Avvaiyar to compose a stanza in praise of the
war -like qualities of her own chief Anci. We should note
that the name Tondaiman 2 does not appear for a ruler in
any of the basic works, though the tribal name Tondaiyar
occurs. It may have come into use a little later. Perufi-

an interrogative sentence for an assertive one and has accordingly missed

to bring out the negative force of Avvaiyar 's question. Following the lead
of later grammarians, he takes mear in the phrase an expletive
LD/bQsrreo**
and Qsireo as expressing doubt. In early usage, LD&T imported certainty
and Qsrreo served merely as a question-mark. Whether Q*,Ta> actually implied
doubt or a positive state of the questioner's mind could be settled only from
the particular context in which the question occurs. Here the poetess clearly
wants to convey a negation by her interrogatory. Her statement stands
thus: "Even now, did Paranar (one of the greatest poets of by-gone days)
certainly sing of your great victory?" The implication is: 'No, he did not sing
for he is now
living; but. lesser poets like ourselves have sung about you as
not
best as we can, though we can hardly do justice to the greatness of your
achievement'. Only such an interpretation as this will rationalise the state-
ment in this stanza. If not, we shall have to hold Avvaiyar and Anci of
the ninth generation contemporaries of Paranar who lived somewhere between
the fourth and the fifth generation. One full century separates them accord-
ing to these Tables and it would be absurd to try to throw these personages

together on the strength of a misinterpretation of a literary text. For a

fuller discussion of the use and exact meaning of the particles wesf and Q&IT&)
vide Appendix Vlll: The Grammarians on the Significance of the Particles
u>esr and

(2) As I have elsewhere pointed out about certain tribal names, the
name Tomlaimiin too appears in a contracted form. The fuller name is
Tondaiyarmagan, i.e. t one who belongs to the tribe of the Tondaiyar. It was
extended to denote the ruler also. The derivation of tribal names from
those of individuals is a favourite method with some writers and all that
I cau say is that it is utterly against the facts of the history of early
communities. It took long for individuals to emerge as independent entities
from the early tribal or family organisations in which they had existed at
the beginning. That truth is enforced by the history of all ancient
In utter i'orgetlulnesa of this important truth some writers try
societies.
to trace the name 'Tondaiman' to one Adondai Cakravarti, as if the

Toi^Laiyar tribes did not exist before the birth of that individual whose histori-
city remains still to be established 1 Tondaimau was earlier known also as Tirai-
yan (vide Nakkirar in Agam., S. 340, and Kattur Kijar's son Ka^pantr in
Again-, 8. 85).Whether this Tondaiman could be identified with 'another
Tondaiman Ilantiraiyan appearing in the next generation should for the
present be left unsettled.
 THE TEN GENERATIONS. 166

cittiranar (Puram., S. 208) and probably also Nfigaiyfir,

daughter of Aficil Antai (Agam., 8. 352) sing of Adiyamfin

Anci. Kandan, who was generally known as Nancil Vallu-
van, the chieftain of NaScilnadu, receives the mention of
four poets, Marudan Ilanaganar, Avvaiyar, Orucirai Periya-
nar and Kanda-Pillai or Kadappillai of Karuvur. This
poet on ay be the son of Kanda-Pillai Cattanar, a poet of
the previous generation. Kumanan of Mudira Malai,
and Ilan-Kumanan, Veliman and Ila-Veliman and Periyan
of Poraiyaru, Ilan-Kandirakko and Ila-Viccikko crowd
into this generation. Most of them were sung by Perun-
cittiranar and Peruntalai Cattanar. The latter poet was
the sou of Avur Mulam Kilar of the previous generation
and forms an important linear-link. As I have remarked
already, these chieftains must remain, for the present,
more as literary characters than historical.
The lateral links for this generation are furnished by
Avvaiyar, Aiyur Mulam Kilar,
~ Uloccanar
Link-names.
and Peruncittiranar and the linear
connection with the next generation is brought about by
Avvaiyar, Poigaiyar, and Peruntalai Cattanar. shall We
now pass on to the tenth and last generation in the Tables.

THE TENTH GENERATION.

CHOLAN KO-CENKANNAN PERIOD.
55. The Chola king of this
1

generation is found
to be
Ko-Cenkannan, red-eyed "the
The choia line: Chola
" ", according to the translators' of
Ko-Oenkannan. . . _T , . ...
..
,

his name. He stands connected with

the previous generation by poet Poigaiyar. This poet,
tradition assures us, composed a poetical work called
Kalavali Narpatu, celebrating the victories of this war-
like hero and at the same time procuring from him the

Chera king, Cheraman Kanaikkal-Irumporai.

release of the
The prefatory note appended to stanza 74 of Purcmanuru
by itsold commentator does not, however, tally with this
tradition. Th,e note gives us the additional information
156 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

that the battle between Ko-Cenkannan and the Chera king

Kanaikkal-Irumporai took place in Tiruppor, probably
For before referred to, that the Chera king was taken
prisoner and incarcerated at the fortress of Kudavayil-kot-
tam and that he chose to die there rather than face the mi-
sery and humiliation of an imprisoned life. Between a vague
tradition and a literary text I would prefer the latter for
authenticity in details. The weakness of traditions, as a
class, lies in their details. How these vary, from time to
time and from mouth; to not necessary to
mouth, it is

relate. So, I think we may safely follow the version of the

story as transmitted to us by the commentator of Pura-
ndnuru and hold that Kanaikkal Irumporai had to meet
with his sad end in his captive condition. Whether Kala-
1

vali Narpatu did actually lead to the liberation of the

Chera king or not, the synchronism implied in the tradi-
tion and openly stated in the note may well be accepted as
historical truth.

Kalingattupparani, a later work, in its' poetic account

of the ancient Chola kings, stops with this king, Ko-
Cenkannan and we too have to stop with him for the
present. It will be within the
knowledge of our readers
1

that this last Chola appears in the works of a later period

and plays the part of a great Saiva devotee and a grand
builder of fanes to Siva. Many myths gather round his
name for which readers may be referred to Periya-
purdnam.
56. I have to leave the Pandiya line blank for this

want
The Pandiya

of
line.
generation.
wanf Qf ^^
guidance from link-names.
It
j
is

n ^not on account
dynagty but for
of

Poets like Cittalai

Cattanar and Pereyil Muruvalar sing of certain Pandiya
kings but I cannot make use of them for the simple reason
;

that none of these shows any

relationship with one any
in the Tables. There is further the Ko-Pei*uncholan
Arivudai-Namlji Synchronism which too stands apart and
defies rational inclusion in these Tables,
Realising to the
 THE TEN GENERATIONS. 157

full how the value of the Tables would be affected by the

introduction of doubtful names I have refrained from
filling up the blank of the Pandiya line in this generation.
Future research, let us hope, will open the way to solve
the present difficulty. For this, if for no other reason, the
existence of the difficulty should be definitely acknowledged
and not glossed over.

57. Though the fates have not been kind to the

Chera king Kanaikkal-Irumporai, his
The ohera line: character, spirit, and high sens'e of
Kanaikkal-Irum- , , ,-.-.,
honour stand ennobled by a single poem
.1
^
of his included in the Purarianuru
collection. Rather than leading an abject inglorious life
in captivity, ho seems to have embraced death by starvation
the earliest instance of non-violent non-co-operation
we find recorded in Tamil literature. Poet Poigaiyar
alludes to him in Narrinai, stanza 18. Judging from the
surrounding circumstances the great Chera family of
kings appears to have gone under an eclipse in this gene-
ration and the thread of their story too seems to break
just here. And in another two centuries this ancient family
became thoroughly dismembered. 1
58. Only two chieftains deserve mention, vis., Elini
IV or
Adiyaman Pokuttelini, the son
The chiefs.
of Ad i yaman Neduman Aiici of the

previous generation and another, by name Muvan. Poet

Peruntalai Cattanar in Puram., S. 209, administers a
gentle rebuke to this latter chieftain for having put off
giving the presents due lo him. Muvan by a strange
fatality had also to undergo a singular though painful
experience. Kanaikkal-Irumporai, the Chera king, seems
to have fought and humbled him and even went to the
extent of extracting his teeth, carrying them to his capital
Tondi and displaying them on his gates as a trophy of
his victory.This barbarous act must undoubtedly have
been done under some strong provocatiqn of which noth-

(1) Vide Sir Walter Elliot's Coins of Southern India, p. 61.

158 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TAMILS.

ing, however, stated in the poem. Poet Mamulanftr in

is

Agam., S. 211, alludes to a much earlier chief Matti of

Kalar of the second generation in the Tables performing
the same operation upon an enemy of his, Elini I.
Perhaps the conditions of that early time were so primitive
as to permit some to indulge in such personal violence and
favour others to 'belaud it as a mark of heroism in the
assailant !

One Tondaiman Ilantiraiyan appears here as* the ruler

of Venkadam. He was sung by Poigaiyar and also is the
hero of a longpoem Perumpanarruppadai by poet Kadi-
yalur Eudran Kannan II. This poet may be a descendant of
Eudran-Kannan I of the period of Karikalan the Great.
As already stated the question arises whether this Ilan-
tiraiyan was the same individual as the one whom, Avvaiyar
met in a political mission from Anci. The probabilities are
against such an identification.
59. The continuation of the Tables beyond the tenth

generation becomes impossible for the

Retrospect and present
by the absence of link-names to
guide In the Pandiya line nine
us.

kings have come into the TaJbles. Three Pandiya rulers 1

Cittiraimadattu-tunciya-Nanmaran, Arivudai-Nambi, and

Ariyappadai - Kadanta - Nedunceliyan stand out. In
the Chola line, thirteen kings have been brought
into the Tables leaving only two rulers Nalluruttiran
and Ko-Peruncholan for future inclusion, if possible.
And in the Chera line sixteen Ch,era kings find
a place in the Tables while only four, Kottampalattu-
tuneiya-Ch,eraman, Atan-Avini, Cheraman Palai-Padi-
ya-Perunkadunko, and Cheraman Vatican are left
out. Thus, on the whole, the Tables have synchronised
about thirty-eight sovereigns of the three dynasties put
together as against nine rulers in yet remaining for
all

synchronisation. Evidently these were all later kings.

There need hardly be any doubt that some at least of them
might transcend ttye period covered by the Tables and in- go
 TEN GENERATIONS. itt

to any higher antiquity. The very nature and "Conditions of

the earliest rulers in each dynasty do not at all permit
any such arrangement. As for interposing any of them
into the body of the Tables themselves, that too stands
ruled out. The chronological frame-work is so inter-
connected and close-knit that there is hardly any room for
filling in. These difficulties then only make it too clear
where to look for in locating the remaining kings relatively
to these Tables,
 III.

CHRONOLOGY.
THE PROBABLE DATE OP THE TEN GENERATIONS.
60. Let us take stock of what has been primarily
accomplished in the foregoing Tables.
Preliminary*
A goodly number of the personages and
events of ancient Tamil history that have till now been
hanging together as a close-packed cluster in the distant
perspective of time have been hereby separated and dis-
tributed in a chronological frame-work importing their
natural order of co-existence and succession and extend-
ing over a period of about two centuries and a half. Dr.
Vincent Smith wrote: "A sound fraime-work of dynastic
annals must be provided before the story of Indian religion,
literature and art can be told aright.
' '
In the application
of that dictum to South India, these Tables form the first
serious attempt to present such a * sound frame- work of
dynastic annals'. It is not too sweeping to say that
previous efforts in this field have one and all lacked this ini-
tialand absolutely necessary chronological scheme. Till now
one would find it extremely difficult to assert with con-
fidence whether a particular king or poet was or was not
the contemporary, predecessor or successor of another
king or poet. But the Tables here presented should
enable him now to give a tolerably definite and correct
answer on the point, at least for the earliest period in Tamil
literature.

61. The Ten Generations of kings, chieftains and

Belativo Chrono- P oets brought into the Tables stand so

logy of the Gene- interconnected
that, in the first place,
rations tutor so. . *
their relative chronology at least is
 DATE OP THE GENERATIONS. 161

hereby absolutely fixed.To whatever period of time in the

world-history these generations may be shifted, they have to
be shifted as a whole and not in parts. Thus these Tables,
even if they serve no other purpose, have at least irrever-
sibly fixed the relationship of ^pteriority and posteriority
among tlie various individuals and generations appearing
in them. By no effort, for instance, can one take Nakklrar
and Avvaiyar to the generations of Paranar and Kapilar;
nor can this latter couple be made to share the company
of fcJattantaiyar and Nakkaimaiyar. Even supposing that
the Synchronistic Tables did not help us in the least in

fixing the absolute period of time to which their system

as a whole should be assigned, their guidance in respect
of the relative chronology of some characters and
events in Tamil history has a value all their
own which -can hardly be underrated, especially
in view oi the chaos in which all their facts stand
plunged to this day. Nomain purpose
doubt, the
of this essay is to go more important
into the far
problem of settling the absolute chronology of these Ten
Generations and seek a satisfactory solution as far as the
available positive evidences would allow. Be the result
of that attempt what it may, the compelling character of
the testimony of the Tables in the more modest field of
relative chronology cannot in the least be doubted.

62.In passing on to the question of locating these

nofogyTSe'Sene:
rations. cincts of
^ ^
generations in some definite period in
WC V * at nC6 int the P re ~
a most contested field. I do
not want to pass in review the
attempts
that have been made till now to settle th.e
chronology of
the "Sangam" works and hence of these generation
it would take me a
good deal off the constructive
quiry I have proposed for this paper. I may, how
mention that most of the previous writers ha
the Cenkuttuvan-Gajabahu
Synchronism as
stone of their chronological structure. Their
C 21
162 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TAMILS.

can hardly lay claim to any higher validity than what

could reasonably be attached to the statements of two
such works as Cilappadikdram and Mahdvamso. How
historical facts may be twisted and torn out of their set-

ting under artistic and religious motives alid impulses

which inspire and dominate the two aforementioned works
need not be dwelt upon just now. Western scholars have
j^
hence shown a justifiable hesitation in accepting the
uncorroborated testimony of these works, which are more-
over admittedly very late productions for the period we
are in quest of. The chronology of ancient Tamil litera-
ture should be raised on more solid foundations than such
a double layer of quicksand as Cilappadikdram and
Mahdvamso. Is there then a more promising line of
whole question ?
1

approach to the

63. Luckily for us the early Greek and Roman

writers who have left a record of their
TheTestimony of observations of South India enable us
the early Greek and
Eoman writers. to tackle this problem with some hope
of success. Leaving aside the writers of
the Pre-Christian centuries I shall confine my attention to
the following three authors who appeared -close to one
another at the early centuries after Christ:
The author of the Periplus . . 70 A.D.
Pliny .. 77or78A.D.
Ptolemy .. 140A.D.
If Taimil chronology is raised on the testimony of
such writers as these, the haziness and uncertainty which
envelop it at present should vanish. Western scholars,
who are disposed to look askance at the statements of
Cilappadikdram and Malulvamso, could, on no account,
be tempted to question the veracity of the witnesses who
have been here cited for examination. The evidence of
such writers, if any, should carry conviction and compel
a verdict for its sound historicity. It is true that many
scholars have before this handled the works of these early
authors and drawn therefrom much valuable information
 DATE OP THE GENERATIONS. 168

regarding the commercial, social, and political condition^

of ancient Tamilagam. But none of them, as far as I can

remember, has utilized his information for a definite fixa-

tion of Tamil chronology; and this, I think, was more or
less due to an omission on their part to bring the relevant
facts contained in early Tamil literature and those in the
works of the European writers into a proximity for com-
parison and to make therefrom the necessary deductions.
To me a careful reading of these Greek and Roman
authors has disclosed an unmistakable clue for the fixation
of Tamil chronology on a and satisfactory basis'.
definite
And it is the conquest of the Aayi country by Pasumpun-
Pandiyan or Neduficeliyan IT of the Tables. The author
of the Periplus is definite in his reference to Travancore,
south of Neleynda, as the Pandiya country, with its capital
'Modoura' situated far inland from the coast. This was
about 70 A.I). Ptolem;. who gives his account about 70
,

years later, i.e., about 140 A.D., refers to the same part
of the country as the 'Aioi country'. Both these facts
open a new line of approach to settle the vexed question
of Tamil chronology.

The reference in the Periplus is plainly inapplicable

to the period Pasumpan-Pandiyan's* time.
preceding
Neither Ollaiyur-tanta-Putappandiyan, nor his predeces-
sor, the Pandiyan of Korkai, known as Neduficeliyan I,
had conquered the kingdom of the Aayi family of rulers.
Ollaiyur-tanta-Putappandiyan 's reference to Aayi Titiyan
of Pothiyil as "Pothiyil Selvan", the prosperous
lord of Pothiyil, shows, as has already been point-
ed out, that the kings of Pothiyil were inde-
pendent rulers at that period. Much less is there
any possibility of ascribing the victory against the Aayi
king to his predecessor, the Pandiya king of Korkai, who
could accomplish only the conquest of Kudal and establish
the Pandiya power there with a very limited dominion in
the vicinity of that city. Thus then we may safely con-
chide that,by the time of the Periplus, i.e., 70 A.D., Pasum-
164 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

pun-Pandiyan had effected the conquest of the Aayi

country. It is natural, therefore, to expect that the Aayi
country, having gone under the power of the PSndiyans,
should be known as the Pandiya country ever after that
conquest or if that period is uncertain, ever after 70 A.D.
But what do we find Ptolemy, who comes about 140
in
A.D.f He calls middle and south Travancore the Aayi
country. were taken as applying to the time of
If this
the independent line of the Aayi rulers, as Aayi Andiran,
Aayi Titiyan and Aayi Atiyan, who appear in the third,
the fourth and the fifth generation respectively in the
Tables, the reference in the Periplus should foe taken as
applying to a period three generations still earlier than
these. The testimony of ancient Tamil literature does
not, however, favour su-ch a supposition. Still, the signi-
ficance of Ptolemy's reference could be brought out in full

only if we kept it nearer the period of the Aayi's of early

Tamil literature as much as possible. The more and more
we move down the centuries, the less and less are the
chances of Ptolemy's reference becoming applicable to this
fact of ancient Tamil history. The connection of Ihe name
of the Aayi kings with the country ruled over by them
should naturally be expected to disappear as we descend
from the classical period to modern times.

The reign Pasumpun-Pandiyan gives us then the

of

upper beyond which the reference in the Periplus

limit
cannot be taken. Even supposing that the author of the
Periplus pens his account immediately after Pasumpun-
Pandiyan 's victory, i.^., fixing Periplus to the fifth gene-
ration, we have to place Ptolemy's account
shall then
somewhere about the eighth generation, Kulamurrattu-
tunciya-Killi-Valavan period. Though we are perfectly
free to bring down the reference of the Periplus to still
later generations, we
are precluded from that course by
the necessity of keeping Ptolemy's account to some period
quite adjacent to Pasumpun-Pandiyan 's victory. Even
after this conquest of the Aayi country, its original rulor
 DATE OP THE GENERATIONS. 166

or his descendant could very well have been in possession

of that territory as a vassal of the Pandiya king. And,
as a -matter of fact, we find one Titiyan, most probably of
Pothiyil (the Aayi country), .-joining a confederacy of
cert ain rulers against Talaiyalankanattu-Ceru-Venra
Pandiyan and fighting with him for regaining his
independence. Thus, it is but reasonable to suppose that,
in the generation immediately succeeding that of the

Talaiyalankanam victor, the Aayi country would still have

retained its original name and that Ptolemy did nothing
else than recording the name that must have persisted in
the mouth of the people, though in actual fact the country
had passed under the Pandiya rule by that time. The
value of this couple of references from the Greek writers
arises from their joint application to a fact brought out
in the Synchronistic Tables. Each reference, by itself, is
incapable of giving ns tiie necessary guidance. But when
taken together and applied to the Tables, they acquire a
distinct chronological value. Both, the references should
be kept very close to the period of Pasumpun-Pandiyan's
victory, in order that they might lose the edge of their
soeming contradiction. Consequently, locating the account
of the PcripluA in the earliest generation in the Tables to
which one can reasonably carry it, i.e., the fifth generation

or Uruva-pah-ter-Ilancedcenni period and marking it as

covering 50 A.D. to 75 A.I)., 1 have assigned the antece-
dent and subsequent generations to dates calculated from
1

the above and embodied the results in a tabular statement

given in the next page.
166 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EABLY TAMILS.

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 DATE OP THE GENERATIONS. lt

The distribution of the Ten Generations for the most

part to the first two centuries of the Christian era is
necessary not only because the two references from the
western writers fit in with the facts of that specific period
but are also incapable of being brought into relation with
those of any other century preceding or succeeding it.
After the victory of the Talaiyalankanam battle, where-
in Titiyan, in all probability Aayi Titiyan 11 of Pothiyil,
had fought by the side of the confederates to regain his

independence, the Pothiyil kingdoim appears to have been

broken up into petty chieftaincies and bestowed on the
vassals of the Pandiya overlord. Nedunceliyan III must
have realised the danger of allowing an extensive kingdom
be in charge of a single vassal, however
like Poth,iyil to
devoted he might be for the lime being to his sovereign.
The vassal might at any time throw up his allegiance and
defy the paramount power. So, Nedunceliyan III, a far-
sighted statesman that he was, must have parcelled out
the Pothiyil kingdom amongst a number of chieftains and
any future rebellion. Vattaru and
effectively prevented
Nancilnadu were portions of this kingdom bestowed on
Elini Atan and one Valluvan Kandan and these chiefs

appear in the generations immediately following the Talai-

yalankanam battle. The dismemberment of the Aayi
kingdom thus carried out would certainly render Ptolemy's
reference inapplicable to any century much subsequent to
that memorable fight.

64. Some may be inclined to view Ptolemy's reference

to the Aayi country as merely casual and
The Aayi Kings hold that that simple fact can scarcely
and their kingdom. _ _
be made to support the vast super-
structure of Tamil chronology. So completely have the
Aayi kings vanished out of later Tamil history and, so
insignificant a partdo they play even in the earlier, that
such doubts are quite possible arid even natural. But a
careful reading of the early Tamil works and a just appre-
ciation of the political conditions they disclose will establish
168 THE CHRONOLOGY OF TfiE EAEliY TAMILS.

beyond any reasonable doubt that the Aayis were an

illustrious and powerful line of rulers of that period and
that Ptolemy's reference to them was anything but acci-
dental. In approaching this early period we have to give

up all our later-day notions regarding the grandeur of the

three Tamil monarchies, which, 'by subsequent historical
vicissitudes, happened to till the stage of politics in South
India to the exclusion of the other powers. We have to
revise thoroughly our political conceptions imbibed from
modern Tamil literature and adjust our vision to other
luminaries in the political firmament of ancient Tamila-
gam. Then, we shall find, instead of three, five
major powers exercising sway over the southern-
hall of Peninsular India in those days. My authority
for this statement is contained in two of Asoka's
Edicts iiock Edicts, Nos. II and XIII which enumerate
the border states of the south, lying beyond Siddhapur,
in the Chitaldrug District of Mysore, the southernmost
limit of the Mauryan empire at tiiai time.
J
The Shahbaz-
garhi version of Edict X1I1 definitely mentions one Hida
Jiaja. It is significant to note that all the powers' except
Hicia Kaja have been given communal names, without the
mention of the name of any individual king of those com-
munities. The name ciatiyaputra \ evidently a later
*

Sanskritised formation from 'Satti MakkaP or 'Satti

(1) Asoka's .Rock Edict II (Tlie Shahbazgarhi version):

"Everywhere iii the
Empire oi' king Priyadarsin, beloved of the Gods,
as well as among those nations and princes such as the Ghodas, the Paindiyas
the Satiyaputra, the Koralapulra, Tambapauni, the Youa king, etc."

Epigraphia Indica, Vol. II, p. 466.

Rock Edict XIII (The Shahbazgarhi version):
t(
."and he called Alikasudra further iii the South where the
Chodas and Paiudas dwell as far as Tambapanni likewise where the Hida
King dwells. "vEpigiaphia ludica, Vol. II, p. 471.

The Giruar and Mausehra versions are in a mutilated

condition; the
Kalsi version has 'Hidalaja' ('!' being used for 'r'). The name 'Yona'
of Edict II is evidently a mislcction for
<
Hida > of Edict XIII. Between
Tambapanni and the TSamil States, it is impossible to interpolate a 'Yona

King'. There no doubt that the Hida Raja herein referred to was one
is

of the remote ancestors of the Aayi kings of Tamil literature.

 DATE OF THE GENERATIONS. 169

MakkaF, stands for a mixed tribe (a northern people mix-

ing with the forest tribes on the northern confines

of the Koiigu country) which was occupying Korigu
and Konkanam, adjoining the Klilmalai range, north
of the Coimbatoro gap. The Ghat to the south of this
Pass was known as the Pothiyil mountain and it was in
the possession of 'Hida' Raja, the king of the shepherds or
neatherds, the ancestor of the Aayi kings who figure in the
Tables. Besides these two -mountain or forest kings
the three Tamil agricultural communities find mention
in the Mauryan inscriptions. Any detailed treatment of
the political constitution of those communities is foreign
to this paper and cannot bo undertaken at pres'ent.
What Is significant for us to note in Asoka's inscriptions
is the specific mention of Hicla Rfija. The name 'Hida',
which to this day stands unidentified, is a northern

aspirated variant of the Tamil name 'Ida', 'Idaya',

'Idayar', a synonym of Aayar, which appears in the singu-
lar form as 'Aayi'. Thus we see the antiquity of the

Aayi kings, who are mentioned

the early Tamil litera-
in

ture, mounts up to 250 B.C., and possibly still earlier. And

their importance too is vouched for by the honour of a

separate mention in Asoka's enumeration of the South

Indian rulers. In the face of this valuable record of
ancient history, the attempt to belittle the significance of
Ptolemy's reference to the Aayi country is altogether
misdirected and also ill-informed. The story of the Aayi
kings belongs to one of the earliest chapters in Tamil
history, which remains yet to be written. The
glories of theirand even the fact of their
rule,
having ever
existed, have been buried deep under
the ruins of ancient monarchies which fell to pieces
before the destructive wars of the Tamil triumvirs. Be-
search has to patiently dig beneath the later accumula-
tions for the scattered facts which might enable it to

piece together in a manner the history of this lost line of

rulers. In these circumstances, any failure to attach due
weight to Ptolemy's reference would only prove our
C 22
170 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TAMILS.

inability to appreciate the political conditions of ancient

Tamilagam, all on account of the prepossessions engendered
in us by later literature, or rather by a peculiar interpreta-
tion of that literature by uncritical and historically-
obtuse commentators.
65. Aayi kings meet us in
-As already stated, three
the early Tamil poems, viz., Aayi

^
The Conquest. of* Andiran, Aayi
J Titiyan
J and Aayi Atiyan,
'

the Aayi country. who. were independent sovereigns of

Pothiyil. Another Aayi also, Eyinan,
appears in the second generation but he was a -commander
;

of the Choja forces and, may probaJbly have been a member

of a branch of that ancient family. It was in the
time of the third ruler Aayi Atiyan that the Pothiyil 3

dominion was invaded by Pasumpun-Pandiyan and annexed2

to his Kudal kingdom,. Ever after this, the Aayis seem to
have sunk to the level of PFmdiya feudatories and are
little heard of. No doubt, the family must have persisted
to much later times as wo meet with one Karunandadakkan,

probably an Aayi of the 9th century mentioned in the

Travancore Archaeological Scries. But the line never
seems to have regained the independent position it had lost
by the Pandiya incursion.
66. Though the fixation of time I have attempted in
this paper proceeds on the identification
certain Considera- of an historical fact, still it may be
te thlS Chron "
logy! urged that there is some arbitrari-
ness in making the date of the Periplus,
i.e. 9 70 A.D., fall within the generation of Pasumpun-

A) That Atiyan and Atiyamaii belonged to the shepherd or cowherd

family of kings is verified by the following entry in p. 141 of Duff's Chro-
nology of India: "Vishnu Yardhaua was aided in his conquests by Ganga-
raja of the Ganga family who, by conquering and putting to flight Adiyama
or Idiyama, a feudatory of the Chola, acquired the Gangavadi province."
Here "Adiyama" and " Idiyama " evidently stand for Atiyamaii or Atiyar-
magan and Idayainan or Idayarmagan respectively. This usage of the
12th century throws additional Jight on the earlier use of the name 'Hida Raja'
in the Bock Edict XIII of A a oka.
(2) Vide Appendix IX: Note on the Elephant-marked Coins of
for the numismatic evidence bearing on this question.
 DATE OF THE GENERATIONS. 171

Pandiyan. Although, the reference in the Periplu$ cannot

be taken to generations earlier than Pasumpun-Pan$i-
yan's, there is no reason why it could not be moved still
lower down. True, it could be moved much lower down
for many generations or even centuries; but such a pro-
cedure would necessitate taking Ptolemy's reference still

further down and rendering it utterly inapplicable to the

political conditions obtaining then. To be intelligible at
all, Ptolemy's reference should be held to apply to a
condition of affairs immediately following Pasumpun-
Pandiyan's victory. This at least will not brook any
indefinite shifting as the reference contained in the Peri-

pltts. Realising that the of the Aayi family of

memory
rulers and their country would have persisted for two or
three generations even after the Pandiyan 's conquest of
the Pothiyil country, I have located Ptolemy in the 8th
generation in the Tables. Although absolute precision
has not been obtained in the fixation of time, proceeding as
it does on such considerations, the error, if arfy there be,

would scarcely be more than a generation or two at the

highest. Allowing for that margin of error, we can safely
as'sert that thie lower end of the Tables will hardly admit

of being shifted below 250 A.D. That must be the utmost

lower limit beyond which, the Ten Generations cannot be
taken. By this century would inter-
arrangement a full
vene between Pandiyan 's time and
Talaiyalaiikanattu
Ptolemy and a century and three-fourths between Pasum-
pun-Pandiyan and Ptolemy. Surely, it is almost impossible
that a people would cherish the memory of the Aayi kings
for more than a century from the final smashing of that
power in the Talaiyalankanam battle and the sundering
of its dominions into many petty chieftaincies. Even
under readjusted arrangement, where the utmost
this
allowance has been made for any possible error, the ten
generations would stand distributed between 1 A.D. and 250
A.D. only establishes the value of the
This, however,
standard herein adopted for the determination of time
172 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

and its, resistance to any very great variation. Though it

has not given us the absolute period, it has placed within

our reach the very nearest approximation to it.
67. It behoves us then to explore the writings of
these early foreign authors a little more
tonat ry ***"
dence closely and ascertain whether they
contain facts which will fortify the
conclusion above set forth.

As the Synchronistic Tables comprise exactly the

period wh.-en the three Tamil monarchies
entered on a, war-path for the extension
of their dominions, the political picture presented by the
Greek writers will doubtless be invaluable as affording
important independent evidence on the matter. The Peri-
plus gives Naura and Tyndis as the first ports of Damirica.
Schoff identities Nauru with Cannanore, probably because
Dr. Vincent Smith iixed Chandragiri River as the northern-
most limit fof Damirica. We have already referred to Yule's
identification of this place (vidv p. 137) as Man galore, a
coast town in the South Caiiara District, north of the river
Charidragiri. According to this latter identification, and
assuming that the city Naravu (^n&i) mentioned in Patir-
ruppattu (85) refers to the
"@_,r n>p<$&rm**Ki*G$(p>****"
same, one can easily see that the Ohera dominions had
extended up to that place by the time of the Periplus. From
the Tables we see that the northern extension of the Ch.era
country along the coast began with Neduncberalfttan's time,
i.e., about 25 A.D. Within two generations from this period

the Cheras had even penetrated the Tulu country to the

north. Thus the reference of the Periplus would not be
applicable to .any generations anterior to these. Turn-
ing to Ptolemy we findhim interposing the country of the
'Batois' between the Pandiyan territory and the Chdla
kingdom. These 'Batois' were the forest tribes, who still

resisted the Tamil kings. The Eleyil (or Seven Forts)

overthrown by the Chola king Nalaiikilli and the Kanap-
pereyil subdued by Ukkirapperuvaludi refer to the fort-
 DATE OP THE GENERATIONS. 173

resses in the occupation of the Naga tribes of that time.

Within two or three generations from Nalankilli's period
these forest chiefs should have been politically swept out
of existence. Accordingly, the reference by Ptolemy will

not hold good for generations later than Ukkiraperu-

valudi's. Take again Ptolemy 's description of the Choi a
country. He refers to the 'Paralia of the Soretai' as a

political division. 'Paralia' was the coast country of the

Cholas then known as 'NeytalankanaP (Q^^JW/B/ST <*>).
After one or two generations from Nalankilli's period this
political district, as a separate province, must have dis-
appeared from the Chdla domains and must have
been wholly incorporated in them. Ptolemy makes
distinct mention of the territory of the 'Arouarnori'
(Arvarnoi), i.e., the Aruvalar tribes of the Arcot region.

Though Karikalan the Great effected the final conquest and

colonisation of this region, the Tamil race and the forest
tribes could hardly be soon fused. They farmed .two
distinct strata of the then existing society and Ptolemy's

description exactly hits off that social condition. In the

space of a few generations from that period, the distinc-
tions would have disappeared and societywould have
presented a more homogeneous aspect. This also shows
that Ptolemy's account would become quite inapplicable
if wo took it down to later generations. From this hasty
retrospect of the political and social conditions we find
thai the references of these Greek writers
give us' an
upper arid a lower limit beyond which we cannot take the
facts testified to by these early poems. Moreover, the
Synchronistic Tables refer to th.e conquest of Karuvur and
of Kudal (Madura), and these should have been carried out
even before the time of the Periplus and
Pliny, *>., 70 to 77
A.D. Ptolemy's inclusion of 'Magour' and 'Kannara'
among the inland cities of the 'Paralia of the Soretai'
sho\vs that before 140 A.D., these cities had been annexed
to the Chola
territory. These cities which have probably
since disappeared or have changed their names may be
174 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TAMILS.

identified with Mogur of

Kaluanalam,
Palaiyan and
1
conquered by Karikalan I in the second and third
generations as the Tables would show.
Let us consider another striking episode narrated in
Patirruppattu. Neduncheralatan is reported to have
imprisoned a number of Yavanas and subjected them to
peculiar indignities. Certainly that Chera king did not
sail all the way to Greece to achieve this victory. The
reference of the Periplus to Byzanteion a colony of "the
Byzantine Greeks said to have been in existence then on
the West Coast makes the account of the Tamil poet
intelligible to us. After this signal defeat the colony
appears to have dwindled down and gone out of existence.
This has led many of the commentators of the Periplus to
deny the existence of the Greek colony and question even
the accuracy of the testimony of the Periplus on this point !

All these isolated political facts contained in the early

European writers when brought into relation with those

of the Tables raise chronological presumptions of a
positive and definite value for our purpose.

68. Turning to a comparison of the geographical

facts of these writers and of the early
(b) Geographical.
Tamil documents we find that they
exhibit a striking parallelism great significance. In
of
the almost general fury with which the older Tamil names
of countries, cities, rivers, and mountains in the south have
been ruthlessly replaced by names of Sanskrit origin, in
later periods ofTamil history, the writings of these Greek
authors seem to come from a different world and, what is
more important and valuable for our purpose, tally
exactly with the earlier works of Tamil literature in their

(1) The following lines of Poet Kudavayil Kirattanar refer to the

conquest of K*i}unialam by Karikalan I:

reosflu

Agam., 8. 44.

Karikalan 1, otherwise known as Perumpun Ceuni, should certainly then

precede Ptolemy.
 DATE OP THE GENERATIONS. 175

geographical nomenclature. On this point at least the

1

Sangam works, on which the Tables are based, stand more

closely related to the works of the European writers of
the first and second centuries A.D., than to the Tamil
works of the religious epoch. For instance, toy the lapse
of centuries these later works, though belonging to one
and the same country as the early poems, are distinctly
thrown into a separate stratum of literature altogether;
but, on the other hand, the Greek writings we have here
taken up for consideration and the basic works of the
Tables, separated as they are by the locale and nationality
of their authors, yet exhibit a similitude in their topo-

nomy which strongly favours

presumption of their
the
identical age. Sanskritists, who seem to be on familiar
ground when identifying North Indian names, have felt
themselves wholly at sea in the identification of the geo-
graphical names of ancient Tamilagam. Early Tamil
literature,which alone contains the key of interpretation
of ancient South Indian names, being a sealed book to

them, they have been sometimes led into fantastic and even
ludicrous errors of identification. The name 'Aioi' is
derived from *Ahi' the serpent, and 'Nelcynda' of the Peri-
plus, according to Fabricius, is Nllakanla! Homophony
thus simplifies most of their identification of names in the
Tamil country. Taking the name 'Ariaca' of the Periplus
Mr. W. H. Schoff writes: "This word in the text is very

(1) How a systematic attempt at wholesale renaming was made, not

1

by the people, of course, but by the litlcralcurir, could be seen from instances
like the following whichtell their oun la It-. 'Arkkadu' becomes '9ada-
' '
ranyam'; Pennaiyaru turns into 'Pinakini'; 'Palaru' is replaced by
'Chiriiu'; 'Uraiyur' takes on the pompous title 'Urngapuram'; '121ilmalai'
had to pass through the stages of two mistranslations, 'Sapta Sailam' and
the 'Bat Mountain' springing from Mount D'Ely; ' Paramkunru ' near Madura
was ousted by 'Skanda Girl', which in the Muhammadan times had to struggle
with 'Sikander Malai'. Such curiosities deserve a separate handling but
what is worthy of remark in this connection is that, in course of time, the
original Tamil names, which had to hide their diminished heads before their
more dignified competitors, had also to allow these latter to leap over them
in point of time. The ingrained tendency of some Sanskritists to trace
Tamil names to Sanskrit originals has introduced the greatest confusion in
the chronology of Early Tamil History.
176 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

uncertain. Lassen thinks that the name isproperly the

Sanskrit Latiea (pronounced Larica) and included the
land on both sides of the gulf of Cambay". Other deriva-
tions too have been suggested as Bastrika and Aparantika.
If these writers had carefully noted the use of the same
name by Ptolemy in th^ forms 'Ariake Sadinon' and
'Ariake of the Pirates', 1 they could easily have made out
that it referred to the country later on known as the

Maharashtra, then ruled over by the Satakarni kings of

the Andhra dynasty. Ariaca
stood for Arya-agam, the
country of the Aryans, as Damirica denoted Tamil-agam,
th,e country of the Tamils. These were the names of the
two divisions of Peninsular India at that time. To the
Tamils of that early period 'Aryan' 2 was the name of the
people who inhabited the northern part of the Peninsula
immediately adjoining their own country. The phrase
1

4jflw* o/ewriffi' occurring in such works as Potirruppattu

should be interpreted as the victory of certain Tamil
kings won against theAryan rulers of the early Andhra
dynasty in the south and not the Aryans at the Gangetic
basin as the author of Cilappadikaram represented
it later on. Dr. Burnell identified Cottanara of the Peri-

plus as Kolattunadu and Drs. Buchanan and Caldwell as

Kadatta Nadu. Mr. K. P. P. Menon goes still further and
creates one Kodunadu. But ancient Tamil literature gives
the exact equivalent of this name as Kuttanadu 2 which
(1) Those pirates were none otlier than the Kadamba tribes appearing
hi Tamil literature as the Kadambu against which the early Chera kings had
to wage war to put down their depredations. We understand that
during Pliny's time there was piracy in the west coast; but by the time of
Ptolemy it had been more- or less suppressed. The credit of this achievement
goes to the successors of the Ohera King Neduiicheralatan. His son and
immediate successor, "Kadal-pirakkottiya-Vel-Kelu Kutfuvan, i.e., the Chora king
who defeated and drove back the sen-faring Kadambu tribes, began this war-
faro between 50 and 75 A.I)., and by the time of Ptolemy, the Chera power
must have securely pushed its way into the South Canara District and so
established itself there as to render any piratical pursuit impossible under its
settled rule.

(2) Vide Appendix X: Note on the Aryas and 'Vadapulam'.

(3) Kuttanadu was the earliest seat, of the Government of the Chera
sovereigns, giving rise to the name 'Ku^uvan' for that line of kings. From
 t>ATE OP THE GENERATIONS. 17*

still persists in popular usage in Central Travancore.

Having the Pyrrhon of the Periplus as the
identified
"
"Red Bluffs of Varkalai, it is surprising that Mr. W. H.
Schoff should take the first place in Paralia, Balita, also
as Varkalai. Balita is 'Veliyam', the older and non-
nasalized form of Vilinfiam with the locative suffix
attu added to it. 'Veliyattu' occurring in the early Tamil
1

*
the line
poems has been changed into Balita'. Compare
**
fi)//763T 6)1 T LAI I6N QeV'tJlflll t< <$ SOI 631 Gib

Agam., S. 359.

Veliyam becomes Viliniiam later on and Pto-

This
lemy's 'Elangkon' is the same name with the initial weak
medial letter <v' dropped. Mr. Schoff identifies 'Sopatma'
as Sii-patana (fair town) and opines that it. must be
Madras; while a student of Tamil would see in it So-
pattinam, a fortified town also known as Eyil-pattinam,
the sea-port of Nalliyakkodan. The 'Malanga' of Ptolemy
is certainly the Mavilankai of Tamil literature, at the

mouth of the Palar river, the scat of the Mamallapuram

rock-cut temples of later days. Some scholars have shifted
this site to the mouth of the river North Pennar and Cun-

ningham moves it stil! further north to the mouth of the

Godavari! These mis-identifications, I am aware, do not at

all reflect on the scholarship of the writers cited. But how

can even these great scholars accomplish the impossible?

The ancient Tamil names must remain a riddle to Sanskri-
tists as is too well and too clearly established by their

experiments in reading them for purposes' of identification.

this original seat they seem to liavc moved north and

along the coast
east into Cochin and the Kongu country in a career of
conquest.
is what Dr. Burnell writes in a like instance.
(1) This ' '
Hiouen-Thsang
pp. 105-110)
(iii., calls the small kingdom that he visited ' 'An-ta-lo '
(Andhra) and the capital 'Ping-K'i-lo'. It appears to me that this is in-
tended for Vengi; the 'lo' being merely the locative suffix' lo' of the
Telugu nouns, naturally mistaken by the worthy Chinese pilgrim monk for
a part of the word. So the Portuguese called Calayam-Chaliatta, using
the inflected form of the name. South Indian
Palaeography, foot-note in
p. 16.

0-23
176 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TAMILS.

Even more than the parallelisms in the mention of

place-names in the works we are just now comparing, the

parallelisms in omission possess a decisive chronological
value. The writings of the early Greeks and the 'Sangam'
poems do not make mention of any such towns as Calicut,
Cochin, Quilon, Trivandrum, Tinnevelly, Rameswaram,
Tanjore, Chidambaram, and Conjeevaram, for the simple
reason that they were all non-existent then. On the other
hand, the great towns mentioned by both have now vanished
out of existence Tondi, Karuvur, Korkai, Kavirippattinam,
:

and Sopai tiiiam for instance. These two sets of facts prove
that the writings we are now comparing belong to an
identical age. If they do not establish an absolute syn-.
chronisra, thxjy must at least be taken as coming very close
together.

Another significant fact also deserves mention here.

Just as early Tamil Literature throws considerable light
on somo of the Greek writings of that period, these writ-
ings also serve to illuminate certain dark places in Tamil
Literature. I have already referred to the early form of
the name TTraiyiir as TTraltur of Ptolemy, which gives us
the original of TTranlai, appearing frequently in th,e early
poems. I shall -full another foil of valuable information
from Ptolemy and wind
up my remarks under this
head. Aimong the early Tamil poets the name of one
Macattanar or Macaltiyar of Okkur occurs. The manu-
scripts contained two readings of the place-name as Okkur
and Ekkur. The editor, as lie had no other guidance in
the matter, had to choose Okkuv (
^^^ ) as the correct
'

f{

reading and inserted it in his text, relegating 'Ekkur' to

the unimportance of a foot-note. But we now understand
that Ekkur is the correct form, for 'Eikour' is
found included among the inland cities of the
'Paralia of the Soretai' given by Ptolemy. Thus
these two sets of
writings are mutually helpful in
illuminating certain dark corners in the history of ancient
Tamilagam. It need not be imagined that in spite of this
 DATE OP THE GENERATIONS. 179

helpfulness the writings might go into different centuries

possibly adjacent to one another. If any slight anteriority
could be claimed for any one set of these documents, it
should be in favour of the Tamil works which form the basis
of the Synchronistic Tables. These bring to light, in the
clearest manner possible, the conquest of Uraiyur, of
Karuvur and of KudaL the thiree capit'al towns of the
Tamil sovereigns, in three different generations. The
writings of the author of the Feriplus, and those of Pliny
and Ptolemy givo us a picture of the Tamil kingdoms as
1

already possessing ihose capital cities and hence they

conclusively establish thai some at least of these poems
go back to a period somewhat anterior to 70 A.D. In the
face of evidence as incontrovertible as this, what value
can we attach to the findings of those scholars who try to
bring down the date of these poems to the 4thi or the 5th
or even the 7th or the LSth century A.D.?

69. Another line of confirmatory evidence may be

(c) commercial. drawn from the brisk trade that was

going on between Tamilagam and
Rome iii the first two centuries of the Christian era. This
commerce began on a considerable scale only after 45 AJX,
the date when Hippalus made the important discovery
that without facing the tediousness of a coasting voyage
the Malabar coast could be reached in a short time by a
direct sea-route with the help of theSouth-West Monsoon
Wind. This foreign trade continued till the Alexandrian
massacre perpetrated by Caracalla about 215 AD. The hey-
day of the Indian-Roman trade thus falls within the first
two centuries of the Christian era. Both early European
writers and early Tamil Literature testify to this unpre-
cedented commercial intercourse. The pages of PJiny
are with denunciations of the luxury and wasteful
filled

extravagance of the Romans of his day. "Luxury", he

wrote, "arose at last to such a pitch that a chaplet was
held in no esteem at all if it did not consist entirely of
leaves sewn together with the needle. More recently
180 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

again have been imported from India, or from

they
nations'beyond the countries of India. But it is looked
as the most refined of all, to present chaplets made of
nard leaves, or else of silk of many colours steeped in un-
guents. Such is the pitch to which the luxuriousness of 1

our women has at last arrived" (Pliny XXL 8). Tacitus

in his Avmals reproduces a letter from the emperor, Tibe-
rius, to the Roman Senate protesting against th,e mad ex-
travagance. It runs: "If a reform is in truth intended,
where must it begin? And how am I to restore the simpli-

city of ancient times ? How shall we reform the taste

for dress? How are we to deal with the peculiar articles
of feminine vanity, and in particular with that rage for

jewels and precious trinkets, which drains the Empire of

its wealth, and sends in exchange for the
4

baubles, the
money of the commonwealth to foreign nations, arid even
to the enemies of Rome?" (Annals
iii, 53). In his edition
of the Periplus of the. Erythraean Sea, Mr. W. H. Schoff
writes thus of the pepper trade alone: "The trade in pep-
per in the time of the Roman Empire brought the merchants
unheard-of profits just as it did later theGenoese and
Venetians. It was one of th,e most important articles of
commerce between India and Rome, supplying perhaps
three-quarters of the total bulk of the average west-bound
cargo". This picture of the west tallies exactly with that
remarkable commercial activity in Tamilagam depicted
for us in the early poems.
* *

Vgj &rlQtuir(8

Agam., 8. 149.

pit 8urp fipp&

B(&J& IT u uffuiSp
/$6BT#s(65

Agam., 3. 152.
 DATE OP THE GENERATIONS. 181

Agam. y 8. 227.

These extracts from the primary poems unfold the com-

mercial activity of ancient Tamilagam only incidentally.

The excerpts from Pattuppattu contain however a

more detailed account. Pattiuappalai, one of the poems
in that collection composed in honour of Karikalan the

Great, contains a graphic picture and a few lines from it,

just to give an idea, may be extracted here :

QUfrf8p& ............ " (11. 119-135)

* * *

i (11. 173-175)

ifttS/Tufiu LjrreBu_)iw

(ff&nu^mii
O QU fT GOT
fjp m
182 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

iB asreBflu utu

sirip&p
u>
QurfJiuaj QnsjRiLi effmif-
Kaampfa tDjuOor"J (11. 185-193)

Maduralkkanci, another poem in that collection which

celebrates the victor of the Talaiyalankanam battle, contains
the following on the trade activities of that period:

KIT t-.fr ET

LMT i$-iL) p

sfL- 6*\iu/rQ&irf[)jD6U (11. 75-88)

* * *
rsireutrii

Gp L/FflQtu.r
Spuu" (H. 321-324)

(3jLtj5&}U
75flLJ
UfTUJU
QuiLJ/1 j$6$jb

." (11. 536-543)

Certainly these are contemporary descriptions of the
commercial life of the Tamils of th^at period. compa- A
 1)ATB OP THE GENERATIONS. 183

rison of these two sets of writings places the conclusion

of their identical age beyond any doubt. If the western

trade came to a sudden close by the Alexandrian massacre

of 215 A.D., only to be revived a little at the end of the
century during the time of Zeno, the commercial acti-
fifth,

vity described in the Sangam works should necessarily

be ascribed to a period preceding the beginning of the
third century A.D. By this line of evidence too the chro-
nological determination here attempted is confirmed in a
most satisfactory manner.
70. This foreign trade of the South led to an inflow

(d) Numismatic.
ol> Roman coinage into Tamilagam.
Large fields of aureus and denarius
were discovered in such places as Pollaeci, Vellalur, Karu-
vur, Kalayamuttur, Kannamlr, Madura and other places.
These Eoman coins are the existing symbols of the
amount of pepper, pearls, beryl, and other articles export-
ed by the Tamil countries dining the first two centuries
of the Christian era. We are told that so great was the

depletion of the Roman treasury that, in course of time,

1

the later Roman emperors not possessing the military

genius of their predecessors for conquest and plunder and
the later Roman
people not being addicted to any indus-
trial pursuit to replenish their riches, it brought- about a
depreciation of currency. However adversely it. may have
affected Rome, the Tamil land was literally basking then
in the sunshine of commercial prosperity. This large find
of Roman imperial coins could not have come into the
Tamil country after the third century A.D. If one were
still to assume that this money flowed into the land after

the third or the fourth century, I have to urge that apart

from the stoppage of the western trade due to the Alex-

(1) On this subject Mr. W. H. Sehoff writes as follows in p. 219 of Ms

Periplus: The drain of specie from Rome to the East has already been re-
ferred to under section 49 and is bitterly condemned by Pliny. "The
subject," he says, (VI. 26), "is one well worthy of notice, seeing that in no
year docs India drain us of less than 550,000,000 sesterces giving back
her own wares which are sold among us at fully 100 times their first cost."
184 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARL? TAMILS.

andrian massacre and to the decadence of the Roman

power, the later political and social conditions of Tamila-
gam also render that hypothesis altogether unthinkable.
Passing over the Sangam works, the only witnesses for the
sea-borne trade of that period, we are struck by the
universal and absolute silence of the mediaeval and later
Tamil literature about this foreign commercial activity.
This, in itself, is an eloquent testimony that the
time for the influx of the Roman coins is earlier than
the third century A.D. The reference to the coins of
Emperor Claudius in the following notes by Prof. E. J.

Rapson appearing in p. 162 of his Ancient IinHa, only

confirms this view. He writes: "Evidence of trade with
Rome is afforded by the numerous Roman coins which

have been discovered in various districts of Southern

India. Among them has been found the gold piece which
was struck by the Emperor Claudius (41-54 A.D.) to
commemorate the conquest of Britain. Further evidence
of the trade between Southern India and the West is

supplied by words. Our pepper comes to us from the Tamil

pippaU through the Greek peperi." Mr. W. H. Schoff sum-
marizes his study of South Indian Coinage thus:
"The coins of Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius and Nero are
numerous. There are very few of Vespasian and Titus
anywhere in India. Those of Domitian, Nerva, Trajan
and Hadrian are frequent; then there comes another break
lasting until the time of Commodus." To facilitate a
comparison of the time of the Roman and Tamil rulers of
the period I append a tabular statement in the next page.
 DATE OP THE GENERATIONS. 185

C 24
186 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TAMILS.

The preceding Table shows that, even before the Alex-

andrian massacre loomed on the horizon, the Roman trade
had begun to flag in the Indian waters from about the middle
of the second century A.D. The period of Karikalan the
Great also shows a visible depression and one may trace
itnot only to the troubles at Rome but also to the inces-
sant military preoccupations of that great conqueror. Still,
we shall not be justified in concluding that the commer-
cial activities of hisperiod came completely to a stand-
still. Numismatic evidence
too, as far as it goes, brings

Tamilagam into intimate relation with Rome during the

first two centuries of the Christian era and strengthens

the chronological fixation otherwise arrived at.

In fine, we find all the lines of evidence, Poli-

tical, Geographical, Commercial and Numismatic, con-
verging to establish the correctness of the allqcation
of the Ten Generations between 50 B.C. and 200 A.D.,
with of course a narrow margin for any possible
error on either side. The nature and drift of these
confirmatory evidences, together with the impossibility of
an alternative re-adjuslment of the references of the Peri-
plus, Pliny and Ptolemy in their application to the Tables,
will certainly notfavour any material variation in the chro-
nological distribution of the generations herein made. No
doubt, the arrangement falls short of the ideal of absolute
certitude ; but in matters of ancient history would any one
demand it? It can be cherished only as a limit for our
patient and laborious approximation.

71. I am aware that the result thus far attained in

fixing the chronology of the early

Tamil sovereigns' and poets will

please neither the party which laun-

ches into a very high antiquity and fabulises everything
connected with the start of Tamil literary history nor that
other group of scholars who are ever engaged in bring-
ing down the age of the so-called Sangam works to quite
modern times. These, too, create fables of their own to
 DATE OF TUB GENERATIONS. 187

modernise, if possible, this ancient stratum of Tamil lite-

rature. From the very beginning of this inquiry the

ideal has been steadily kept in view to carefully avoid fall-

ing into the attitude of either of these schools of investi-

gation. The Tables will show how the instreaming evi-

dence has been meekly followed instead of my attempting

to tutor it for establishing a pre-oonceived theory of my
own.
Before those who try to take these early 'Sangam*
works far too high into the pre-Christian centuries, I have
to place such considerations as the following. It can

hardly be denied that though this body of literature bears

a faint impress of the contact of Aryan Hinduism, it is not
without marks of heterodox systems of religious thought.
Jainism and Buddhism might bo supposed to have come
into Tamilagam at about the middle of the third century
B.C. Accordingly, this particular body of literature can-
not be taken beyond 250 B.C. The Synchronistic Tables,
it will bo noted, starts with 50 B.C. Now in order to meet
the demands of these scholars, if we try to shift the ten
generations to the two centuries and a half preceding the
Christian era, keeping, of course, the references of the
Periplns and of Ptolemy to their present respective points
of time, would it be possible to bring these references to

any intelligible relation with the facts of Tamil History?

Ptolemy's reference to the Aayi country would stand
separated from the Piindiyaii annexation of that territory
by nearly three centuries. The proposed shifting would
thus arouse more historical difficulties than it would solve.

Against those who try to bring down the date of the

'Sangam' works nearer the fifth century A.D., or there-
abouts, stand the many presumptions that arise from the
linguisticand literary development of Tamil as well as
the considerations due to the primitive social, religious
and political conditions the early works testify to. The
comparative absence of Sanskrit in their vocabulary, their
peculiar grammatical forms, their distinctive style of versifi-
188 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TIMES.

cation and subject-matter, their enigmatic names and ex-

pressions and the change in the meaning of many of their
words, freedom from literary conventions, reli-
their

gious motive and mythic overgrowth, mark these works

out as belonging to a much anterior stratum in the growth
of Tamil Language and Literature. The absence of a

developed caste system, the practice of cattle-lifting and the

burial of the dead under stone-mounds and in urns and
a system of primitive religion without the worship of most
of the gods and goddesses of the Hindu pantheon, all
tell their own tale of an antiquity that could not be

effectively brought into connection with the complicated

social and religious conditions of later times. The politi-
calsystem reflected in this literature was entirely untouched
by the Pallava rule whose characteristic influences began to
permeate Tamilagam from the fifth or the sixth century
onwards for a considerable time. Dr. S. Krishnaswami
Aiyangar, in some of his writings, has called special at-
tention to the pre-Pallava character of this literature and
has stoutly and very justly opposed the fantastic
attempts of some at postdating these early Tamil works.
Turning to the history of literary development in the
Tamil land, we find important intervening landmarks be-
tween the early period and the modern. Let us start with
the beginning of the seventh century, the age of Tirugna-
nasambanda, one of the definitely settled periods' in Tamil
History. In moving back to antiquity we have to find
a place for such a work as CilappadikaroMt and possibly
also for Manimekalai. Then we should move still higher
1

(1) In a correct view Manimf'lsalai should be considered a much later

work than Cilappadikaraiii. It is little else than a pale imitation of the latter.
It arose us a complementary work to Cilapitadikaram exactly as in later times
the V tiara R<WMya nam of Vanidtinan cnnie 1o supplement Kamban's great epic.
f

The connection of the subject and stories is indeed too strong in those instances
to permit popular fancy and even learned but uncritical opinion to keep the

original works and their sickly, lifeless, 'rule of thumb' imitations apart,
with duo appreciation of the stretch of time which should intervene and
separate them. In the case of ManimekaM, the cffacement of the time-gap
was rendered wonderfully easy by a gross misidentification of two authors.
The author of Manimdkalai was one Kulavanikan Cat tan, Cattan, the grain-
 DATE OP THE GENERATIONS. 189

up for the Ethical Period which should spread over at least

one or two centuries, locating Kural and Tolkappiyam at
about this time. We have also to find room for the develop-
ment of such Naturalistic works as Ainkurunuru, Kdlittogai
and such portions of the Pattuppdttn as are not covered by
the Synchronistic Tables. Do not all these stages of literary

growth require at the least four centuries the period

which now separates the age of the Synchronistic Tables'
from that of Tirugnfmasambanda? If anything, the period
is only too short for the variety and complexity of the
literary phenomena which one has perforce to locate in it.

Such considerations as the above which favour a high

antiquity but still do not permit us to go very far in that
cl5rection cannot affect in the least the testimony of the
positive historic evidences by which the chronology of the
early Tamils has been settled in tins paper. They are,
however, urged here solely to bespeak a frame of mind in
some scholars for a dispassionate weighing and valuation
of the evidence offered and settling a much-contested ques-
tion of great importance to Tamil Hislory.
72. The fixation of chronology, T have herein tried
Previous Attempts. to arrive at, is after all not quite
new. As
generally happens with most truths, this truth
too has been adumbrated in a number of works of pre-

uiorchaiit. And aimmg tlio 8angam group of pools, a poet under the name
Cittalai (Til fan, C&tfan of 'the village Cittalai, appears to have lived and com-
posed some poems which arc included in certain of the 'Ettuttokai' collec-
tions.These two poets were two distinct individuals belonging to two differ-
ent ages separated in all probability by about five centuries or so.
And yet we find the editor of Manimekalai, at one stroke of his
pen, trying to annihilate the distance of time by giving in the title-page of
that work, the author's name as 'Kiilavanikan Cittalai C&ttan*. I have
not yet been able to alight on this particular individual in any of the early
works, commentators' stories apart. They give us Cittalai Cattan and Kiila-
vanikan Cattan, but nowhere in them do we come across the mixed individual
1
Kulavanikan Cittalai Cattan'. I call the special attention of the reader
to this flagrant misidcntification simply because it has
badly dislocated the
chronology of ancient Tamil literature and has apparently misled scholars
like Dr. S. Krishnaswamy Aiyangar to fight a pitched but, I think, a losing
battle for Manimclcalai being at least taken to the Sangam age, if not included
in the Sangam collections.
190 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

vious scholars. Dr. Vincent Smith, writes in p. 457 of his

Early History "The Early Tamil poetical literature, dat-
ing according to competent expert opinion, from the first
three centuries of the Christian Era, gives a vivid picture
of the state of society of that period." Evidently the
historian in penning this line had in his mind the pioneer
work of the late Mr. Kanakasabhai Pillai and the writ-
ings of Dr. 8. Krishnaswami Aiyangar. Whatever one
may urge regarding the valuation by these scholars of
early Tamil Literature in detail, there is little doubt that
the conclusions of the first writer in respect of the age of
theSangam works are approximately and broadly correct
and fairly enough accordant with the facts of early
Tamil History. 1 am glad that my conclusion
generally coincides with his, though I have opened
and trodden a new path altogether. The present
essay would, T hope, rescue Tamil Chronology from
the vagueness and uncertainties which have clustered
round it by the inveterate practice of certain
scholars of using such poems as Cilappadikaram, Mani-
wdkalai and Mahavamso as mines of unquestionable his-
torical information. Hereafter at least, I trust, one can
talk of Tamil Chronology as historically determined with-
out the fear of being heckled on the fantastic imaginative
constructions of poets like Ilango Adigal and Kulavanikan
Cattan and on the interested fabrications of a monkish
chronicler like the author of the Malwramso.
 PART IV.

RESULTS.

73. We have now to glance back and ascertain to

what extent the Synchronistic Tables
have contributed to our knowledge of
ancient Tamil history. Till now one could not talk of the
history of the Tamils without laying oneself open to
challenge and hostile criticism. The facts of ancient
Tamil history, enshrined in the early poems and set in a
highly artificial grouping, wore not quarried systematic-
ally, nor sifted and arranged chronologically so as to enable
readers to get a clear, consecutive and intelligible account
of a past riot so much forgotten as muddled.

74. But now the various facts of language and litera-

ture, of social life arid thought, of

elatlVe Cllr0 "
noiog^ political vicissitudes and wars of ambi-
tion, have been thrown into such a
framework of Relative Chronology (hat we are in a posi-
tion to know something about the succession of the Ten
Generations comprised in the Tables. At least for two
centuries and a half these Tables furnish a
time-chart,
which will enable us to interrelate the events in their true
order of historical succession. Poets like Kalattalaiyar
and Mudamosiyar, Paranar and Kapilar, Nakklrar and
Marudan Ilanagan will stand hereafter in different gene-
rations and not thrown together and considered as contem-
poraries. Likewise, kings like Tittan and Veliyan, Uruva-
pah-ter-Ilancecicenni and Karikalan the Great, Rajasuyam
Vetta Perunarkilli and Ko Cehkannan should hence-
forward occupy distinct niches in ancient Chdla
history
and there will hardly be any justification for
consigning
them all to a nondescript class of almost of shadowy kings
a shadowy past.
192 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

.75. In addition to throwing light on the relative time

of the generations herein treated, the
Ollr0 "
Tables have enabled us to make a
significant comparison between some of
their facts and those recorded in the works of certain
early Greek and Eoman writers and deduce therefrom the
absolute chronology of the Generations. Both the main
evidence of the Tables and the accessory evidences which
gather round it establish, in the clearest manner, that the
distribution of the Ten Generations should lie between
50 B.C. and 200 A.D., as their highly probable extreme
limits on either This arrangement is solely the result of
side.

the valuation of the intrinsic evidences available in the early

works. happens also that the extreme errors of the two
It

types of investigators hereinbefore indicated have been

avoided and one can hereafter hope to assert with some
confidence that the dating of the early Tamil poems has
arrived at almost a satisfactory, if not, a final stage.

76. The Tables furnish the most authentic informa-

tion about the
founding of the three
<iii) The
Estab- Karuvur and Kudal.
lishment of the capitals,
r Uraiyur,
~ J' '

Tamil Kingships in Th.e conquest and occupation of these

their respective ... ,. .,, . ., . , ,, n .

capitals. cities liewithin the period of the first

three generations, i.e., between 50 B.C.
and 25 A.D. Are we to conclude from this that the Tamils
did not play a prominent part in the history of culture and
civilization before that time? By no means can we per-
form that jump. The life of a nation is not coterminous
with its politics, much less with that type of it called the
monarchical. In form of Tamil
all probability, the earliest
rule, of which we are afforded some glimpses here and 1

there in this literature, was a sort of communal republic

wherein each adult male member of the community had a
voice in the direction of public affairs. Although we discover
the Pandiya and the Chera rulers as full-fledged kings, the
origin of the Chola line of sovereigns throws considerable
light on the primitive communal republics. The people
 RESULTS.

seem to have existed as village communities under the

direction of Kilars or the village elders. The eldest
member of the family had the direction of affairs in his

hands', assisted of courseby tho village assembly peri-

odically convoked. The term 'Kilamai' means right of
possession. This abstract concept is undoubtedly a later
growth and should have denoted at first the right of the
village elders or Kilavar. In course of time, the village
communities grew in number and size and then they held
together as a union or confederacy of a number of such
communities presided over by a Vel, Ko or king. This
Vel or Ko had a number of Kilars under him each repre-
senting a village. Though the Kilars and Vols were the
executive heads and presidents of their respective village
assemblies and confederacies, their powers were probably
very limited in peace time by the authority of the general
assemblies of the villages. This type of political organisa-
1

tion was wholly the result of the peaceful and settled condi-
tion of an agricultural community, organised for peaceful

pursuits. It is to these early types of communal republics

that, the Asoka's odict refers. No name of an individual king

is therein mentioned in the south, as in the case of the

western sovereigns. They are called the Cholas, the Palayas,
the Keralaputras and the Satiyaputras, all communal names
beyond doubt. It would be highly unhis'torical to read the
type of princely autocracies evolved later on in the Tamil
land into the early conditions of the third century B.C.
All that is intended to be conveyed here is that the Tamil
autocracies depicted in works were certainly pre-
these
ceded by another type of political organisation which was
peculiarly republican and Dravidian in its character. By
the time of the generations comprised in the
Tables the old organisation had well-nigh lost its

original vigour and a process of dissolution had

set in. For expansion the peaceful agri-
territorial
cultural communities seem
to have placed themselves
under leaders of military genius, who later on turned
C-35
 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

into autocrats, pureand simple, and robbed the communities

of their original rights and powers. In short, independ-
ence was the heavy price the communities had to pay, for
the doubtful advantage of new territorial acquisitions.

This the picture we get

is from the earliest references

bearing on the Chola rule.

Turning to the periods succeeding the Ten Generations
of the Tables, we find in each line about half-a-dozen,
more or less, of sovereigns still remaining to be assigned
their proper place in history. All these obviously belong
to later generations. Their combined reigns, con-
sistently with the calculation of the time of the
generations we have herein followed, may extend
perhaps to auoth.er
century a or a century and
half at the highest. Thai takes us to 350 A.D., exactly the

period when the Pallava power got itself lodged in Kanci-

puram. All the Tamil kings suddenly go under an eclipse
and the poets of the period had to sing of other themes
than th,eir patrons' glories, presumably for want of the
old type of patrons. The kings, no doubt, must have been
there holding court; but one can justly infer from the
lack of literary record that they should have been shorn
of much of the power and prestige enjoyed by their early
ancestors. Although much is not known about the
1
Kalabhra interregnum, the dark period of Tamil history,
it ishighly probable th,at it marked the first incursion of
a border race from the north into the Tamil states. The
hypothesis th,at this movement was only a fore-runner of
the general Pallava invasion which later on swept through
the land can scarcely be considered an extra-
vagant one. . Whatever be the subsequent history
of the Tamil country, the Tables have to close
with Ko-Cenkannan. And between him and Tiru-
gnanasambanda, four centuries intervene, centuries
whose gloom is lighted up neither by the early poems nor by

(1) Vide Appendix XI for the Numismatic evidence bearing on this

Period.
 RESULTS. 195
<

later epigraphs. The late Prof. P. Snndaram Pillai in his

that this
Aye of Tirugnana-sawbanda expressed the hope
period could be approached with profit from the other

side Ko-Cenkannan period. The approach does

the
1

still future research,

not, however, seem anywise promising;
let us hope, will let in some gleams into this dark and
irretrievably blank period.
77. The Tables throw into clear relief the fact that
the Tamil monarchies, with no very
(iv) The Ruin of considerable territories at the begiu-
i"K ****
prey upon to their neigh-

bouring chieftaincies and in course of

time developed themselves into extensive kingdoms. In
the space of five generations from the third, most of the
tribal chieftaincies scattered throughout tlio southern half of
the Peninsula wrc cither annexed or made tributary states.

As we move down the times \vo find the independent chief-

tains -being replacedby others who owned fealty and mili-
paramount powers, and also by the com-
tary service to the
manders of royal armies and other officers in the regular
employ of those rulers. Titles like Enadi and Kavidi were
first brought into vogue from the time of Karikalan the

Great onwards and were conferred on officers distin-

guished for their service either civil or military. In lieu
of a regular salary these officers h,eld feudal estates in

(1) Prof. Snndaram Pillai embodied Ms considered opinions on this

point in the following paragraphs:
"We
have already pointed out that Sanibandha frequently refers to
the famous Choja prince Ko Chenganuan, the hero of the classical war-song
Kalarali. On one occasion, he speaks of n temple of Vaigal, a village near
Kumbaconam, as been constructed by Ko Chcngannan in former
having
days. Clearly then Sambandhu must have lived a considerable time after
this temple-building red-eyed Choja. But when did this rod-eyed Ghola live?
The question opens a field of inquiry as wide as the whole range of classics
in Tamil a sphere obviously more beset with historical difficulties than that
of the sacred Saiva literature with which we have been hitherto concerned.
The further we proceed into antiquity, the darker naturally become!
the view around; and it is well, for more than one reason, to leave this part
of our subject to be taken, up on a future occasion, for an independent and
separate handling which the range and importance of those ancient classic!
would otherwise also demand."
 196 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TAMILS.

their possession and became petty rulers under their

respective sovereigns. We meet with such chiefs as
Arkkattu Kilar, Karuvur Kilar, Ollaiyur Kilar, after the
conquest of Arkkadu, Kartivur, and Ollaiyur by the Tamil
kings. Th,e invariable policy of these kings' was thus to
create new types of chiefs and to bestow on them a part
of their fresh conquests for occasional military service.

78. The Tables further disclose that to the kings who

preceded Karikalau the Great, the
( 8
of Aiatio" Aryan rite
performing of
Yagas
was utterly unknown. Karikalan and
his contemporary Palsalai Mudukudumi Peruvaludi
were the first sovereigns who had recourse to this new
method of glorifying their conquests and securing the
favour of the Gods. Ever since that time Aryan Hinduism
and its priesthood began to enjoy some sort of royal
favour and patronage, which grew with the growth of time
and came to be rooted in the land. Still it would not be
true to say that Aryanism had got a strong hold on the
people at the time we just now treat of. That event should
stand over till we reach the Religious epoch which synchro-
nises with the Pallava occupation of
Kfuicipuram and the
overlording of the ^Pamil kingdoms by that power from
the fifth or the sixth century onwards.

The Tables establish in the most convincing

79.

manner that the so-called third SanganT *

(vi) The legendary was a figment of imagination of the

nature of the .

Sangam story. commentator ot Iraiywiar Agapporul.

Many scholars till now have shown a
partiality for that 1

holding at least this third Sangam

should have some historical
basis, however mythical the
preceding two Sangams may be.
1
But the truth, as is
conveyed by the Tables, is that this much-vaunted third
Sangam too is an imaginary creation and should share
the fate of its predecessors. That
Tiruvalluvamalai, con-
(1) Vide Appendix XII: Prof. W. P. Clifford on the Authority of
Tradition!.
 RESULTS.

taining the complimentary stanzas about Rural by the

forty-nine poets of the third Academy, is a barefaced
forgery is an easy deduction from the facts brought out
and arranged in the Tables. Poets who lived in different
generations have been thrown together and made
to sit in one assembly. Nariveruttalaiyfir, Todittalai

Viluttandhmr, Kapilar, Paranar, Mosi Kiranar, Kallfi-

danar, Karikkaimanar of Kiivirippattinam, Nakkirar,
Damodaranar, the Physician, Arisil Kilar, Maiiku^i
Marudanar and Kovur Kilar appear in different
generations in the Tables and all these have been
jnmbled together and made contemporaries. To render
it still worse, much later poets than these, as Mamulanar
and Ciltalai Cattanar, have also been brought in to form
the third Academy And what
! is even more startling than
this is the inclusion of Perundevanar, the author of the first

Tamil Bliiiratam, and poet who sang the invocatory stanzas

1

for most of the Sangam collections of poems, so as to

allow him to play his part in this somewhat incon-
gruous Academy! Discrepancies between the Tiruvalluva-
mdlai account and the version of the Agapporul com-
1

mentator apart, the story of the third Sangam is in itself,

as has been pointed out already, a clear fabrication in
many of i(s details. It is true that the author or authors of
the Sangam legend did not wholly spin out an imaginary
tale with imaginary characters created for the occasion.
They seem to have utilized the names of certain historic

personages of a past timeand constructed a pure legend

from which the time-element was wholly expunged and
characters belonging to different ages brought in as
members of one literary body. The grain of historical
truth contained in the account of the Academy lies in the
historicity of the individual poets brought into it and not
in the fact of the Sangam itself as such. These accounts
then are little better than historical romances, which
should never be confounded with histories proper. One

(1) Vide Appendix XIII: Note on TiruvalluvamAlai.

198 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TAMILS.

side of educated opinion till now has been viewing this

Sangam story with some sort of suspicion but it could not

successfully assail the many a priori arguments, too dearly
loved and too confidently urged by the many upholders of
the Academy controversy. Hereafter at least a
in this

priori arguments will be found to be of little avail against

the positive facts disclosed by the Tables which disprove
in themost convincing manner the historicity of the third
Sangam.

80. The Tables further establish that the redaction

of the Sangam works attributed to the

(vtt) Lateness of patronage of different kings was all a

**"
s.^
latcr manipulation with the names of
Ihe earlier sovereigns for heightening
the antiquity and authority of the various collections. Leav-
ing out of account Puraw tiinl.ru, whose redactor and patron
are not known, Agtinattftnt stands to the credit of

TJkkirapperuvaludi, Narrinai to Pannaclu-tanta-Pandiyan

and Kiiruntogai to Purikko. Of these, the first two appear
in the Tables separated from each other by about four
generations. Purikko must be a later sovereign than
these. Separated as these kings were by many genera-
tions, how could one and the same classification based on
the number of lines in a verse, for instance, be considered
as having been effected by a number of patrons living
centuries apart? Internal evidence of the collections
themselves militates against any such supposition. This
will be evidenced from the valuation of the different works
of the Sangam literature in the light of the facts embodied
in the Tables. And to this I shall now pass on.

81. The Tables .make it abundantly clear that the

various works called in the lump 'the
(viii) Light Third Sangam Literature' belong to
n Sangam
SterSure. four or five centuries at the lowest and
have been the result of the unwonted
literary activity which marked off that period from the
 RESULTS.

succeeding. They were composed by different poets, and

on various occasions and with various motives. To judge
correctly each of these works it is absolutely necessary to
restore each to its correct historical Throwingmilieu.

them together into one heap without any

promiscuous
regard for the time of their composition and arranging
them merely on grounds of prosody or rhetoric are
certainly not the correct method to facilitate any historical
handling of thorn. T have to acknowledge with sorrow
that the popular veneration in which such collections are
held to this day 1ms only delayed the chronological
arrangement of their contents arid the preparation of a
scientific history on their well-ascertained basis.

82. Taking the 'Eight Collections', the Tables show

that two of Uiom are assignable to a
lator P criodvi~> Kaliltogai and Part-
>
(a) -Ettutokar or
the Bight Collections, ptidal. Of the four basic works, Aga-
nan-urn is said to 'have been collected
under the patronage of the Pfmdiya king Ukkirapperu-
valudi of the ninth generation. If this were so, how could
this collection contain the poems of numerous
poets of
later times, viz., Mamulanfir, KottampjUattu-tunciya-
Oheraman, Pandiyan Arivudai Nambi, Perunkadunko, the
singer of 'Palai', Ilankaduiikd, the singer of *
Mam tarn',
and Cittalai Cattanar f Turning to Narri/aai, collected during
the time of Pannadn-tanta-Pamliyan of the fifth
genera-
tion, we find the same interpolation of later poems into
that work also. The same is the case with
Ainkurunuru
ascribed to the Cheran of 'the elephant look' of the
eighth
generation. These instances arc sufficient to prove that the
collections, as a matter of fact, were not done during the
reigns to which they now stand ascribed, but were the
result of a much later enterprise. The
question of fixing
definitely the time of the redaction does not, however, arise
in this connection. Thepositive testimony of the Tables
is against supposing these kings as being the patrons of
these collections, which
according to the uncorroborated
200 THE CHRONOLOGY Of THE EARLY TAMILS.

testimony of tradition now

stand in their names. Patir rwp-
pattu seems to fall in line with the Tables, though some
of its poets do not appear to have any organic relation
with the personages of the latter.

83. As regards the Ten Idylls, the Tables offer the

most interesting fund of information.
(b) 'PattuppattiTor Long and sustained compositions on
the Ten Idylls.
get t h emeg fj rgl come i nto vogue in the

reign of Karikalan the Great. The

poems included in this certainly belong to
-collection

different generations' and are a slow growth of centuries.

Most of them have sprung from thSree roots, viz., Poru-
nar&rruppadai, Pattinappdlai and Muttaippdttu. These
earliest pieces formed the models on which the later seven
do seem to have been composed. Of the latter, three come
within the period of th,e Tables and the remaining four,
falling outside. I shall for greater clearness append in the
next page a -chart of, descent of the various poems in this
collection based on the facts of the Tables as well as on the
internal testimony of language and thought of the poems
themselves.
 RESULTS. 201

SCHEME OF DEVELOPMENT OF THE POEMS IN THE

TATTUPATTU' COLLECTION AS EVIDENCED BY THE TABLES.

0-86
202 tfifi CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

I shall now proceed to explain the scheme given in a

graphic manner in the preceding page. MaduraikMnci of
Mankudi Marudan is modelled upon Pattinappdlai and
belongs to the seventh generation ;
Nedunalvadai is an off-

shoot of the root Mullaippdttu and belongs to the eighth;

and Perumpdndrruppadai 1 is the direct descendant of
Powmardrruppadai and comes in the tenth and last genera-
tion included in the Tables. Thus we see that the three
fundamental works of Karikalan's time served as models
for later poets, who composed three other works within the
period of the Tables. The form and make-up of Porunarar-
ruppadai and Perumpdndrruppadai led to further imitations
likeCirupdndrruppadai and Malaipatukaddm. So eight
poems on the whole seem to have come into existence in
process of time and they are all
genuine pieces sung by
different poets in honour of different patrons. But, in all
probability, at the time of the redaction two more poems
were composed and added to bring up the total to ten it may
be, or to serve such motives as the religious, the literary, etc.
I have the strongest suspicion about the genuineness of the
two remaining Idylls, Kurincippdttu and Tirumurugdrrup-
padai. These seem to be decidedly later compositions
done at the time of the redaction and assigned to certain
earlier poets, whose very names would have been held as
carrying weight with the people. In short, I consider these
two pieces as little short of forgeries committed and father-
ed upon two of the foremost Sangam celebrities.
Kapilar
and Nakkirar must have been dead long before these
poems
were composed and circulated in their names. Or if these be
taken as the productions of Kapilar and
Nakkirar, we have
no other way than to conclude that these authors must
undoubtedly be different individuals going under the same
names as the earlier poets. In view of the inveterate
tendency of certain later writers to produce and foist
(1) This work may have been known merely as
Panarruppafai, before
the composition of another
Panarruppadai after its pattern. The collector
of the poems must have, at the time of the
redaction, added the adjectives
peru and Ciw to the titles of the two pieces to
distinguish them.
 RESULTS. 203

their works on some well-known ancient personages, I am

inclined to hold this 'Kapilar' and this 'Nakkirar' more
as pen-names than real. I have arrived at this conclusion
mainly on linguistic grounds though historical considera-
tions too are not wanting. Taking Kurwrippattu it has
this significant line:

Here the word 'jy^co 1

is evidently used in the
modern sense of the privities. But the challenge may be
confidently entered whether any one could point out a
single instance in the ancient poets where the word has
this {Specialised meaning. Wherever the ancient poets use
that word they denote by it the entire hip below the waist.

Accordingly this specialised later

meaning stamps Kutincip-
paitu as a very late product separated by some centuries
from the period of the earlier stratum of the 'Sangam*
poems. Turning to Tirumurugarruppadai, that also
contains a tell-tale line :

Here '^srorc.&o'
is used in the later sense, 'a cock';
whereas the Sangam poets invariably use this word as
denoting an unidentified almost mythical bird with a human-
like head frequenting burial grounds and other waste

places. Nodoubt, in this instance the commentator exer-

cises his ingenuity to save the antiquity of the composi-
tionby reading the word with the sandhi as 'mandalai'.
That this is however wasted ingenuity can be easily under-
stood from the poet's many references to the cock-ensign
of God Muruga's flag in other parts of the same poem
(vide lines 38, 210-11, 219). Again, both Kurincippattu
(line 228) and Timmurygarruppadai (line 115) use the
word 'jj^LLS^e/in a sense quite unknown to the early poets,
who invariably denote by it, the noise issuing from
two bodies sounding either alternately or simultane-
ously. This specific meaning expressive of the origin of
 204 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TAMILS.

the word faded away in the course of a few centuries and

by the time of the two works we are now discussing the word
had been generalised to mean all manner of sounds with-
out distinction. Taking the early poets, not one of them,
1
as far as I can see, has used gi/riL/^ in the sense of
'

merely 'epSppe*, thus depriving it of its radical signifi-

cance. The history of this little word

enough to determineis

once for all the late age to which these two poems should
be ascribed. Then again, the very name 'Tirumurugar-
ruppadai' and the peculiar change in the linguistic usage
it exhibits argue also for the very late growth of that

poem.
1
A comparative study of the significance of words
used in these poems also leads me to confirm the conclusion
above set forth. A more detailed presentation of the argu-
ments is however not called for in this place.

84. There is absolutelyno way of bringing the

Tables into connection with any of the
1 11*6611
Didactt^woi* !! P ems comprised in the eighteen works of
the Didactic group. However, tradition is

strong on the point that Kural marks the fall of the curtain
on the Sangam stage. Since all the kings, who appear in
the basic works, have not been brought into the Tables, we
may take it that Kural would fitly come in after the lapse of
nearly one or two centuries from the close of the period we
, have here treated of. For Tolkappiyam also, it is difficult to
find a place in these Tables. Though much weight cannot be
attached to negative testimony arising from the absence
two such works' of first-rate
of reference, yet in the case of

importance as Kural and Tolkappiyam and of two such

authors of a high order of genius as Tiruvalluvar and
Tolkappiyar, it is unthinkable that had they existed in
these ten generations they would have been left alone in
1

inglorious isolation. The kings themselves would have

courted their favour and sought to patronise them by every
means in their power. So in the special case of two such

(1) For a detailed discussion, vide Appendix XIV: Note on the name
'
Tirumurugarrnppadai '.
 RESULTS. 205

authors, the negative testimony has a significance which

can scarcely be overlooked. 1 The twin epics Cilappadi-
Jtarcm, and Mawdmelcalai are of course much, later works
and need not be discussed here.
85. If the four works on which the Tables are
based are the earliest products
(ix) A peep Tamil Mus'o and are assignable
into of the
tion^Tamii Litera- to the first two centuries of the Christian
tnre and Learning.
erft> it would bo interesting to raise the

question whether this literature had any fore-runner

in a body of works in tho pre-Christian centuries
or sprang into existence all at once, without any
previous preparation. The works, that have been here
utilised, show a wealth of grammatical apparatus and
literary technique, which stamp them as the finished pro-
ducts' of a long-continued literary culture. One has to
assume that these presuppose an antecedent condition of
literary activity in the Tamil land. Such an activity must
also have been preceded by a linguistic stage in which

writing should have been introduced for other purposes

than literary. The balance of opinion among scholars is
in favour of the view that it was the Dravidian merchants
who first brought writing into India. Dr. Rhys Davids,
in his work 'BnddMst India', pp. 116-117, formulates
the following propositions as a working hypothesis as
regards this important question:
"1. Sea-going merchants availing themselves of
the monsoons were in the habit, at the beginning of the
seventh (and perhaps at the end of the eighth century B.C.),
of trading from ports on the south-west coast of India
(Sovira at first, afterwards Supparaka and Bharnkaccha)
to Babylon, then a great mercantile emporium.
These merchants were mostly Dravidians, not
"2.
Aryans. Such Indian names of the goods imported as
were adopted in the west (Solomon's Ivory, Apes, and

(1) Vide Appendix XV: The Age of Tolkappiyam.

206 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

Peacocks for instance, and the word "rice") were adap-

tations not of Sanskrit or Pali but of Tamil words.

"3. These merchants there became acquainted with

an alphabetic writing derived from that first invented and
used by the whole white pre-Semitic race now called

Akkadians.
"4.That alphabet had previously been carried by
wandering Semitic tribes from Babylon to the West, both
north-west and south-west. Some of the particular letters
learnt by the Indian merchants are closely allied to letters
found on inscriptions recorded by those Semitic tribes,
and also on Babylonian weights, both of a date somewhat
earlier than the time when the Indians made their trading

journeys.
"5. merchants brought this script to
After the
India, it
gradually became enlarged and adapted to suit
the special requirements of the Indian learned and collo-
quial dialects. Nearly a thousand years afterwards the
thus adapted alphabet became known as the Brahmi Lipi,
the sublime writing. What name it bore in the interval
for instance, in Asoka 's time is not known. From it, all
the alphabets now used in India, Burma, Siam and Ceylon
have been gradually evolved."
In the face of facts justifying propositions like these, 1

thje attempt to derive the literary culture of the

early Tamils, from the North, is a hopeless one.
The tendency of western scholars is to ascribe the
rise of this culture in Tamilagam to the efforts
of the first missionaries of Jainism and Buddhism
to the South. This whole hypothesis is built on
an impossible supposition. It, in short, demands' the
taking place of a sort of miracle. Granting, for argument's
sake, that the Tamils were an unlettered race with a
language not at all cultivated and developed into an
instrument of thought,
efficient is it possible, one might
ask, that such a race and such a language could, all at
 RESULTS. 207

once, by the arrival of a few foreign scholars, be taken

out of the old rut and placed on the high-road of pro-
gress? The utmost period that could intervene between
the arrival of these missionaries, assuming it as a his-
torical fact for the present, and the period of these Tables
is barely two centuries. Is it possible then that in that
short space of time there had occurred the miracle of
transforming an uncultivated language into a powerful
and at same time a beautiful medium of literary
the
expression and of reclaiming a nation in a semi-barbarous
condition to the ranks of civilization and culture? Such
a supposition is too preposterous to be seriously put
forward. The only other hypothesis consonant with the
facts of early Tamil culture is to consider that it was an

indigenous product with distinctive, perhaps even peculiar,

features of its own. The comparatively greater antiquity
of the Aryan civilisation of the North should not pre-
dispose us to deny a fairly high, antiquity to the culture
of the Dravidian race in the South. I make this modest
demand on the strength of the literary evidence alone. If,
however, we transcend literary and linguistic evidences to
higher periods undeniably testified to by the archaeological
finds as of Mohcnjo Daro and Harappa, Dravidian culture,
we are given to understand, shoots up to a still more

hoary antiquity than even the Vedic. if, then, a long period
of literary cultivation of Tamil existed in
pre-Christian
centuries, how is it that we have not received any evidence
of it? The perishable
nature? of Use writing materials
alone in a hot climate as in the South must be held answer-
able for this paucity of early literary testimony. The
early Tamils did not certainly take to inscribing on stones
or clay tablets, as the Babylonians did.
That, above all,
should be held as the main reason why 1
literary memorials

(1) Aproiw the alphabets current in South India, Dr. Burnell inserts a
very significant lout-note in p 130 of his Smith Indian
He
Palaeography.
writes: the
"Comparing Tolugu-Cauarese alphabets with the Tamil it
ia,'
then, impossible to suppose that the last is the work of Sanskrit
grammarians
for had they been the authors of
it, it would have been far more
perfect and
208 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TAMILS.
f

of ancient Tamil culture have not survived to the present

day. As
for the positive evidence bearing on the existence
of palm-leaf writing in the Tamil country during the period
of the Synchronistic Tables, 1 shall here transcribe a few
verses from Agamnuru, by an early poet, Marudan Ilana-
gan, who lived in the eighth generation. The poet therein
refers to the practice of exchanging letter-scrolls
between different members of the mercantile community
and borrows from it a striking simile to illustrate a rather
frightful sight. The lines are:

(ovuirSso

UMGUGBT

*s>aj

And 'The stone-cumbered path wherein

their translation:
the red-eared eagle would drop fearfully the entrails of the
fierce warriors, who had
died in severe battle, drawing them
out (in long trails) just as the merchants, after examining
and breaking open the seal, would extract their palm-leaf
(missives) from within the (earthen) pot with sides pro-
tected by coir-nettings'. This certainly must remove the
last vestige of doubt about the prevalence of writing in the

would have shown signs of adaptation which arc wanting in it. Add to this
1

that the Tamil let t era- ] and r aro totally distinct from the Telugu-Cauaresc
1

corresponding letters and n superfluous and the amount of proof that the Vatte-
luttu is of independent origin and not derived from the Bouth Asokau character

appears to bo conclusive". Considering the very late introduction into South

India ol the present Tamil Alphabet] the mongrel Tamil -Grrautha char-
acter one can confidently assert that the Tamil literature coming about the
first centuries of the Christian era must have been preserved only in the

VailiMuttu script, iu the light of Dr. Rhya David's views, it is highly prob-
able that Vatteluttu, with all its imperfections and characteristic features,
may be nearer to the period of the introduction of the alphabet into South,
India than even the South Asokan Alphabet which bears marks of complete
development in its orthographic system. The late Mr. T. A. Gopinatha -Rao,
however, made a futile attempt (vide Travancore Awltacological Series, Vol.
I, p. U83) to controvert Dr. Burnell and derive the Vafteluttu script from
the Brahnii. His pcrionnance, to say the least, is jejune and unconvincing
and makes one feel why the writer should have strayed from Iconography
into Palaeography to so little purpose.
 RESULTS. 209

Tamil country at that early time. Western Sanskrists now

trace the word
lipi (letter) Achaemenidean dipi
to the
1
(edict) and oppose the ascription of the origin of the
alphabet to Indian sources on the ground, of the absence of
any system of picture-writing in India. Though Sanskrit,
in spite of the antiquity of its literature cannot furnish this

evidence, Tamil takes us to a much anterior stage by the

possession of a native word ehitlu
(sT<igp&) from efatu
which means to paint as well as io write according to the
context. Whether a system of picture-writing was ever

actually followed by the ancestors of the Tamils or not,

there can be little doubt that this word itself is a relic of a
long-forgotten fact, the filiation of writing with picture
and with no other art. This word then takes us to a period
immeasurably anterior to any the existing literature can
possibly reach. Leaving that apart, these early poems,
with all the marks of their primitivencss, still disclose
an advanced condition of life and thought, which
justifies the conclusion some centuries
that, even
antecedently the Tamils had emerged from the swaddling
clothes of man's first attempt at a settled social polity and
culture. But this, however, is a region into which exist-
ing literature is unable to throw its rays so as to give us a
complete picture. We
have to piece together that earlier
story from the stray archaeological finds that now and then
are brought to our notice.

86. An equally interesting question also may be

raised regarding the type of civilization to which the
Dravidian belongs. It is, no doubt,
(x) Light thrown a vast question and cannot be entered
P
d oi^ation
lity
u P n here ^
any detail. If any
fact is brought home to our minds by
these earlypoems that the so-called Aryanisation
it is this :

is a much later phenomenon and was

entirely absent from
the early generations of the Tables. Even before the
arrival of the Aryan colonies in the South, must
society

(1) Vide Introduction to Dr. A. B. Keith's Aitareya Aranyaka p 23 '

C 27
 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TAMILS.

have attained politically to the stage of village organisa-

tions and popular assemblies and economically it must have
been composed of a good number of interdependent profes-
sional classes following different handicrafts. We seem to
catch glimpses of these village communities at the moment
of organising themselves into larger political groups. By a
natural development, centralisation of power for military
projects, rendered necessary by inter-communal strife,
must have led to the establishment of monarchies, which
in its turn should have reacted powerfully on social

advancement and progress as one could easily see from

the outstanding achievements Karikalan, the Great.
of

Apart from agriculture and trade, which should have fed

the economic life of that society, the cultivation of letters
and fine arts both by men and women at that early period
shows how free and congenial were the social and political
conditions then, for it to come to pass. Unhappily Dravidian
civilisation as evidenced in these early poems is found
mixed up with an exotic culture and even with a barbaric
strain due, of course, to the contact of the Tamils
with the primitive races. The
by the members
cattle-raids
of the Malava community and the wearing of leaves by the
damsels of the Kurava or hill-tribes, forinstance,
do not fit in with the advanced culture of the Tamil
races as inferable in a manner from this literature. A
mere skimming through these ancient records without a
power to discriminate between the different strands of a
heterogeneous texture they exhibit, will give us only a bizar-
re picture. These must be properly distinguished for a cor-
rect understanding of the various strata of that society.

Still, however useful this literature may be to give us the

disjecta membra of a lost culture, we would commit the

greatest mistake if we took it for a detailed and exhaustive
record of the customs and institutions of that early time. It
is an index and nothing more. As an instance, I shall
just
cite here a stanza from a very old poet, Vanparanar, a con-

temporary of Paranar and Kapilar according to the Tables,

 RESULTS. 211

which gives us just an inkling and nothing more of the very

advanced and highly-elaborated condition of the art and
science of music amongst the ancient Tamils :

eurr

LD/T&O

uswrcwfl

Puraw., S. 149.

Translation: 'Long live Nalli! Oh! Nalli, since you,

realising tho duties of a patron, have been bestowing the
most liberal gifts on the musicians, who are of us (and who
frequent tliy court), they have taken to sing on the Kaivali
(another name for the musical instrument Yal), the maru-
tam tune in the darkening eve and the Cevvali tune in the
morning and have thus forgotten the very system of their
ancient art*. The poet implies that by singing the even-
ing tune in the morning and the morning tune in the even-
ing the ar lists only prove that they have lost touch with
the nice technicalities of their art and openly ascribes this
scandalous state of matters to Nalli 's unbounded munifi-
cence. The chieftain's liberality, it would seem, proved a
bane to the artists for they had not to depend upon any
scientific knowledge and skill in their art for finding a
means of livelihood but could afford to do without them
being well-assured of a comfortable living by the generosity
of their patron Nalli. Making all allowances for the rhe-
toric employed by the poet, we can yet get at one historical
fact through the almost indirect and unconscious testimony
his words contain. And it is the very advanced condition
of a system of Dravidian musical science and art whose
features we have no means of reading in all their details.
Its elaborate classification of Pans and Tirams and the
minute adjustments of these to suit varying environmental
conditions and time have all become a thing of the past.
If a people at so early a time could take the art of music
212 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TAMILS.

to so high a pitch of development, is it not a little hard to

assert that the Tamil races of the South were in darkness
and that the torch of civilisation had to be brought to them
from the North? True, the evidence furnished by the early
poems on such points is scrappy and fragmentary; for
it was not the purpose of their authors to leave behind

them a detailed descriptive account of ancient Tamil culture

and civilization. Yet strangely enough some try to
equate the life of the ancient Tamil community with this
ancient stratum of literature, which is moreover of
a type not professedly historical. By a strange fallacy
of reasoning they are disposed to view this early litera-
ture as possessing signs of the Aryanising efforts in every
walk of life in the South. They rely on the occurrence of a
few Sanskrit or Prakrit words here and there iu the langu-
age of this literature and, on that foundation, go to build
such astounding propositions as that the whole literature is
pervaded by the spirit of Aryan culture! and that the entire
Dravidian life is also cast in that foreign mould. This, how-
ever, is a totally overdrawn picture, nay it is a false one
in many of its essential features.

In the the occurrence of foreign words in

first place,

a language does not and cannot imply the occurrence of

large communities of foreigners in the land in which that
language spoken. Migration of words from language
is

to language takes place on a larger scale and at a quicker

pace than Uie migration of a community from one country
to another. Unless and until the latter takes place, a
community can hardly leave its impress of culture on
another less advanced than th.emselves. Loan words
between languages cannot, from their very nature, serve as
decisive arguments for establishing cultural transmission
in either direction. There are many instances of superior
races borrowing a large number of words from the langu-
ages of races less advanced than themselves. Will it lie
in the mouth of these Jess advanced backward tribes to
proclaim to the world that the mere fact of some of their
 RESULTS. 213

own words getting into currency in the languages of the

more advanced people is a ground for inferring that the
more advanced had borrowed their culture too from the
less advanced? I give here this extreme example to
prove that words in themselves are not decisive grounds
to prove cultural drift. That must be established on
independent historic grounds.
Secondly, considering the antiquity of the Dravidian
languages and the very imperfect condition of the investi-
gation of ifhcir philology at present, dogmatism in respect

of certain roots as being exclusively Sanskrit or Dravidian

is altogether premature and unsafe. If classical Sanskrit

possesses a more copious vocabulary and is richer in

1
roots than the Vedic dialect, it is pertinent to inquire
from wha-i source could the later classical tongue have got
the?large mass of new words. Surely, not from the inner
consciousness of the Aryan incomers themselves. They
should have borrowed freely from the living languages of
the Dravidians and the aboriginal people amongst whom
they had come to live. A priori reasoning favours the
1

view that later Sanskrit must have taken into its system
a large number of roots and words belonging to the primi-
tive Druvidimi languages. So, the mere fact that a word
or root is found in Sanskrit would not be a sufficient ground
to conclude that it is Aryan and not Dravidian. A com-
parative study alone of all the languages belonging to these

groups throw
will some light on the matter. And this,
obviously, falls within the field of the specialists', where
general scholars have little or no right to intrude. And
yet, here, we find the amazing spectacle of Philology being
(!) About the loan of Pravidiaii words to the Vedic dialect itself,
I shall quote here a few remarks from Prof. Buniti Kumar Chattcrji's work,
The Origin and Development of the "Bengali Langutif/v. He writes: "The
language of the Rig-Veda is as yet purely Aryan or hido-European in its
forms, structure, and spirit, but its phonetics is already affected by Dravi-
dian; and it lias already begun to borrow words from Dravidian (and from
K61) not only names of objects previously unknown to the Aryans, but
:

also a few wofds of ideas". Then the writer appends a fairly long list of
Dravidian loan-words, which T need not reproduce here and for which the
readermay be referred to p. 42 ef the introduction to that interesting werk.
214 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TAMILS.

made the common battle-ground for all and sundry to

enter and \vage their wars according to their individual
predilections and arrive at definite conclusions on points
where even specialists would hesitate to dogmatise. But
the limitations of even genuine Philology against which
Taine inveighs vigorously should make such scholars
pause in their profitless pastime.

"Philology," wrote Taine, "is a subterranean passage,

dark, narrow and bottomless, along which people crawl
instead of walk ;
so distantfrom the air and the light that
they forget the air and the light, and end by finding satis-
factory and natural the smoky rays of the dismal lamp tha/t
they trail behind them. After staying there for a few
years, they declare that the sky is a dream of the feeble-
minded."

Thirdly, the extreme fewness of the Aryan colonists

in Tamilagam at that time does not favour any such ante-

dating of the Aryanising work. The words of Poet Avur

Mulamkilar :

11 M
QeuGiriru uiriruuirGsr eurretrffif &L8j&p, eu&str

Agam., S. 24.

give us a true picture of the pursuits of the early Aryan

colonists. Wehave to infer that there were only two
classes of Brahmans then first, those who performed the
:

Yagas, and secondly, those who eked out their

livelihood by such professions as cutting conch-shells
for bangles and the like. If the Aryans then had
come in very large colonies, settled in the land
and pursued different remunerative occupations, the
poet would not have chosen this manner of description.
Even at much later times the rulers' had to offer special
inducements to such settlers by means of land-gifts and
other donations to attract larger and larger numbers of
 RESULTS. 2lS

them to the South.

1
But few centuries
in the course of a
conditions seem to change and a strong and steady current
of colonisation afterwards set in. It must have received
additional impetus from the invariable policy of the Pallava
rulers of still later 'times, of founding temples and priestly
colonies in the Tamil country and bestowing on them
extensive tracts of land as Devaduyam and Brahmaddyam
for their maintenance. This bit of later history which

belongs to the Religious epoch just about the Devaram

period should not, however, bo read back into the life and
conditions of the early Tamil society the Tables deal with,

87. I should not omit to observe in conclusion that

while the Tables furnish a time-axis of
1

Conclusion.
reference for the facts of ancient Tamil

history, the geographical portion of that study, which is

as indispensable as the first, still remains to be worked out
in detail. All that wo do know about a very large number
of events recorded in early Tamil literature amounts
only to a very general knowledge of their location. Both
distance of time and the later fashion of coining new geogra-

(1) "In some of the popular accounts of the Brahmans which have been
reduced to writing, it is stated that, during the time of Mayura Varma of

the Kadamba some Andhra Brahma ns were brought into South

dynasty,
Oanara. As a number of "Rr ah mans were not available for the
sufficient

purpose of the yagams (sacrifices), thctfe Andhra Brahmans selected a

number of families from the non -Brahman castes, made them Brahmans and
chose exogamous sept names for them." Thurston's Castes and Tribes of
Southern India, Introduction, pp. 45-46. And this, be it noted, was the condi-
tion of affairs about the middle of the eighth century A.D. Mr. B. Lewis
Rice writes in pp. 204-205 of his Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions:
"According to Sk. 186, there were no Brahmans in the South in the time
of Mukkanni Kadumba, the third century. Having sought diligently for
them throughout the region and finding none, he went without delay to the
North, and from the Ahichchatra agrahara (said to be in Bareilly
* *
District) procured a number of Brahman families. *. On the other
hand, there must have been some Brahmans before, for the Sat&vahana grant
of the first or second century on the Malavalli pillar (8k. 263) was made
as a Brahman endowment. But they may have left the country, as those
above-mentioned from the North are said to have attempted to do. In the
East, tradition attributes the introduction of Brahmans to Mukunti Pallava
who is also of the third century." If this was so in the border country,
the strength of the Brahman element in Tamilagam could not then be
considerable at all.
216 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TAMILS.

phical names in Sanskrit for the Tamil names of early

literature render this attempt specially difficult. But
difficult as it is, a separate and systematic effort in that
direction may lead 1o fruitful results and go a .long way
in bringing the facts and events of ancient Tamil history
into some sort of concrete connection with one another.

Though, these Tables assign a specific chronology to such

facts' and even-is, still a certain vagueness should cling to

them until a more specific and detailed study of their geo-

1
graphical location is entered upon and effected. History,
in the absence of correct geography, is rendered half unreal
and hence a thorough and extended examination of the
geography of ancient Tamilagam from the data available
from all authentic sources is doubtless a necessary
complement to this study.

(1) The interrelation of historical and geographical studies is

tellingly brought out in the following observations: ''This is the

significance of Herder's saying that is
"history
geography set
in motion." What is to-day a fact of
geography becomes to-
morrow a factor of history. The two sciences cannot be held apart without
doing violenec to both, without dismembering what is a natural, vital whole.
All historical problems ought to be studied geographically and all geographic
problems, must be studied historically." E. C. Sample's Influences of Oeo-
grapttic Environment, p. 11.
 APPENDIX I.

THE DATE OP MANIKKAVACAGAR.

As a striking instance of the omission of literary valuation,
I have only to mention here the attempt of certain scholars, whose
general historical equipment is beyond doubt, to antedate Tiru-
vdcagam of Manikkavacagar to the Devara hymns of Appar and
Tirugiianasambandar. Leave apart the epigraphic confirmation,
which assigns M-lnikkaviicagar to the 9th century, the valuation
of Tiruvdcagam on literary grounds alone should have predisposed
these scholars to the acceptance of a late date.

1 shall here summarise the more important of such

grounds: (1) omission The
of Manikkavacagar from the
lisl of the sixty-three devotees of Siva enumerated in
the Tiruttondattokai of Sundaramurti, followed closely
therein by Narnbiandar Nambi in his Tiruttonddr Tiruvandati
and by Sekkijar in his Periyapurdnam, is fatal to any
attempt at
antedating Manikkavacagar. The interpretation of " QuirujtuuL.
"
sz/_Da)7 f L/fipQ/-/'
a referring to Manikkavacagar has, at all
events, nothing to recommend it except its No-
originality.
where else in Tamil literature do we find such a name or
descriptive epithet for Manikkavacagar. On the other hand, we
have authority to support
literary
denotes the famous author of Kural. An
that
'Q^i^^e^'
equally original and
futile the of
attempt is interpretation 'eu,i*js&' in Appar 's
line:

as a reference to Manikkavacagar. There is

absolutely no autho-
rity for holding Manikkavacagar as the incarnation of Nandi.
Here the word 'j/r^.ioir' means a 'chamberlain' and no more.
(2) In the Tirumurai collections, Tiruvdcagam appears only as
the eighth in the series, the preceding seven
being composed of
the hymns of the three Devaram
hymnists, Gnanasambandar,
Appar and Sundaramurti. (3) In the invocatory stanzas in all
Tamil religious works and Puranas, composed in
praise of the Na-
yanmars and Acharyas, the authors observe invariably an order
which is roughly chronological. Here is a stanza about the work
of the various religious teachers in the Tamil
country, wherein the
arrangement of names follows strict chronology.
C 28
 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TAMILS.

The praises in honour of the four 'Samaya Kuravars* (Religi-

ous devotees or saints) precede those about the four Santanacharyas
(Religious teachers or gurus who come in apostolic succession) and
among the four Samaya Kuravars, of whom Maflikkavacagar is
one, Markka vaca gar gets only a last mention. And in reciting
these religious hymns in the temples all over the South, the invari-
able practice of reciting Tiruvdcagam after Devdram should
1
naturally add its confirmatory evidence to the above testimony.
(4) A
convention has risen among the Saivites evidently it must
have arisen before the composition of Tiruvdcagam that only the
hymns of GMnasambandar, Appar and Sundaramurti should be
known as Tirunerittarail. This appellation for a body of religious
works does not connote Tiruvdcagam to this day. If Tiruvdcagam
had been in existence when this name was coined and got into
currency, there is absolutely no reason, so far as I know, why it
should not have been included in that class. (5) From the point
of view of style,Tiruvdcagam has to its credit more brand-new
Sanskrit words than D&varam. The occurrence of such words as
enough e is
Q-]5&frflj$ &ii (VjuufriLtLo, *C.,
^tfj/r, cR/TLj/refl, Jj^fcOJ.rsir, t

to make us pause before we claim a great antiquity for this work.

As for the literary echoisms that occur in Tiruvdcagam, the jingle
<C
xrr&j and that of
L//r>.0/ LD/DQ/r>afr<i Qptr&rjSafl" "uip&n'iLipQp
esri SsarfBtBssrjilQrju LitrpGu)" of Sundaramtirti may be considered
indecisive; but there can be little doubt that Manikkavacagar's
tuir iL* is a more generalised
(u/ru>/r.7<i(<9j/E7 (s^uf.aj0cQ^mi giL&^ijQ&rr
and therefore a form in imitation of Appar *s line: '^/r/jQ/r/fi
later

@/ gjip_iL/a)(5fiV)/r/i /5/x&WHj<55(?sF/rLfl'. (6) In respect of ideas,

Tiruvdcagam shows considerable development. Both in mythos
and philosophical doctrine it marks a highly complicated
stage. While the Dvvdra hymns aire purely religious,

(1) That religious conventions when grown up persist without change and
even resistall attempts at modification ia borne testimony to
by the following
observations: "The members of the worshipping group think it
strange, when
the regular order of service is not adhered to. They expect the singing of
hymns, the prayer, the anthem by the choir, the announcements, the sermon
and whatsoever else they may be, to follow the habitual order and adhere
to customary usages ".Frederick Goodrich. Henke's A Study in the
Psychology of Ritualism, p. 87.
 APPENDIX I. 219

Tiruvdcagam contains the finished tenets of the Saiva Siddhanta

Philosophy. For instance, Manikkavacagar's search of
a spiritual guru, his query to Siva and Siva 's answer about Sivagftd-
nabodam and his philosophical dispute with the Buddhists will
bear this out. The verse ^/SS^-f, ULJKSUT Lbjbpfieuir' 7
(jp^C' )

occurring in Tiruvdcayam (Tiruppalliclucci) conveys the sense of

the absolute God '^rfk/ &&,&' transcending the Trimurtis
themselves. This conception of godhood was the result of acute
philosophising which the Devaram singers did not follow, much
less preach. They, on the other hand, depict Siva as the God
of destruction, who baffled the other two of the triad in their
attempt to measure him. (7) Such references as the following
occurring in Tiruvaniyam must argue for a late date:
Lb'i tnfl i

U/TCBLDLD G> &rr/hjpie9<&

f

Lrvrujr etn p
post-agamic origin of the work (and the
1
The first fixes the

Agamas, it is well-known, a* e of very late growth in the religious

%

history of the South), and the second establishes that Sankara's

system must have preceded Tiruvacagam. (8) There are certain
other references in Tiruvdcagam, which must be taken as pointing
to previous Nayanmars and certain specific episodes in their lives
such ast

and
"py
mr (o&rrfiufilfh xs?G,

(1) Regarding the agamic or tantric phase of the religious life in India,
the observations of H. Kern in his Manual of Indian Buddhism, p. 133,
will bear reproduction.
"The decline of Buddhism in India from the eighth century down-
wards nearly coincides with the growing influence of Tantrism and sorcery,
which stand to each other in the relation of theory to practice. The develop-
ment of Tantrism is a feature that Buddhism and Hinduism in their later
phases have in common. The object of Hindu Tautrism is the acquisition
of wealth, mundane enjoyments, rewards for moral actions, deliverance by

worshipping Durga, the Sakti or Siva-Prajna in the terminology of the

Mahayana through the means of spells, muttered prayers, samadhi, offerings,
' '
etc. With special reference to the age of the Brahmanical Tantras Harananda
Sastri, M.A., writes:"The true Brahmauical Tantra books do not appear to be
very old. Perhaps they do not go back farther than the 6th century, A.D."
The Origin and Cult of Tara in the Memoirs of the Archaeological
Survey of
India, No. 20, p. 8.
220 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TAMILS.

can only refer to Siva's miraculous appearance to bestow nwkti

on his devotee Sundara. Do not some at least of the references
in the verses,

/rfl G 6^)
537-^(75

Jr
fiisstffeusmr

CSsar."

bear upon the tortures inflicted on Saint Appar by the Jains?

Do not the lines,

"
<$ Q&fJ l
JS>$VL)Ln

cryptically refer to the Ciruttontiar story? (9) The refer-

ences in Tiruvdcagam 1o many A<Jiyars (devotees) and to
many miracles performed in many different places show that
the work belongs to a late period in the religious history of the
South. (10) There is absolutely no ground for the view that the
miracle of 'the fox and the Horse' was performed for Manikka-
vacagar. There is no allusion in Tiruvdcagam itself to uphold
any such view. Its references are all to previous miracles and not
to any contemporary ones, but later on they have been twisted

by such Puranic writers as the authors of Vddavurpurdnam and

TiruvtiaiydolalpurdnaHi for adding embellishments to the saint's
biography. The usefulness, by the way, of these two
Puraiias for purposes of sober history is yet to be established.
(11) Manikkavacagar's philosophical disputation with the
Buddhists at Chidambaram is only a later and
improved
edition of Gnanasambandar's religious controversy with the Jains
at Madura. Considering the late period in which Chidambaram
itself must have come into existence as
compared with Madura,
the disputation >vith the Buddhists should also be held as
having
occurred much later. (12) And finally, the literary finish of
Tiruvdcagam,, by itself, its highly-polished and pellucid diction,
its numerous felicities thought of
and its
expression,
marvellously-developed prosodic forms and rhetorical turns
and above all the sense of artistry which runs
throughout
is more than sufficient to establish its later origin than the
Devara hymns, which as a body, in spite of its higher sacred
 APPENDIX I. 221

character, occupies,from the standpoint of pure literary excellence,

only another level in Tamil Devotional Literature. However,
this admiration of Tiruvdcagam should not lead one to claim
for it a precedence in time also, as if that alone could ratify and
invest its numerous beauties with an additional authority for
their being readily accepted.

The cumulative force of these grounds, external, drawn from

Tamil religious literature and practice, and internal, drawn from
Maijikkavaca^ar's own handiwork is enough to convince any fair-
minded inquirer that the efforts made to ascribe a high anti-
quity to Tiruvacagam have yet to surmount serious difficulties
in that direction.
 APPENDIX II.

TOLKAPPIYAM versus AGAPPOBUL.

I subjoin here for comparison half-a-dozen Sutras from the

two works, Tolkdppiyam and AgapporuL:

Tolkdppiyam. Agapporul.

J. ) 127. 7.

aieussreuir

inpoyr
' Qpssru

2. *6ira?ujso 133. 17.

3. O 130. 18. (9jf$Qui*SIL.I Lj

vp Qpssru.

4. & 114. 59. *

Q sinks
(o<siijpii9p>
(5 a r ssi rS gpi/g?

leflfj

11 Qjirai(5e$

5. i 174. 54. *
aail
fflcwafl
 APPENDIX II. 223

6. aj&tftu*) 187. 43.

Lfpuuir

j3/6Tttjr
Ljweuir

Is it not a little puzzling that Agapp&rul, which lays claim to

a divine origin, should thus slavishly copy the terminology of
Tolkappiyrm, a work without any odour of inspirational sanctity
about it? For it isadmitted generally, and by orthodox pandits
specially, that Tolkappiyar being a much earlier author could
not have borrowed his language from Agapporul. And the possi-
bility of both following a third and common anterior work is
entirely out of the question, for none such has ever been alleged
to e:ist. Even creating for the nonce mich a hypothetical com-
mon original, still it will not save Agapporul from the charge of
open plagiarism which after all suits ill with its high pretensions
to divine descent.
 APPENDIX III.

THE AUTHORSHIP OP 'KALITTOGAI'.

The late C. W. Damodaram Filial, the first Editor of KaUt-
togai, ascribed the whole work to one author, Nallantuvanar, and
I find no eogent reason to dissent from his decision. The work
itself bears the impress of one artist's execution throughout its
five divisions. The syntactical forms employed and the rhythms
and rhetorical devices adopted possess a certain family-likeness ,

and point to a common parentage. The numerous references to

Madura, to the river Yaigai, and to the Pan<Jiya king, occurring
in all parts of the work, lead me to assume that the author should
have belonged, if not to the Madura city, at least to the Madura
country on the basin of the Vaigai. I append hereunder some
extracts from Kalittogai in support of this view.

1.

p)QRp\LJ(G (TFfBtnrn
Kali., Palai, 30.

2.

* *
$ss3riimi_

Kali., Palai, 35.

Kali., Kurinri, 57.

4.

* # *
n Caj&i&Sr Guiffjuucw

(LpSssrojirsm Guirev
* *
|iflrcfr!i>ni_< ^L*
KaH., Marutam, 92.
 APPENDIX III. 226

5.

L-TWIJ
o/rt_.
Kali., Marutam, 98.

QsnerusfQeu
i, 104.
u
7.
Qufr(ffj& pir prrn
;>
GuiretiJi Qd5/7^<F/7/f 07.
ffatt., .VeytoJ, 141.

8.

KaK., Neytal, 143.

While the internal testimony of the work bears out the theory
of unitary authorship of the poems, later-day scholarship has been
busy ferreting out a fugitive stanza like the following:

and raising on it the untenable hypothesis of a multiplicity of

authors for this modest work of 149 stanzas in KaK metre. This
floating stanza of an unknown author is evidently a late mnemonic
verse of facts which require to be proved by tradition instead of
the tradition itself being helped any way by the verse. Applying
the facts of the Synchronistic Tables one can easily find out that
the five authors mentioned in the verse belonged to different gene-
rations. They could never have been contemporaries. Such being
the case, we have to infer that Kalittogai too, like Pattuppatfu,
is an accretion of a few centuries. The nature of the work does
not however permit any such inference. It is surprising that
some scholars who follow uncritically the lead of a misleading
stanza should have failed to appreciate the artistic unity which
runs through the whole of this beautiful work. The attempt to
break up this compact artistic structure the creation of one
C 29
226 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMItjS.

master mind and try to distribute its contents to the credit of

various authors1 almost savours of a touch of Philistinism.

The editor of the new edition of Kalittogai, Pandit E. V.

Anantarama Aiyar, has sprung another surprise on us. He sug-
gests an emendation of the good old name ageoeon&Qj&r
as

iseuQjtv&euesr. Neither beauty of sound nor facility of pronuncia-

tion is improved by the proposed reading. Moreover, the Pandit
seems to have missed the delicate phonetic principles which guided
the ancient authors in the matter of proper names. Wherever
'
/$' its shortened form occurred in ancient
*
the prefix G&> or
' '
names, $ always preceded names beginning with a hard con-
sonant, as ii^ /y&ssar&BTtfj/r/f, /ydsffir.gj'r, tfL/L/^&Mj/r/f, Guuireopp
^9/r, nr&Q&&r&iriLurir9 etc.,
names began with a vowel or a
and ^ was
soft or
invariably used when
medial consonant, as in
the

196

Qa/crrerfluj/r/f, /yAGa/LLt-^/r,
etc.The combination
reveals its late origin ; had it come down from the early age it
'
would have reached us not in the G&G&T
form,^(5<gc/r&wr but as
Ssaar* or m irfessr as in Geo/siQ&reft' This invariable early
&><&$&
usage shows that /^stf/^si/gj/f as it stands, i^ a correct form
,

and needs no emendation.

(1) A close study of the five sections of this work discloses throughout
numerous repetitions both in thought and diction, sometimes even
bordering
on mannerism, which cannot but be ascribed to one and one writer
only.
These I hope to present in a separate booklet.
 APPENDIX IV.
NOTE ON *ABKKADU' AND 'ARUVALAR'.
The popular derivation of the name Arkkatfu, to which Dr.
Caldwell has given the honour of a mention in his work as ^7 ijjj
i'rom
^ ,a>*

A
( a<Jaraijyam in Sanskrit) is too puerile for serious
name with
refutation more plausible attempt is to connect the

^T, Ar tfee dttrtree, a variety of ebony (Bauhinia T&mentosa).

Considering the fact that the Chola kings wore garlands of the Atti
flower, .as their family emblem, this derivation has at least the
semblance of support from an historical fact. But in my opinion
thishardly goes to the root of the matter. The names of numer-
ous tillages adjoining Arcot on the river Palar such as Arkkonam,
Arni, Arppakkam require some other explanation. This portion
of the country, according to Ptolemy, was inhabited by the Aru-
valar tribe in the second century A.D. Early Tamil literature
calls its two divisions Aruva and Aruvavadatalai, i.e., AravS,

North and South. The modern districts of South Arcot, North

Arcot and Ghingleput may be taken as marking their extent. The
people of this tract was evidently the Naga race who seem to
1

have occupied the whole of the northern border extending

westwards to the verge of the Arabian Sea. Tamila-
gam was then separated from Dakshinapada or Dekkhan
proper of the Aryan colonists by a broad belt of forest land
inhabited, in addition to the aboriginal hill tribes and nomads as
the Kuravars and the Yetfars, by the Naga tribes, known as the Aru-
vajars or Kurumbars. These last were a thorn on the side of the
rulers of the border states of the Tamil land and gave them a 'sea of
troubles' by their depredations and frequent forays. The most dis-

tinguishing peculiarity of the Naga tribe was that they lived in forti-
fied places called Aran (jy^is^r)
in Tamil. References to such
fortresses are numerous in the poems we are dealing with. Both
Ar and Kurwmbu mean fortification in Tamil, probably their earlier

signification. (Cf. The meanings of jty/rswr, ^-anjr

(1) That the name Aruvajar was connected with the Naga race will
be evident from the following reference: "Among others Majjhantiko was
despatched to Kashmira and Gandhara. A Naga king of that country, named
Aravalo endowed with supernatural powers by causing a furious deluge to
descend was submerging all the ripened crops in Kashmira and Gandhara."
J. Ferguson's Tree and Serpent
Worship, p. 47.
228 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

allof which are traceable to the root Ar). The name 'Aruvajar,
thus literally denotes the people living in fortified places. Later
on the words and 1 came to signify also
_sy/7F>a/i?of ra^ii/.'/f
people of mischievous or evil propensities; but evidently
these later developments in meaning are ascribable Vo
well-known laws of association by which changes in the

significance of words are effected in course of time.

The Telugu and Kanarese-speaking people even to this day make
contemptuous references to Aravamu, the Tamil with which they
came into contact in the borderland and to Arav&ru, the Tamil-
speaking people. Though the Aruvajars spoke a kind of Tamil,
it would be a serious blunder both, ethnologically and culturally

to confound them with the Tamil races living farther South. The
Tamils too held these semi-barbarous borderers in great contempt.
The following stanza conveys that popular judgment :

"
/d&/r
JrStf/T QuiLJ
oj/r/f."

Though in Ptolemy's time this portion of the country had

come under the Chola rule, he marks the ethnic difference by a
separate mention of the Arvarnoi tribes in his account of South
India. But as often happens when one race meets another, a
fusion seems to have taken place in later times, and the ancient
Naga tribes were also received into the Dravidian society. This
Naga race should not, however, be confounded with the aborigi-
nal hill and forest tribes such as the Kupavar, the Ve<Jar, etc., who
still stand lowest in the scale of civilization.

(1) The new Tamil Lexicon gives the following meanings:

 APPENDIX V.

NOTE ON THE TAMIL SUFFIX man

The term Velman should be properly understood. The

ending LD
-
sir 'should not be confounded with the Sanskrit suffix
9
'man which found its way into Tamil in later times, as for

instance, mat
occurring in yf/nrssr, ijjsj&'t>Tssri xsf>J)Lm<o!fr et c .

Dolman one of the earliest formations in the Tamil language,

1
is

'/wst like Cheraman, Adikaman, Tonflaiman, etc., with the suffix

man (ujisir)
which is only a shortened form of the full term
'
'n<ag* n (LT>&GV).
The feminine form Ve]mal is likewise a con-
traction of VelmagaJ. In Tamil this word Magan or Maga) has
two distinct meanings. It means a son or a daughter and also
an individual or person in general belonging to a particular Kucii

(family), or a community formed of a number of such

families. This distinction the first Aryan incomers could not
understand and thus were led to make a mess of the early literary 1

and linguistic usage by confounding the two significations. The

'
term Kerajaputra ', for instance, remains to this day a puzzle
for the Sanskritists to solve. They translated the name literally
as "the son of Kera]a", which does not make any sense whatever.
If they had interpreted the term as the literal translation of a
Tamil idiomatic expression Kerajar or Cheralar-magan, meaning of
course a person belonging to the family or community of Cheralar
and then the king or ruler of that community, they would have
exactly hit the peculiar connotation. I may instance also the
ridiculous attempt to import Persian magis into Tamilagam by
,some European Sanskrit savants in interpreting the simple phrase
'Brahmani Magoi' occurring in Ptolemy's Map of India. There
the geographer locates one of the earliest Aryan settlements in the

(1) The editor of Pattuppdffu in his introduction to that work ezpli

Volman as Ca/crfl/f ^^a
the chief of Vejir. If the term V51
ear, itselj
denote a chief or king, I do not see why man should be made to
same meaning over again. Probably he must have taken this sufl
traction, of the Sanskrit word w^rresr. However, the fact
appearing with Vel takes a feminine form u;rer> as in
such attempts to connect this form with a Sanskrit original altoge
230 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TAMILS.

South at the foot of Mount Malakuta1 in the southern part of the

Kanarese country near the source of the Kaviri. He follows the
Tamil nomenclature and marks the territory as occupied by
Brahmana Makka) or MftkkaJ (t9irm^0siffL^^s&r or Lo/rijsefr)
or the Brahmin community. Thus we find the want of acquaintance
with Tamil idiomatic usage has been at the bottom of the whole
error.

(1) This name furnishes another instance of the liberties taken with the
original Tamil names in the process of Sanskritisation. The Tamil name
Kutamalai given to the hills of Coorg was literally inverted to give us the
of the Sanskrit authors.
 APPENDIX VI.
NOTE ON KARUVUB, THE CHERA CAPITAL.

I have the authority of Dr. Vincent A. Smith and Mr. Kanaka-

sabhai Pillai to 'identify Tirukkarur near Kotamaftgalam as the
ancient Chera Capital. The controversy started by Pandit B.
Baghava Aiyangar, in favour of Kanlr, in the Trichinopoly
District, is lio doubtan elaborate special pleading which is ingeni-
ous but not convincing. The fundamental proposition with which
the Pandit starts to prove his thesis, that the three Tamil sovereigns
>/ere in possession of their several kingdoms in South India since

creation, is a piece of dogmatism which few will be prepared to

accepi. Not only does he not take into account the facts dis-
closed in the early poems but seems to beg the whole question
by representing the various independent chieftains warring
against the Tamil kings as rebels pure and simple. lie represents
the Tamil kings to have been born as it were for ready-made
kingdoms to inherit and rule over. Facts of history belie this
primary assumption of his. Kingdoms like organisms are born,
grow and decay in time and none, with any scientific spirit in
him, will hazard the statement that the Tamil kingdoms alone were
an exception to the general rule. And, as a matter of fact, what
do we find in some of the works we are just now handling f Con-
fining our attention to Patirruppattu alone, the conquest of
Pulina<Ju, of or Kotfagu, of Umbarkatfu or the Elephant
NaUikanam
country, probably round about the Anaimalai in South Coimba-
tore, of Kotigu country, of Kolli, of Takacjur in Salem, of Mala-
yaman-na^u on the banks of the river South Pe^nar in the South
Arcot District, follows one after another in the space of four
successive generations. The conquest of the Koftgu country was
first begun in the time of Pal-Yanai-Cel-Kelu Kuftuvan appearing
in the fourth generation and takes two generations more for its
actual completion. The earlier Cheras appear to have devoted
their time to the conquest of the coast strip lying to the west of
the Western Ghats and possessing in its south-eastern corner the

important key-station, the Coimbatore gap, which alone would

give them an entry into the Koi'igu country. Facts of history
studied thus along with those of geography must make it clear
that the Cheras could by no means have gained a
footing in the
 32 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TAMILS.

Kongu country in the period of the earlier genera-

tions of the Tables. Koftgu, however, is
Synchronistic
easy of approach from the east and actually
and south
we found the Chola Power in Kofigu and, in the next genera-

tion, a southern power also entering the field. The Ko&gu

land was then free from the Cheras rendering it thus an easy
prey to be actually overrun by the forces of Aayi AmJiran of the
fourth generation. Historical facts such as these embodied in
early literature absolutely negative the idea of the Chera capital
being Karur in the Trichinopoly District a town of much later
growth. Even facts gathered from the mediaeval history con-
tained in Pwiyapuranam clearly establish that Coimbatore or
Southern Kongu was a thick forest infested by marauding tribes
with but a few shrines and a sparse population here and there
scattered about. It should have been much more so in still
earlier times. Had Karur in Coimbatore been the Chera capital,
surely its adjacent parts would not have been allowed to remain
in the primeval state of a forest-covered area, unless, of course,
we assume that some sudden cataclysm had swept the Cheras out
of existence and allowed those fair regions to be overgrown with
thick jungle in the interval. Who would ever subscribe to that
view? Taking all these facts into account we are forced to con-
clude that Coimbatore District at that time was a forest area

lying far away from the capital of the Tamil kings and occupied
by forest tribes, who had to maintain a constant fight with their
more civilized neighbours.

Then again Vanci or Karuvur, the ancient Chera capital,

should satisfy two primary conditions to render any identification
of its site, acceptable, viz., that it should stand on the banks of a
big navigable river by name Porunai or An Pomnai and that that
river should have Musij-i, (the modern Cranganore), at its mouth.
The following references culled from the ancient poets all point
only to one conclusion which goes to strengthen Mr. Kanakasabhai
Pillai's identification. Only we shall have to carefully guard
ourselves against being mystified by the numerous names under
which the river Periyar appears in the ancient texts. It appears
as Porunai, An-Porunai, Tan-Porunai, CuJJiyaru, or

8. 381.
 APPENDIX VI. 233

2. &(ff)LLT fiAu&rds/TcC (tpaa jpi snpp

( *(5g^r
0ttj/f<sanTJs g;D6Mg)iL/
Gun 5 an ^ LOSSST e8gpit.fi i lerdl&i.

Agam., 8. 93.

3.

., S. 11.

v. 4iirdPuj&

Q; ; y ^
^- L9rS.
Agam., 8. 149.

5. JiA

iiifii'n
/^R_rn L/3asjr(J/
y/r<^\

Puram., 8. 192.

Patirru., 8. 28.

7.

b Gu/rirj!)

Patirru., S. 43.

8. GuSlLUlji j8$fil* ^/T/Ef

L/o3T63TLfi68
Patirru., S. 88.
The untenability of the identification of this major river of
the West Coast with one of the tributaries of the Kaviri, all for the
the ancient Chera capital to
purpose of shifting the location of
Karuvur in the Trichinopoly District, is only too patent to need
any detailed criticism.
Here I may add that the North-western and the South-
eastern boundaries of the ancient Aayi kingdom were marked by
the modern Periyar and the Tampraparni respectively. Both
these rivers appear then to have gone under the names, Porunai
or Tan-Porunai or Culliyaru. The modern name, Tampraparni,
may be traced to ancient Taii-Porunai and the river Solen of the
Greek Geographer to Culliyaru of those days. The term Porunai
itself, as has been already pointed out in foot-note (1) of page
66, is a part of the fuller name An-Ponunai, literally the river that
C 30
 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TAMILS.
resembles a milch-cow by its perennial supply of milk-like water.
This poetic name, I am sure, must have been prevalent from the
earliest times when the pastoral tribes over whom the Aayi kings
ruled lived in the regions lying between those rivers of the East
and the West Coast.
 APPENDIX VII.
NOTE ON POET IDAIKKADAB.

Poet Idaikkadar, like some other poets as Para^ar, Kapilar

and Awaiyar, has the rare distinction of being made to live
again in much later times and play his part for the admiration
of a posterity which would not allow him to make his exit from
the stage of life. He appears also to have lived when Rural
was placed before the Sangam for its approval and to have sung
a couplet in praise of that work. By the Tables one
can see that this poet belongs to the eighth generation
and Kapilar comes between the fourth and the fifth.

Thus clearly enough fulltwo generations separate them. Still

we find the author of Tinwolavdywf&iyar TimvilaiydM*purdnam
asserting positively

20: 1.

Probably some who are determined to stand by all literary

texts of by-gone days may be inclined to create another Kapilar

to establish this Puranic writer's veracity. But the difficulties
which have gathered round the great name of Kapilar can
scarcely be tided over by a single such creation. shall have We
to requisition at least two more Kapilars to personate the author
of Kurincipdttu in the Ten Idylls leaving out of account the
Kurinci portions of Aiyinkupunuru and Kalittogai for the pre-
sent and of Sivapcrumdn Tiruvandddi and the other poems

appearing in the eleventh Tirumwrai. Will it be right to give

'a local habitation and a name' to such fictitious authors of the
works of later days and take them for historic personalities?
Are we to consider for instance Kapilar too as an immortal like
Agastya or at least as having lived, more than the ordinary
mortal span of years, for some centuries? Or are we to open an
arithmetical series like Kapilar I, Kapilar II, Kapilar III, etc.,
to keep each name apart to its appropriate historical environ-
238 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.
that alone will lead us to truth. All that I urge here is the

necessity of applying to the so-called 'third Sangam' works of

Tamil literature such scientific methods of study and interpreta-
tion as are now adopted by the Orientalists of the West
in the interpretation of the Vedic texts. As in the case of

Sanskrit, in Tamil also, a great gap of time divides the later

grammarians and commentators from the ancient poets and hence
arises the need of scrutinizing thoroughly and with critical insight
the deliverances of these later writers.

Taking first Tolkappiyar's treatment of "man* ( Lr4,-ir)

find him giving three meanings for this particle: (1)
(condition of being past or past time), (2) ^idsdj (becoming),
and (3) (importing an ellipsis to be supplied accord-
epifiiff<sn&
ing to circumstances). One would like to know how these multi-
coloured meanings differing from one another in all the cate-
gories of time, past, present and future, arose from that simple
monosyllabic word 'man\ Not only are they various, they are
oven mutually exclusive. The science of Semantics, which
occupies itself with a study of the changes in the significance of
words, feels certain of its results only when the various meanings
associated with a word in its historical development are connected
with one another by appropriate bridges erected by logical or
psychological laws or perceivable or conceivable historical
by
accidents. Tolkappiyar's three meanings stand without any such
connection and cannot therefore be held as issuing from one
primary root-meaning of the particle. On the other hand, they
seem to be based upon extraneous characteristics arising from the
different contexts in the sentences in which such a particle
occurs.

Moreover, in their application to some of the texts of the

ancient poets, these meanings, in spite of their convenient vague-
ness and generality, are found to fail. Before illustrating this
fatalwant of correspondence between Tolkappiyar's meanings
and the early texts, it is necessary to clarify one's ideas about
' '

gts*tL as conceived by Tolkappiy&r. Ilampuraijar illustrates

* '
it by and Daivaccilaiyar by '
usssr dS7Looir jy^LoGWuj
nflfi swTfiflttj/r GsnQeu '. From such illustrations one must
conclude that wherever tfisir appears affixed to a r^S
(1) If SL$QJ were taken to mean u$($f muchness, it would anit
some texts; but none of the commentators has given that interpretation.
 APPENDIX VIII. 23d

(time-less verb, i.e., a noun used aa a predicate) it supplies ^ti

orjk&ti or^dpjy <ids*Q* and completes the formal9
the

predication. One can further infer that in cases where 'man

is affixed to a verb signifying time (Q^,fl/9a> fi&r) the signi-
ficance of 'man' should be looked for under either o^g^ or

6pLf9u9&>6:. If, however, any were to contend that ^MSLD could

arise even from a man-affixed time-signifying verb, it would really
amount to making ^jjitfii
and lead
lose its specific force
further to the absurdity of every predicate with a 'man' being
twisted to give the meaning of ^IXSLD. It would be, in short,

obliterating the distinctions which Tolkappiyar himself evidently

wanted to draw between the various meanings he has assigned.
Thus according to the orthodox interpretation, the meaning of
should not be applied to such texts as the following:
j$i.s/n
1. ftofl/f LA6SrGff5T.
(DtpRpdssr
Agam., S. 87.

2.
gj/fgjan6i/ u>9r(0g) eueuesriMir &Girjs($p.
Puram., S. 230.

On
the other hand, it will be quite appropriate for such
texts as:

1. iLnressrff Geuafleinr LbGaofagp.

Agam., S. 341.

2. u&Sso i&niufR QtiOarf),^ lo/D/fi^ai.

Agam., S. 333.

3. /9U>/7U>69T GflT ffl

GUirffl
* *
uAuSpit Q/svQar.
Agam., S. 241.

The other two meanings being more or less explicit do not

require any exposition here. Let me now introduce the reader
to the following texts, which cannot be fairly made to take
up
any of the three meanings specified by Tolkappiyar :

1. JL?Z.6ar L/5637637-/7

Agam., S. 125.
2. * * * to
i Qsrruuu
i /.

Puram,, 8. 53.
3. JyesrGear Gn&srewjb nesreuir tfj/rdB
^

* ub^nQesr.
Agam., 8. 203.
240 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

4. * *

Agam., S. 255.

5.
* *
trrftujir DLou9

Agam., S. 330.

6.

., S. 387.

In all these cases, the mew-affixed verbs being in the future

and referring decisively only to future events the meaning of
iflftj clearly inapplicable. Nor can we say that these

time-signifying verbs can express cg^jc/n consistently with

the specific meaning of ^jicB/o before laid down. And in none
of these cases can be brought in as there is no ellipsis
gpyPuSlfiu)^
to be supplied in any of them. Thus one and all the texts quoted
above 'refuse being coaxed to take up any of the three meanings
of Tolkappiyar, simply because these have diverged a good deal
from the idea the ancient poets wanted to convey by the use of
this particular particle.

A comparative study of the verbs with the man-affix opens

however a new and fruitful way of interpretation. In the texts
of the ancient poets 'man' served to express 'certainty'. It added

emphasis to a predication. It appears with both time-signifying

and time-less verbs in all tensesand persons and modifies the
predicates to which it ia attached as an adverbial adjunct meaning
1
certainly, surely, positively, emphatically. That 'man* is a
particle expressing certainty can also be clearly established from
its connection with the verbal root man, to exist or persist to
exist. Existence being the most authentic standard to measure
certainty 'man' naturally seems to have come to express the new
idea. Even in the verbal form it has begun to show signs of this
change of meaning.
Take the following line of. Kapilar from a
stanza :

(1) I am glad to find that I have been forestalled in this view by Dr.
Pope. He expounds 'man' as a particle of emphasis. Vide 'man' in the
index to his Edition of Kwaj.
 APPENDIX vin. 2*1

Here the Lncw^ii imports not existence

relative participle
but certainty. Kapilar should be here understood as saying "I
am certainly an antanan" and not "I am an existing antagan"
which makes little sense. Following the verbal 'man' expressing
'
certainty', the adverbial particle 'man' also conveys an identical
significance of emphasis. I may also state in this connection that
'man* does not differ at all in meaning from 'manra' (UJSW/D)
to which Tolkappiyar assigns this force of emphasis or certainty.

He calls it G^/D/DLD. Though Tolkappiyar tries to draw a dis-

tinction .between 'man' and 'Manra', in the usage of the early
poets they differ only in quantity and not in meaning. Both
import certainty
'
Examples of

Puram., S. 261.
2. Q&esrGqyesr usttrpeux ear.
(jjsar j)/fljp
Agam., S. 48.
3.

Puram., S. 336.
4. .

Puram., S. 26.
5. LAW JDLDLD

Agam., S. 367.

Examples of 'man*.

1. SjSGiLJfresr
Puram., S. 75.
2.

Q&J63T&1GIJU
Agam., S. 8.

3.
t L&GffQesresr
Agam., S. 387.
4. 6sru>6w.
Agam., S. 376.
5. e/3>Cta QojesrQp* GniriQ
m etr.

Agam., S. 248.
031
242 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TAMILS.

In these verses the particles 'mwra,' and 'man' are both

adverbial adjuncts (DL-^Q*/TW) denoting certainty and add
emphasis and nothing else to the sense of the verbs to which
they are attached. The one being a dissyllable and the other a
monosyllable does not at all affect their significance. Take again
the following lines:

(Lpp>{8
GUITIULDUl-S jpj-
S. 298.

Here thetparticles 'man* and 'nuwra' are used with verbs

in connection with one and the same person and to import the
same meaning in exactly identical circumstances. In the face
of this stanza how can any one say that these words differ in
meaning? In fact, such differences have not been found in these
particles; they have been only read into them.
If the reader now tries to apply the meaning suggested here
to all the early texts where 'man' and 'manra* appear affixed to
the predicates, he will find how appropriately it suits the contexts
and how fully it brings out their meaning. Let me hope that
this explication will save future expounders of these ancient
poems from the trouble of stretching their texts on the procrus-
tean bed of this particular Sutra of Tolkappiyar or of being
forced, to take refuge in the later canon that 'man' is a meaning-
less particle. However much the poems of later Tamil literature
are filled with such particles, mere dead shells without the living
organism of a meaning inside, the texts of the old poets do not
allow me to ascribe meaninglessness so lightly to their words. If
we have not understood their meanings, we have to patiently try
our best till light dawns on us and not to hasten to bury them in
the grave of expletives conveniently dug and kept ready by the
grammarians.
<Kol>
(QA)
Turning particle 'kol' we find
to the that Tolkappiyar 's
explanation of the term as 'doubt* IB but an attempt at an
approximate signification and does not help us to correctly inter-
pret many of the ancient texts. No doubt, it seems to hold good
in some instances; but the number of cases to which it does not
apply is so large that a re-examination of its correctness and
applicability to the early texts is imperatively called for.
 APPENDIX VIII. 243

So far from supporting Tolkappiyar's meaning a compara-

tive study of the froJ-affixed verbs supports the conclusion that
in the language of the early poets 'kol' invariably discharged
the grammatical function of a question in a sentence. It is a
mere question-mark, a syntactical form which has dropped out
of later Tamil.

Before offering
my proofs for this, I shall, for clearness' sake.
arrange the various types of questions occurring in early litera-
ture under certain Avell-defined classes based on the psychological
characteristic or background from which all of them proceed.
This is the more necessary since Tolkappiyar himself has
all

assigned a psychological meaning to 'kol' as 'doubt'. It rests

with the reader then to apply Tolkappiyar's Sutra to the various
classified instances and see whether it applies to all or any of
them or breaks down in the process. The sentences with the kol~
affixed verbs may be distributed under four distinct classes of
questions, which proceed from and correspond to the four mental
states of the questioner. They are:
I. Questions craving for information where the ques-
tioner's state of mind is not one of doubt but a blank, a tabula

rasa. Here the

speaker merely seeks for information about
matters of which he or she knows nothing or holds no opinion,
e.g.,

1. GrosiQ&iiip'Tszi QsTsvGSrtrr eSfoQfiTffBsyr ?

Kurincikkali, 8. 24.
2. 6r(p(B)r Leaser/ QdS/r

Puram., 8. 342.

3. ILJ[TIEI(8)& Q&ILJ&J1 /EyQd5/T^)?

NaT ., 8. 51.

4. jytS&f Qu>/r(icff<(zpjb nwabrQmlrn ^swwQa/rflO ?

Nar., 8. 110.

II. Questions whereby the questioner seeks to resolve

certain doubts in his or her mind regarding opinions, beliefs,
judgments, conduct, etc., e.g.,,

1.

Ainkuru., 8. 90.
2. c.6wr0d5/r etmjpQsrreti tu/r jpQdS/rA LDJbQpatr.
Nat., 8. 122.
344 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TAMILS.

3. jy/SU)u Gu/aQsir eujSueo/a

utLi ^
<myo*&.
S. 52.
-Ago*.,
4. 4n-Jpl6U!EJ Off/7 A<J^>T ff^flfOB QdS/ri>Q0flfflr.

Agam., S. 198.
III. Questions whereby the questioner desires to secure
confirmation of his own views already arrived at in his mind.
Here the questioner, so far from expressing a doubt, must be con-
sidered to have come to a conclusion in his own mind, affirmative
or negative as the case may be, ^ and only tries to enforce it by
means of a question. Such questions are expected to elicit either
affirmative or negative answers according to circumstances.

(a) Questions conveying the affirmative cpnclusions of

the questioner and seeking confirmation by affirmative answers,

(Seussifl

Puram., S. 343.

2. * * (3/5JUJ-T
QsnGjD
* # * *

Nar., S. 305.

Qsmtg$Q&.
Agam., S. 63.
4. ^/j\)fb j5ara/iiO<S'7 eJf^sSsti^^j ?

Mcurutakkali, S. 25.

5. a/Tsrrfi0&8Tc& &f8iLnu9 ofi&aQqy

(SurruSssrjpi Qjsrev1>isi)iT * *

JVar., S. 205.

6.
<iir(Sp L&IGUIT irir(S<$
Lo/r<si7/r

* * * *

., S. 273.
 APPENDIX VIII. 2*5

(6) Questions conveying the negative conclusions of the

questioner and seeking confirmation by negative answers.
The mentioned in class III
positive psychological states
(a) and <*) and the blank state of class I, preclude doubt of any
sort on the part of the speaker, e.g.,

uxrfitu

Purem., 8. 243.

2. UGKffL^fS lUfrfiiQurrp uL-nQp&ff u>p>Q* a GsM

# # # *

KurMcikkdK, 8. 3.

3.

* *

Agam., 8. 225.

4. Ofiw/r gatutiveu LLI^GVS^SJ

^or., 8. 225.

5. * *

S. 206.

IV. Merely formal or rhetorical questions whereby the

questioner, in moments of heightened feelings such as surprise,
grief, fear, etc., allows his language to find vent in the form of
a question and thus' gives the most effective expression to the then
dominant psychic mood. These are questions only in form but
reallycome very near to interjections or exclamations, e.g.,

Puram., 8. 234.

2. ^b&rr Q/a>/0 lurre&rtBsiT&n Qs/r^)(?<3tf/r

Qis<gp&p> effipfcp L/fiirna) GiutjQ&r ?

Pttfow., 8. 235.
246 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

3.

Puram., S. 351.
4.
fcrawg)/^} QsvqyGQsr
* * % *
ajirSs

Puram., S. 347.
i

5. CT537W u><5BrQs/r<ffO (Sprrffl ?

JVof ., S. 94.

Applying Tolkappiyar's dictum re> fcrf for the interpreta-

tion of the various foregoing fc0Z-affixed verbs, it seems to serve

only in a limited number of instances falling under class II. The

idea of doubt cannot be imported into the texts in the other
and natural meanings. Reali-
classes without detriment to their plain

sing this difficulty Pavanandi supplemented Tolkappiyar's meaning

by grafting an expletive function too on koL I need scarcely
point out that this wonderful meaning of 'meaninglessness' coined
by the later grammarian to cut the gordion knot presented by
the ancient texts is only a confession of impotence on Pavaiiandi's
9
part to reach the idea of the early poets in the use of 'Kol .

Still allowing that grammarian the benefit of his new device, it

will help him only in some cases under classes I, IV and III (a),
where other interrogative words1 in the sentence will convey the
intended meaning, with kol itself expunged as a meaning-
less particle. In sentences where only kol appears with-
out other interrogative words, they will be turned into
assertive predications by thus depriving kol of its inter:
rogative function. These manipulations however hardly count
when we come to the tough cases coming under class
III (6). Tn fact, these supply the instantia crucis to test
the validity of the theory of the Tamil grammarians and of the
rival hypothesis herein suggested. Taking ihe examples. 2, 3 and 4
in this class, in all of them the speaker clearly conveys a negative

proposition and this can never be effected by construing kol

either in the light of Tolkappiyar's dictum of doubt or with

(1) The phenomena of double interrogation, as double demonstratives

and double vocatives, etc., have not been treated at all in Tamil grammar.
I refrain from entering into this question in detail here, for even without

propounding this new theory, the interrogative character of the word kol
can be fulfy established.
 APPENtttX VIII. 24*

Pavai^andi's meaning of 'meaninglessness'. Unless we invest kol

with an interrogative function, the affirmative character of the pre-
dication must remain and thus convey the very opposite of the
meaning intended by the speaker. It will be noted that in these

cases the speaker enforces the following negative conclusions as :

and how can this magical transformation of affirmative predicates

like

be accomplished without assigning an interrogative function

to kolf When we know that even an assertive sentence
may become an interrogatory by the peculiar intonation of the
speaker a device beyond the scope of the written language
cases where the interrogative sentences should import the very

opposite of their predication need cause little difficulty.

In short, if the grammarians had laid down a rule stating
the interrogative function of kol it would have covered all
the instances occurring in early literature. Overlooking this
fundamental grammatical function, they appear to have gone a
little into Psychology and have created an imaginary meaning

for the term kol. The tabulation of the different types of

questions hereabove presented to the reader is enough to show
how many and diverse are the psychological attitudes of the

speaker which drive him to couch his language in an interro-

gation. The interpreter of the literary texts is of course bound
to read aright the particular psychological state of the ques-
tioner's mind for a correct elucidation of the texts. But a gram-
marian need not entangle himself in such psychological analyses
and puzzles and thus miss his plain duty of defining the function
and form of a word in the sentence in which it occurs. This
perfunctory excursion into Psychology has in fact made the
labours of the commentators of the literary works more difficult
and arduous. In illustration, I shall transcribe here a few verses
* '
from cflt/f
(ajypajfi
in CUoppadikdram (19:51-59) and the
relevant portions of Adiyarkkunallar's commentary thereon:

The commentary runs thus:

Q*/rA> jjgojii (In the face of Tolkappiyar's dictum
the commentator could not do anything else. As a grammarian
248 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMltA
he does not probe into the exact significance of kol; but such
an omission does not prevent him from correctly expounding the
lines, guided by the true instincts of a literary man). The com-
mentary continues: "u/f^s a/ffomro) anm Q&irQfvSssrp peujpt

It is unnecessary to inquire here why Adiyarkkunallar him-

self should not have felt the clear contradiction between his almost
mechanical reproduction of Tolkappiyar's meaning 'Otf/rA-ggajLo*
and the ascription of a negative proposition to the heroine by
himself in the closing lines of his commentary. The commenta-
tor of Purwndnuru too follows the same method in expounding

AvvaiySr's line:

{jfyesrgu
ti uffm&f uirty-Qsresr u>/DQ/ra>.
and while giving the meaning in an affirmative proposition he in-
'

consequentially adds Q/7v) jgajLo

'
in his appended note. So

heavy lies the hand of the master on these commentators! As a

matter of fact the commentator of Purananuru, in his interpre-
tation, follows Pavanandi and takes kol as an expletive.
In the light of this detailed study, the knot presented by
the line of the poetess quoted above need not be cut at all by the

sharp sword of the grammarian but can be untied quite naturally

and so fittingly as to harmonize with the historical necessities
brought to light in the Synchronistic Tables. I shall wind up
my remarks by inviting attention to the distinction that should
be kept in mind about the two meanings that have been assigned
here. The meaning of man falls under what Dr. Jesperson calls the
notional category while that of kol is merely syntactical. The
former may be traced regularly to its origin in the verbal root
man whereas kol, at present, cannot be so traced. Its relation
with the verbal root kol is not at all clear and so the origin
of this question-mark remains a subject for further investigation.
 APPENDIX IX.

NOTE ON THE ELEPHANT-MARKED COINS OP MADURA.

Rev. E. Loventhal in his work, Tlw Coins of Tinnevelly, after

referring to the existence of two distinct Pantfya dynasties, one
of Korkai and the other of Madura, observes: "Both the chief
lines had the elephant and the battle-axe as their royal marks,

probably because they were closely related to each other." Early

Tamil literature furnishes the most direct testimony on the rela-
tion of the two lines of the Pai.i<Jiya kings shrewdly arrived at

by the reverend gentleman from the valuation of numismatic

evidence before him. It confirms his conclusion that the two-
lines belonged toone family having their original seat at Korkai.
In course of time the coin gets an additional fish-mark and Mr.
Loventhul suggests that the elephant and fish-marks symbolize
the Buddhistic and the Vaishnavite character of the religious
persuasion of the then Panc^liya kings. Whatever may be the
significance of the fish, 1 am inclined to hold that the battle-axe
\\as the original emblem of the Korkai rulers and that the elephant-
mark should have been added later on after the conquest of the
Aayi country by Pasumpiln-Pai^tUyan. It is not at all improb-
able that the Aayi rulers themselves may have had the elephant-
mark as their royal emblem. The Travancore royal house, which
now rules over the greater part of the ancient Aayi country, has
the elephant-mark in its crests, with a conch (a symbol of
still

Visnu) placed between and underneath the uplifted trunks of

the animals. As to the
Aayi kings, it is quite appropriate that
they should have assumed this particular elephant-emblem,
themselves being the rulers of an extensive mountain region; and
the probability of the truth of such an assumption is all the greater
if we bringin also the literary evidence bearing on this question.

Many are the references in the earliest Tamil poems to the strik-
ingly lavish gifts of elephants bestowed on the poets by the Aayi
kings in a manner quite characteristic of their line. Umparka^u,
the elephant forest, belonged to them at first and came to be
annexed to the Chera dominions later on. Two verses may be
quoted here about the elephant-gifts of the Aayi kings:

C-32
250 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EAELY TAMILS.

as/rear

Qu(rjjQeurr Qen&raflf)
-rPutawi., S. 129.

3&rr(Lp&fEJ sireuir
6U6MTGSSTGV ILJirSsST QlUGSSTGxfl G)<S/T/E7d5/f <i

&. 130.

These facts fairly make it more than probable that the ele-
phant-mark in the Madura coin symbolises Pasumpun-Panfliyan 's
conquest of the Aayi kingdom. I think such a turning political
event as this is more likely to be commemorated in contemporary
coinage than the religious persuasion of a king or kings which in
fact came to assume importance only after the lapse of four or
five centuries from that early date.
 APPENDIX X.

NOTE ON THE ABYAS AND 'VADAFULAH'.

The tendency of the human mind to ascribe its own thoughts

and feelings to its surrounding objects is a common enough
phenomenon and in the matter of reading the ancient history of
a country a like tendency impels most of us to project into it
our own modes of thought and life and thereby to invert the
events from their true historical setting. As an instance of the
creation of such false historical perspectives, Dr. A. Berriedale
Keith in his work on Buddhist Philosophy draws pointed attention
to how the advanced idealistic conceptions of the later Mahayana
system were read back into the earlier Buddhism of the days of
its founder. In Tamil literature too this unconscious inversion
has been going on for a long time. Conceptions borrowed from
such late works as Cilappadikaram and Manim.ekalai are generally
read back into the poems of the earliest poets with the result that
a false picture of the early tines is created and believed in. Take
for instance the following lines of Paranar:

irsopp ptr&Su
pfS ! eutGuenir
1

(Jew/i fi&>T/j

Agam., S. 396.

This being one of the earliest references to the Aryans in

the group of works we are considering, it must have formed the
starting point from which Ilafiko Acligal passed on to the Aryan
kings of North India and the Himalayas. As an episode in an
epic poem it may be allowed; but as an incident in sober history
it does not deserve serious notice. Parariar's lines should be inter-
preted strictly as referring to Nefluncheralatan's victories over
certainAndhra kings of his time who ruled over territories lying
just to the north of his kingdom, '/^./anir' also should be taken
as referring to the northern-half of the Western Ghats, known then
as fililmalai. We should not import into these lines meanings
historically improbable for that ^period. Let us take another
252 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TAMILS.

couplet: s

Agcm., 8. 336.

The name 'Aryas* here also refers not to the Aryans of

North India, but the Aryans nearer home who lived in 'Ariaca' or
Arya-agam lying beyond the northern border of Tamilagam. It

was then known as 'a/^LfiD/i' also as in the following lines:

currt^

QeutjnQufr fiiu

Puram., S. 52.

Again in interpreting the name *G>ii__,ff)&rp>i}S

unless there
is a clear reference to the Himalayas, the name must be strictly
construed as referring to the northern-half of the Western Ghats,
beyond the Coimbatore gap. Let us take these verses :

Puram., S. 380.

Puram., S. 67.

The reference to sandal-wootl in the first verse and the poetic

description of the intervening Chola country in the second render

the identification of
"a/L-pjeir^/o'
and 'SV/^LD&O' as Blilmalai
quite certain and indisputable.
Thus in the interpretation of this earliest stratum of Tamil
literature \ve should bo on our guard not to import ideas bor-
rowed from later literature which would not fit into it.
 APPENDIX XI.

NUMISMATIC EVIDENCE re THE DARK PERIOD IN TAMIL HISTORY

(4Tii TO GTH CENTURIES "A.D.).

A comparative study of the Pandiya coins of the early

centuries of the Christian era has led Rev. E. Loventhal 1o lay
down that the coins of the later centuries show considerable
debasement. Suggesting that this must have been due to some
internal trouble or war, he writes: "F should think the whole
series of these coins belonged to the 4th, 5th and 6th century
A.D., thai is the time when Buddhism and Brahmanism were
fighting together." T am, however, inclined to hold that this

debasement of coinage should be ascribed more to the political

disturbances then prevailing than to any religious cause. The
fact is incontestable that from a hundred or a hundred and
fifty years from the close of the period of the Synchronistic
Tables, from 300 or 350 A.D., to the beginning of the seventh
i.e.,

century there stretches a period of three centuries, whose dark-

ness there is hardly any means of dispelling by our appeal to
Tamil literature. The thread of continuous literary develop-
ment too seems to have snapped with the abrupt, close of the
dynastic annals arranged and discussed in these Tables. This
breach of continuity in the political and literary life of the
Tamil people must be attributed to the disturbances to which
the once isolated Tamil kingdoms were subjected by the incur-
sions of the growing Pallava power of the North. The loss of
independence or at least the necessity of constantly maintaining
a fight with a northern rival must naturally have led to the
debasement of the coins in the centuries noted, to which Mr.
Loventhal bears valuable testimony.
 APPENDIX XII.

PROF. W. P. CLIFFORD ON THE AUTHORITY OF TRADITIONS.

Venerable as the Sangam tradition is in the Tamil land, first

put into shape by the commentator on Kalaviyal and then sedu-
lously propagated by later commentators, we have to examine
it closely and satisfy ourselves first about its authenticity and
secondly about itsevidentiary value for purposes of history.
Prof. W. P. Clifford in his paper on the Ethics of Belief
emphasizes the necessity of basing belief on a thorough examina-
tion of its grounds. And this he claims, be it noted, even for
traditions more fundamental and hoary than the tradition we
have in respect of the Tamil Sangam. In page 199 of his Lectures
and Essays, Vol. II, he writes:
"What shall we say of that authority more venerable and
august than any individual witness, the time-honoured tradition
of the human race? An atmosphere of beliefs and conceptions
has been formed by the labours and struggles of our forefathers
which enables us to breathe amid the various and complex cir-
cumstances of our life. Tt is around and about us and within
us; we cannot, think except in the forms and processes of thought
which it supplies. Ts i1
possible to doubt and to test it? and if

possible, is it right?
"We answer that it is not only possible
shall find reason to
and right but our bormden duty that the main purpose of tradi-
;

tion itself is to supply us with the means of asking questions,

of testing and inquiring into things; that if we misuse it and
take it as a collection of cut and dried statements to be accepted
without further inquiry, we are not only injuring ourselves here,
but by refusing to do our part towards the building up of the
fabric which shall be inherited by our children, we are tending
to cut off ourselves and our race from the human line."
Tf according to the exhortations of this thinker even the tradi-
tions that have become the very breath of our nostrils should be
subjected to scrutiny, the necessity of theSangam tradition, which
after all mere concoction of a literary coterie, being carefully
is a
and critically examined goes without saying.
 APPENDIX XIII.
NOTE ON Tiruvalluvamdlai.

To Rural,
the great ethico-political treatise of TiruvaJluvar,
is generally appended in its praise a small work of fifty-three
stanzas in venpa metre from the pen of an unknown author. Sup-
pressing his own name, the real composer of this poetic pendant has
chosen to pass it off as the joint-product of the various members of
the third Tamil Academy of Madura. Probably fired with an un-
bounded admiration for Kural, the writer may have thought that
without this bunch of certificates from the whole Saiigain con-
clave the excellencies of that great work could not be well and
truly appreciated by posterity or be that, consigning the
it may
Sangam celebrities proper niches, he wanted to place
to their
TiruvaHuvar on a higher pedestal of his own. Whatever be the
motive of the plan and however genuine it may have appeared
to an uncritical public, it cannot any longer pass muster in the
roll-call of the genuine works of Tamil Literature. The Synchro-
nistic Tables, it is evident, bear hard upon this spurious work. In
the light of their facts and their arrangement one cannot resist the
conclusion that the account contained in Tiruval^uvamdLai is

wholly faked and historically of

value. Even as a
no
pure literary production, so surcharged with the most fulsome
it is

flattery with hardly any ray of critical insight to redeem its

verses that one would be justified in severing its connection with the
great classic of Tiruvajjuvar. The merits of that masterpiece are
admittedly such as not to require this unequal prop.
mere supererogation to analyse the contents of
It is a task of
this work any length and lay bare the impossibilities and im-
at

probabilities it bristles with. A few significant points bearing on

its authenticity may, however, be noted here. The first three
stanzas stand ascribed to the unembodied Spirit
(jy^f/flj, to
Sarasvati and to Iraiyanar the supreme Lord or God. None in
these days will be disposed to seek for authors in such a divine

assemblage as this. The human authorship of these pieces, however,

peeps out of the last line of the stanza assigned to the Spirit, viz.,
"eresrpQpirir QtfiF/rA." Further, the use, in this stanza, of the
word Wewr/f
'
in the sense of beauty fe
very late phenomenon
in Tamil Semantics
appears wholly incongruous to the Sangam
256 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TAMILS.

age and makes the mysterious spirit quite up-to-date to suit the
present-day conditions of the Tamil language. Assuming at any
rate that these three stanzas may have been interpolated into a
genuine poem on religious motives at a later stage and that their
presence should not affect the validity of the rest of the
work, one has still to wonder by what mysterious agency could the
verses of authors separated from one another by centuries be
brought into one work. It is clear that the unknown author has
manipulated with the names of the poets belonging to almost ail the
generations in the Tables and has made them indite verses in praise
of one and the same work and in one and the same metric style.
What is still more remarkable, he has brought into this company
a very large number of much later poets such as i3haratam~pa4iya
Perundevanar, Kavisagara-Pcrundevanar, Cirumedaviyar, Kula-
patinayanar, etc. The medley thus created could be justiliod only
on such assumptions as these that the Academy was a continuing
:

living institution throughout some centuries, that Kura4 was sub-

mitted to that body during Nariveruttalaiyur's time, i.e. 9 about the
second generation, and that all those poets who later on composed
its praise did so not as .Nariveruttalaiyar's contemporaries
stanzas in
but as mere slavish imitators of an ancient model traditionally
handed down to them. If such were the case, this modest work
of 53 stanzas should be considered like Homer or the Makabkd-
raia, a miniature epic of growth!

Ny only excuse for going into this length of criticism is the

amazing seriousness with which such spurious compositions are
treated in our current histories of literature.
 APPENDIX XIV.
NOTE ON THE NAME *

TirumurugarTuppatfai '.

The very name 'Tirumurugamippatfai' proclaims its late

origin involving as it does a new turn in the use of the phrase

& n d quite a departure from the linguistic

^jbcpiuuofit
practice of the early poets. To these latter the phrase stood for a
species of literary composition wherein the poet points out a
way to be pursued by certain individuals addressed by him, for
gaining their particular objects. Thus Q,
m^ffir jbjoii''i '<5a>L_,

and minor), and &n_pf&sn\ JDJPIIJLI&DU-

uirgss)pjp!iJL'<ss>L- (both major
(otherwise known as Malaipaflukalam) all signified compositions
wherein the Porunar, Panar and Kiittar are each directed to pursue
certain paths to attain certain ends of theirs. Inter-

preted according to ruis time-honoured literary usage

'Tirumurugarnippacjai' should denote
composition a
by
which the poet directs Tirumurugan lo follow a certain path to
compass some of his ends. Hut that evidently is not the idea
of this late poet, as the work itself shows. Here he is seen to direct
the devotee to reach jMuriigau in his various shrines, worship him
and thereby get salvation. This undoubledJy involves a departure
from the established literary usage a departure which none of the
old poets would have perpetrated. To strengthen my contention I
shall refer the reader to the use of this identical phrase by an old

poetess, Veri-pa(tiya-Kamakkaru.iiyar, in the line:

Agam., S. 22.

Here the phrase means, as it should, that God Murugan had

been brought to the heroine's home for worship. The transitive
verb u and the verbal noun derived from it M#nL_ appear-
@ipp
ing in the compounds ^pjpuuQfsffi an(l |J/D jp uu&ni~ were
always used then with their grammatical objects. The names of
allthe old Arruppaclai poems fall in line with this early usage.
But in Tirmnumgdrruppa{.tai this usage has been wholly departed
9

from and a new extension effected. Probably this may be a sign of

growth of thought and facility in the use of the linguistic instru-
ment but that means the lapse of an appreciable time for it to come
to pass.

C 33
 APPENDIX XV.
THE AGE OP Tolkdppiyam.
In the cloistered world of Tamil learning, the age of Tolkdp-
piyam stands to this day an insoluble problem. Not that the prob-
lem itself is really insoluble, but it has been made to appear so by
powerful influences, racial, religious, literary, and even sentimental, ,

which have gathered round this particular work and thrown up

such entrenchments as cannot be carried by mere literary men.
Tradition and dogmatic opinion have been responsible for the
widely-entertained belief thatTolkdppiyam alone of the existing
works in Tamil belongs to an anterior stratum, the so-called
'Second Sangam Literature', and that it is far too much older than
Purandnuru, Agandnuru, etc., which are relegated to a special class,
the 'Third Sangam Classics'. This rooted conviction has betm further
by the writings of some of the learned commentators of
stiffened

Tolkdppiyam, who, despising the use of centuries for measuring

the age of this unique work, have launched into aeons and ulis instead
an uli of course taking in that vast stretch of time which inter-
venes between the creation of a cosmos and its destruction.
Even such practically inconceivable periods of time as are dealt with
by the Geologists dwindle into insignificance before the actual
time-measure adopted by these authors in settling a problem in
Tamil literary history ! Such a thoroughly unscientific attitude and
procedure are possible only in a field of study self-centred and
stagnant and absolutely cut off from the vitalizing currents of
modern thought and modern methods.
Taking Tolkdppiyam out of this privileged position and sub-
jecting it as any other work to a critical examination from every
point of view open to a linguist, a literary man or a historian, one
will find that its transcendent antiquity is a pure myth and that
its relative age- in Tamil literary history can easily be settled.

The assigning of this work absolutely to a particular century may

not be feasible at present, for its composition quite probably falls
within the dark period of Tamil history just preceding the advent
of the Religious epoch but to fix its age relatively to some of the
;

third Sangam works, such as Purandnuru, etc., is, it seems to me,

not at all difficult. The linguistic evidence I have thus far gathered
in my study of Tolkappiyar's treatment of 'tfriccor warrants
 APPENDIX XV. 259

the conclusion that the composition of this grammar comes

much later and is separated from the Purandnuru period by a
fairly wide gap of time. Reserving the results of that study
for a separate treatment I shall here confine myself to a discus-
sion of only those points on which the Synchronistic Tables throw
an altogether new and much-needed light.

I shall summarize them under five heads:

(1) The first mention of Veftkatam in this literature occurs

,

in the poems of Kalla<Jamlr, a poet of the seventh generation. It

was in the sixth generation that Aruvana,<Ju
was conquered and
brought under complete subjection by Karikalan II. Both the
father and the grandfather of this sovereign are said to have
fought some battles in the North but those victories did not take
;

them as far north as Venkatam nor did they lead to any per-
manent occupation of territory in that region. It was only
during the time of the great warrior-king Karikfilan II that the
Chola kingdom had its northern frontier pushed to the foot of
Venkatam. If this fact of early Ch51a history is admitted and
existing literature does not permit one to ante-date the conquest
of North Aruvfmaclu in pre-Karikalan days it gives us
an important point cf' appui for the settlement of Tolkappiyar's
age. In the commendatory stanza composed by Panamparanar,
Tolkappiyar's co-student according to tradition, and prefixed to
Tolkdppiyam it is definitely stated that Veftkatam was the northern-
most boundary of Tamijagam at the time of the composition of
that work. Hence one may legitimately infer that
Tolkappiyar
could not have written his grammar before the Chola power had
extended its conquests to the foot of that northern hill. Surely
when the country round about Veiikatam was a region of thickly-
grown forests infested with marauding tribes under their chief-
tain Pullinone would be warranted in assuming that that region
had come under the civilized rule of the Cholas. It was
only after
Ihe complete subjugation of the Aruvanadu of the
Naga tribes
and of the North Aruvfi inhabited by some forest-tribes and the
planting of Tamil colonies in those semi-civilized and barbarous
regions that Veftkatam must be considered to have become the
northernmost boundary of the Chola dominion and hence of
Tamijagam. This bit of political history testified to
by the Tables
about the gradual expansion of the Chola power is entirely sub-
versive of the current view re the
composition of Tolkdppiyam in
the pre-Purananuru period. In the of the early condi-
light
tions it is simply unthinkable.
260 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY TAMILS.

(2) If these Tables establish any historical fact beyond a

doubt it is this: that the rulers of the three royal dynasties of the
Tamils were engaged in an unceasing arid protracted warfare
with many a tribal ruler for the expansion of the very limited
territories with which they seem to have started. Before the
establishment of their capitals at TTraiyur, Karuvur and Kfujal they
could not be considered as having attained the status of 'Great
Kings', a status which their descendants came to occupy in later
times as could well be gathered from the narrations in later litera-
ture. Supposing that Tolkappiyam had preceded the establishment
of the three Tamil monarchies in their respective capitals, would
such Sutras as> the following appear in it ?

(a) G>Liirivsa><$ QGUU&U lu/rQffear

Agattinai-Iyal., S. 60.
*

Marapu-Iyal., S. 626.

(c) /533TL/J5/ (Lpeutr

Seyywl-Iydl., S. 391.

Such descriptions as ' '

Q&rm
wQuQnpirtiHnuir (Lpu>. ......
and 1
applicable to the time of the
'/grorL/a;^ g^ew/f ,

fully-developed Tamil kingships would scarcely suit the early period

when these were only in the making and just feeling their way
towards territorial expansion, dominant power and political
influence. How could the early communal Ve]s and Ko's be styled

/orQ/,'(5*,/r&nW, the kings with big standing armies?

How could they be invested with the crown and sceptre, the
insignia of full-fledged later days?
royalty How could
of

Ve]iyn Tittan and his son Tittan

VeHyan, the first two Chola
sovereigns in the Tables, who ruled their people without wearing
a crown, be brought under the description of Tolkappiyar? How
could the general phrase 'three kings' refer particularly to the
Tamil kings at a time when there were seven kings, eleven kings,
and host of them besides, in a proper counting? Again, the political
division to which the third extract refers is not at all applicable to
the period of the Synchronistic Tables. The commentator rightly
expounds that it comprised the four major political provinces of
the Tamijagam of Tolkappiyar 's days, viz., Pandiyaman<Jalam,
 APPENDIX XV. 261

Malaimanflalam, Cholamaritfalam and TornJainiarNjalam. Now a

reference to Tondaiman Ilantiraiyan occurs only in the time of
Avvaiyar of the ninth generation and from this one cannot im-
mediately jump to the conclusion that there was a political province
under the name Tondaimanflalam in those days, for this name itself
was brought into vogue at a much laler date. Even after the conquest
and colonisation of the AruvanStfu, North and South, the territory
must have existed only as part and parcel of the Chola kingdom.
After a century or two from the time of Karikfilan II this north-
ern dependency seems to have become a separate principnlity (the
Kalabhra interregnum testifies to this effect), which in still later
times became the nidus for the Pallava power to grow in. In time,
this new power gfrew to such dimensions that it easily sub-
verted the paramount Chola rule and overran the other Tamil
States too. But all these belong to much later history. What
we have to note in this connection is that the four-fold political
division to which Tolkappiyar alludes in his Sutra is the picture
of a later Tamilagam which we have no right to project into the
times of the dynastic kings Appearing in the Synchronistic Tables.
Tolkappiyar 's reference must be strictly construed as mirroring
the conditions of <\ much later period in the political history of
the Tamils.

(3) We have seen from the Tables that the few Aryans
who first came into the Tamil country were of the religious
order and had been invited by Karikafcm II and Mudukufhimi
Peruyahuli for the performance of Yiigas. There was a small
sprinkling of secular Brahmans also who pursued some handi-
craft work This handful of immigrants from the North
or other.
could hardly have exerted any influence on the politics of those
days. By the fewness of their numbers, by the inconspicuousness
of their professions, by the absence of the fighting Ksatrya ele-
ment in their ranks, and, above all, by the war-like propensities
of 1he Tamil kings themselves, the early Aryan settlers could
riot certainly have borne any part or lot in the political life of

Tamilagam then much ;

less could they have cast a glance towards
the occupation of a throne. And yet we find in Tolkappiyar,
a Sutra like this:

Marapu-Iyal, S. 637.

Howsoever applicable this dictum may be to North India

or to South India in much later times, it has no relevancy to the
political conditions of the ancient Tamil States during the first
262 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

two centuries of the Christian era and presumably much less to

any century preceding them. If Tolkdppiyam is a work com-
posed for the Tamils, their language, and their country, this parti-
cular Sutra should then be construed as the product of a much
when the Aryan element gained in strength,
later literary activity
influence and importance in the Tamil land.

(4) Let us take another Sutra:

(OLGILJ

(Subtil

AgcMwai'Iyal, S. 5.

Applied to the four fundamental works of these Tables and

even in the case of the secondary works much of this description
must lack in pertinency. The occurrence of the names nff <& ,

a/id in a few stanzas in a body of poems numbering

jjfiii>jir0ir
above 1,600 can in no way bo construed as importing a classifica-
tion of the land amongst the different deities specified
by Tolkap-
piyar a novel scheme, be it noted, that was sought to be grafted
on the life and literature of the early Tamils by a later syste-
matlsm just about the dawn of the Religious epoch. To one
conversant with the method of linguistic development and literary
forms the very scholasticism which breathes through this classifica-
tion of the land and a tabulation of its products, and its

people with their modes of life, manners, etc., should proclaim

itself as an aftergrowth, such a scheme being incompatible with the

creative period of a nation 's literature dealt with in the Synchro-

nistic Tables. Still, those who cherish the antiquity of Tolkdp-

piyam as an article of faith may seek

press intoto
service the mere mention of the names of some deities in early
literature as affording a clear testimony to the state of popular
belief in such deities at that time and also to the literary usage
of investing such deities with the presiding functions in their res-
pective locale. Allowing the fullest scope even for this latitudi-
narian interpretation, how can they grapple with the difficulty
raised by Tolkappiyar's specific mention of Varuna* Not even a
single poet has alluded, anywhere, or on any occasion, to this
particular deity either by name or by implication. This leaves
us in little doubt that Tolkappiyar's reference must be shifted
to much later times for coming into some accordance with pre-
valent literature. It will not certainly be relevant to raise in
this connection any question about Varuna's antiquity in the
 APPENDIX XV. 2*3

Aryan pantheon. Admitting that that antiquity reaches the Big

Vedic Period, or even a still earlier age, what is here urged is
the lateness of its introduction into the pantheon of the Tamils.
If Tolkappiyam had preceded the basic works of the Tables and
served as their authority, there is not the least reason why one
and all the poets who allude to such deities as ^rt>La7<_6i/6yr,
should have
GfSspQpiueuti, tfcrrwfi/f^/p *i_aj6yr, etc.,
(Lf($<S6*r,
given the go-by to this particular deity in their stanzas.
If Varuna had been as familiar to the early Tamils as to

Tolkappiyar, surely a few poets at least would have alluded

to him in some stanza or other. This allusion to Varuna there-
fore definitely throws the composition of Tolkappiyam to a
much later age when the major portion, if not the whole, of the
Aryan pantheon was systematically introduced into the Tamil
country, taking of course into its bosom a number of pre-Aryan
deities. As for the method adopted for the effective assimilation
in religion, the following lines of Paripatfal, a late work,
furnish the most instructive and interesting information:

&_U>L/
ds^/fi&
GLDILI QeujpiGsujpi QuujQir/r

Paripa4cA9 4: 66-70.
Here the poet exhibits an extraordinary Catholicism capa-
cious enough to absorb every form of worship, then obtaining in
the Tamil land, into the cult of Visnu. 'Mayon* occupying the
place of honour in Tolkappiyar 's Sutra quoted above, it is but
reasonable to hoJd that that grammatical work is much nearer to
the period of ParipdfjM than to the earlier works, Pufa-
ndnuru, Agandnupu, etc.

(5) We have seen that the Synchronistic Tables com-

prise events which fall within the first two centuries of the
Christian era and will not fit in if shifted to any subsequent
period. That being established, the following Sutra of
fact

Tolkappiyam supplies us with the most valuable testimony of

a definite chronological significance. It runs:

Kalaviyal., S. 135.
c '
The word <aa>j7 in this Sutra has a history of its own and
enables us to determine the upper limit of Tolkappiyar 's age
264 THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE EARLY TAMILS.

with some degree of certainty. '&ss>ir' * s certainly not a Tamil

word by its origin; nor is it native even in Sanskrit before the

Astronomers of the North borrowed it from the Greeks. The opinion
of Western Orientalists like Colebrooke, Weber, Whitney, Thibaut,
Jacobi and Keith is unanimous about at least the later Indian
Astronomy having been decisively influenced by the Greek Science.
G. R. Kaye in his valuable contribution on Hindu Astronomy,
published in the Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India
No. 18, has clearly demonstrated that the Vedic and the post-
Vedic periods down to the first century of the Christian era mark
the existence of the Indian Astronomy, as an entirely indigenous
system free from- foreign influence of
any kind. Coming,
however, to the third stratum of that Sciencewhich synchronises
with the period of the Gupta dynasty from 320 A.D. to 650 A.D.,
he pronounces it as being largely permeated by Greek method
and thought. Aryabhata born towards the close of the fifth
century and Varahamihira of the sixth century were the earliest
Astronomers who absorbed the new influence of the West and
borrowed also a good number of Greek technical terms of
?
which *Hora is one. If Sanskrit language itself cannot claim
possession of this particular word before the Gupta period
or the fifth century approximately, how can Tolkappiyar who
borrowed the word from Sanskrit and few, I think, will contend
that he borrowed it direct from the Greek source for his gram-
matical work aspire to any higher antiquity?
A treatment of the linguistic evidences from Tolkdppiyam
itself may be reserved for another occasion, as it will swell this
Appendix beyond its acceptable limit.
Reasons like the foregoing drawn from historical facts and
probabilities may not appeal to those who are used to take a static
view of history wherefrom the lime-element is wholly extruded.
Whether from a desire to glorify the past or from an incapacity
to shake off erroneous ideas in estimating that past or from an
unwillingness to get out of traditional grooves of thought, they
generally transport en masse the latest developments in any walk
of life and thought to any anterior period in history, without the
least notion of the monstrous inversion they thereby make.
Among such there may still be many hardy Jasons to go in
search of the
golden Tolkappiyar 's Date in pre-
fleece of
Christian centuries or even millennia and who can hope to dis-
suade them from that heroic venture!

Turning, however, to the side of serious inquiry, we find that

the Synchronistic Tables open a fair and fruitful way of solving
 APPENDIX XV. 266

the problem of Tolkappiyar's Date. They restore the ancient clas-

sical poems of Tamil to their rightful place of priority as against

Tolkdppiyam by establishing that a good many of them are almost

contemporary with the birth of the Tamil monarchies. No sooner
have the facts of early Tamil history, hitherto chaotically
jumbled up and rendered irrational and even mute, been arranged
in a time-scheme in their natural order ofi sequence than they have
acquired a new intelligibility and significance and give us a most
valuable and much-needed guidance in interpreting the facts of
the political and social life of the Tamils no less than those of
their language and literature. If the basic* works of the Tables do
not enable us to fixTolkappiyar date absolutely in a particular
's

century, at least they leave us in little doubt about the relative age
of his work as compared with themselves. This in itself is a great
point scored in favour of a correct reading of the history of Tamil
1

language and literature. Hitherto the traditional practice unques-

tioningly followed of ante-dating Tolkdppiyam and post-dating the
third Sangam classics has only thrown inquiry wholly off its
right
track. Instead of the earlie^ Sangam works supplying the norm
for the valuation of Tolkdppiyam, this
comparatively late gram-
mar was erected into an absolute standard by which those ancient
poems were invariably measured and judged. The viciousness of
this practice is solely duo to the inverted and false
chronology on
which it is based. And it is to the entire reversal of this
faulty
method that the Synchronistic Tables supply a most valuable
help.

C 34
 INDEX.

[Figures in heavy types refer number of the verse

to the

quoted from the particular San gam Collection

under which they appear.]

239, 240, 241, 244, 245, 251, 252,

257.
Aayi, 79, 106, 110, 122, 164, 168, 169, 6-75; 8-241; 22-257; 24-214;
170, 249. 25-114; 26-152; 36-146; 42-
Aayi An<Jiran, 105, 106, 118, 164, 101; 44-78, 89, 174; 48-241;
170, 232. 52-244; 63-244; 65-103; 76-99;
Aayi Atiyan, 123, 125, 164, 170. 85-154; 87-239; 93-233; 96-96;
Aayi country or kingdom, 81, 123, 115-82; 116-103; 122-70, 125-94,
132, 133, 147, 163, 164, 165, 167, 239; 137-70; 142-79; 149-180,
169, 170, 187, 233, 249, 250. 233; 152-180; 153-80; 162-123;
Aayi Eyinan, 78. 168-104; 186-76; 196-95; 198-244;
Aayi Family, 123, 124, 163, 171, 203-239 206-68 ; 208-79 211-158 ;
; ;

Kings, 113, 114, 115, 116, 121, 122, 216-150 220-80 225-245 ; 226-80 ;
; ;

125, 163, 166, 167, Tribe, 106, 168, 227-181 ; 241-239 ; 246-93, 95 ; 248-
169, 170, 171, 234, 249. 241; 253-121, 124; 255-240; 266-
Aayi Titiyan, 118, 163, 164, 167, 170. 62, 122; 296-100; 322-118; 323-
Aayi Tiliyan II, 167. 116; 326-76; 330-240; 333-239;
Academy, 20, 22, 23, 24, 28, 197, 198, 336-97, 252; 338-97, 121; 340-
256. 154; 341-239; 346-153; 352-155;
Acharyas, 217. 356-97; 367-241; 375-97; 376-
Achaemenidean dipi, 209. 241 ; 387-240, 241 396-79, 251. ;

Adarima Koreour, 74, 106. Agapporul, or Iraiyandr Agapporuf

Adikaman, 229.
19, 20, 24, 105, 196, 197, 222, 223.
Adisesa, 105. 7-222; 17-222; 18-222; 43-
Adiyaman Necjuman And, 153, 155,
223; 54-222; 59-222.
157.
Agastiyarkucjam, 77.
Adiyaman Ko|iyur, 106.
Agastya, 105,117,235.
Adiyaman Pokuttelini, 157.
Agastya in the Tamil Land, 9, 78.
Adiyan, 106.
Agattinai-Iyal, 260, 262; 5-262; 60-
Adiyarkkunallar, 125, 247, 248. 260.
Adiyars, 220.
A<jon<Jai-Cakravarti, 154. Agatliyam, 23.
Adukotpattu Cheralatan, 136, 137, Agattiyanar, 24.
138, 139. Augustus Caesar, 185.

Agamas, 219. Age of Tirugnanasambandha, 195.

Agan&n&ru or 'A gam., 12, 15, 28, 29, Agricultural Tribes, 66.
32, 33," 35, 36, 38,41,68, 71, 89, Augustus, 117.
110, 116, 152, 198, 199, 208, 258, Ainkurunuru, 15, 28, 29, 30, 33, 36,
263. 37, 41, 44, 101, 189, 199, 208, 235,
243 ; 90-243 ; 467-101.
30,31,43,45,62,70,75,76,78,
79, 80, 82, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 99, Aioi, 175, Country, 163.
100, 101, 103, 104, 114, 118, 121, Aitareya Aranyaka, 209.
122, 123, 124, 146, 150, 153, 154, Aiyur, 150, 152.
155, 158, 174, 180, 181, 214, 233, .
Aiyflr Mutfavanar, 150.
268 INDEX.

Aiyflr Mulamkilar, 155. Arkkadu, 62, 63, 68, 69, 70, 175, 196,
Akkadians, 206. 227.
Aksapada, 129. Arkkattu Kilar, 196.
Akutai, 72, 96, 97, 98, 99, 107, 108, Arkkonam, 227.
122. Arni, 227.
AJagiyapandiyan, 122. Arouvarnoi, 173, 228.
Alagiyapancjiyapuram, 122. Arppakkam, 227.
Alattur Kilar, 143, 147. Arruppadai, 257.
Alexandrian Massacre, 179, 183, 184, Aruvajar, 62, 63, 82, 94, 140, 173,
185, 186. 227, 228.
Alikasudra, 168. Aruvanadu, 227, 259, 261.
Alisi, 39, 63, 64, 68, 69. Aruvavadatalai, 227.
Alisikatfu, 63. Arya-agam, 176, 252.
Alumbil, 89. Aryabhata, 264.
Alumbur, 89. Aryan, 1, 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 12, 13, 22, 23,
Alundai, 89. 89, 135, 176, 187, 196, 205, 209, 213,
Ahmdur, 88, 89, 95, 98. 214, 229, 251, 252, 259, 261, 262,
AlunturveJ, 67. 263; Civilisation, 207, 212; Colo-
Ambar Kilan Aruvandai, 147. nists, 214, 227 ; Community, 4, 25 ;

Ammuvanar, 30, 32, 118. Kings, 111, 117, 176, 251 ; Litera-
Amur, 74, 75. ture; 11, Religion, 131.
Anaimalai, 117, 231. Aryanisation, 4, 10, 13, 39, 1%, 209.
Anantarama Aiyar, Pandit E. V., 226. Asoka, 14,62, Ib8, 169, 170, 193, 206,
Anci, 118, 153, 154, 158. 208.
Ancil Antai, 155. Asoka's Edicts, 14, 168, 169.
Ancient India, 182, 184. Atan, 39.
Ancient Tamijagam, 163, 168. Atan Avini, 15<S.
Ancient Tamil History, 164. Atan EUni, 147, 150.
Anderson, J. D., 84. Atikan, 79.
Andhra, 177, Brahmins, 215, Dynasty, Atimanti, 93.
176, Kings, 251. Atiyaman, 170.
Antfiran, 106. Atiyan, 78, 79, 122, 123, 124, 147, 170.
Aniladumunril, 39. Atiyar Family, 125.
Anilacjumunrilar, 39. Atiyarma, 74.
Annals, 180." Atiyarmagan, 170.
Anni Mignili, 95. Atiyarman Koliyur, 74.
An-Porunai, 6b, 232, 233. Attan Atti, 93.
An-ta-lo, 177. Atti,63, 78, 85, 93, 142, 175,227,
Antoninus Pius, 185. 228.
Antuvan Cheral, 83, 85, 86, 87, 103, Aiukoj, 139.
106, 138. Atukotpattu Cheralatan, 132, 13b,
Aparantika, 176. 137, 138, 139.
Appar, 217, 218, 220. Augustus, 117.
Arabian Sea, 118, 121,227. Avalokitesvara, 25.
Aran, 227. Avur, 150.
Aravalo, 227. Avur Mulam Kilar, 155, 214.
Aravamu, 228. Avvaiyar, 151, 153, 154, 155, 158,
Archaeological Department of 161, 235, 236, 237, 261.
Mysore, 6. Ayar, 64, 82, 106, 169.
Arcot, 14, 62, 70, 71, 73, 89, 136, 140, Ayiri, 77, 82, Mountain, 116.
173, 227, 231.
Ariaca, 175, 176, 252. B
Ariake Sadinon, 176.
Arimanavayilnadu, 62. Babylon, 205, 206, 207.
Arisil Kilar, 124, 128, 197. Balita, 177.
Aristotle, 23. Bareilly District, 215.
Arivuijai Nambi, 53, 156, 158. Baris, 81, 106.
-
Ariyappadai-KacJanta Nedunceliyan, Basarnagos, 69.
158. Batois, 99, 172.
 INDEX.

Bay of Bengal, 118. Cenni, 50, 89, 90, 95, 98, 119, 120,
Bharataw, 197. 130, 141, 143, 144.
Bharatam Patfiya Perundcvanar, 28, Ceruppali, 119.
-
32, 33, 255. Ceruppali-erinta I|ance4ccnni, 50,
Bharata Venba, 33. 119, 120.
Bharukacca, 205. Cevvali, 211.
Bhattiprolu Caskets, 14. Ceylon, 23, 206.
Bodhisattvas, 25. Chaityas, 135.
Bouddha Vestiges of Kancipura, 135. Chandragiri Kiver, 172.
Bose, B. Sc., Mr. P. N., 7. Chazarla, 135.
Brahmadayam, 215. Chera, 28, 36, 37, 39, 51, 52, 57, 60,
Brahmagiri Hill, 6. 02, 73, 77, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87,
Brahmana Makkal or Makka], 230. 90, 91, 92, 95, 103, 105, 106, 107,
Brahminical Tantras, 219. 108, 110, 111, 112, 116,
118, 124,
Brahmanic Religion, 9. 126, 136, 137,138, 140, 146, 148,
Brahmani Magoi, 229. 149, 151, 153, 155, 156, 158, 159,
Brahmamsm, 237, 253. 172, 174, 170, 192, 231, 232;
Brahmans, 214, 215. Capital, 73, 231, 232, 233; Domi-
Brahmi Epigraphs, 208. nions, 112, 116, 126, 137, 172, 249;
Brahmi Lipi, J06. King, 28, 37, 54, 59, 73, 81, 83,
Bruno, 23. 84, 85, 86, 87, 90, 91, 95, 105, 100,
Buchanan, J)r., 176. 109, 111, 112, 110, 118, 124, 120,
Huddha, 135. 137, 138, 139, 140, 146, 148, 153,
Buddhism, 10, 181,200, 219, 237, 251, J55, 150, 157, 158, 174, 170.
253. Chera King Pcrnnchcral, 126.
"Chera of the Elephant look", 148,
Buddhists, 9, 220.
tfuddhist India, 205. 149, 199.

Ruddhist Philosophy, 251. Chcralar, 229.

Buddhist Tara Temple, 135. Cheralar-magan, 229.
Chcralatan, 111.
Buhlcr, Dr., 27.
Chcraman, 229.
Burke, 7.
Chcraman-Kanaikkfil Irumporai, 155.
Burma, 23, 200.
177, 207, 208.
Cheraman-Ko-Kodai -
Marpan, 152,
Uurncll, Dr., 23, 17(>,
153.
Byzantium, 117, 174._
Cberaman Kurjakko llancheral
Byzantine Greeks, 174.
Irumporai, 130.
C Cheraman Kutltivaii Kodai, 146.
Cheraman Mari Vanko, 151, 153.
Gilayam-Chaliatta, 177. Cheraman Palai i*a<}iya Pcrum-
Caldwell, Dr., 2, 62, 63, 176, 227. ka<Junko,158.
Calicut, 178.
Chcraman Vaiican, 1 58.
Cheruppu, 77.
Caligula, 184, 185.
Cambay, 176. Chidambaram, 178, 220.
Canara, 82, 137. Chiefs, 51, 52, 57, 73, 82, 85, 105,
Cannanorc, 77, 172. 118, 125, 140, 146, 150, 153, 157.
Cape Comorin, 106, 111. Chinese Pilgrim, 177.
Caracalla, 179, 185. Chingleput, 62, 227.
Castes and Tribes of Southern Chirini, 175.
India, 215. Chitaldrug, 6, 83, 168.
Cattan, 188, 189. Cholas, 39, 50, 51, 52, 58, 60, 62, 63,
Cetfcenni, 120, 143. 67, 69, 70, 71, 77, 78, 80, 83, 88, 89,
Ccdcenni Nalamkilli, 89, 141, 142, 90,94, 95, 96, 106, 112, 117, 119,
143, 166, 185. 125, 131, 133, 135, 140, 142, 143,
CcHyan, 152. 144, 148, 149, 151, 168, 170, 173,
Celva-Katfuhko, 116, 132. 185, 192, 193, 194, 195, 202, 228,
Cempulappeymrar, 39. 252, 259, 261 ; History, 60, 98, 125,
Cenkuttuvan, 124, 125, 126, 144. 141, 191, 259; Kings, 50, 52, 58,
Ccnkuttuvan-Gaj abahu Synchronism, 59, 60, 63, 67, 69, 71, 75, 76, 78, 83,
161. 85, 86, 87, 88, 90, 94, 95, 97, 106,
270 INDEX.

111, 119, 128, 130, 131,

107, 109, History, 4, 6; Language, 3, 213;
141, 148, 150, 155, 156, 158,
140, Race, 6, 207, 228.
166, 192, 227, 260; Kingdom, 142, Dubreuil, Prof., 117.
143, 172, 259, 261. Duff, 170.
Ch6lamai?<Jalam, 261. Durga, 219.
Chronology of India, 170. Dwarasamudra, 21.

Cttappadik&ram, 41, 42, 45, 111,

124, 125, 127, 144, 162, 176, 188,
190, 205, 247, 251.
Cirukufli Kilan, 150.
Early History of India, 6, 14, 135,
190.
Cirumedaviyar, 256.
Cirupan&rruppafai, 15, 201, 202.
Early Literature of the Tamils, 14,
16, 263.
Ciruttoijtfar, 220.
Eastern Ghats, 82.
Clttalas, 189.
Eo'aikkunrur KHar, 145.
Gttalai Cattan, 156, 189, 197, 199.
- - Editor of Patirruppattu, 124.
Cittiramatjattu tunciya Nanmaran,
158. Eight Collections, 15, 27, 28, 41, 199.
Claudius, 182, 184, 185. Eighteen Didactic Works, 16, 204.
Clifford, Prof. W. F., 196, 254.
Ekkur, 178.
Cochin, 73, 81, 177, 178. Elangkon, 177.
Coimbatore, 74, 76, 77, 79, 82, 104, Elephant Country, 118, 231.
106, 117, 123, 126, 169, 231, 232 Elephant-marked Coins of Madura,
252. 170, 249.

Coins of Southern India, 27, 157. Elil, 77, 172.

Coins of Tinncvclly, The, 237, 249. Elilmalai, 77, 169, 175, 251, 252.
Colebrookc, 264. EHni, 39.
EHni I, 158.
Commodus, 184, 185.
Elini II, 125.
Conjeevaram, 178.
EHni III, 146.
Coorg, 230.
EHni IV, 157.
Cottanara, I7b.
EHni Atan, 147, 150, 167.
Cranganore, 6, 232.
Elliot, Sir Walter, 27, 157.
CtiUiyaru, 232, 233.
117. Elumutfi, 66.
Cunningham, General, 63,
Enadi, 195.
I) Enadi Tirukkuttuvan, 140.
Enicceri, 106, 109, 110, 116.
Daivaccilaiyar, 238. Enicceri Mutfamosiyar, 86, 87, 103.

'
Dakshinapada, 227. Epigraphica Indica 168. t

Damirica, 137, 172, 176. Epochs of Civilisation, 7.

Damodaram W., 34, 224.
Pillai, C. Ericcilur, 141, 143.
Damodaranar, 141, 147, 197. Eroici Furori, 23
Dantfakaranya, 139. Errai, 78, 85.
Davids, Dr. T. W. Rhys, 27, 205, Erukkatfu, 150, 157.
208. Erumai 82.
Dekkhan, 227. Erumaiyuran, 82, 146.

Denarius, 183. Ethnologists, 4.

Devadayam, 215. Ettuttokai, 15, 27, 41, 189, 199.
Devanandi Pujyapada, 26. Evvi, 39, 122.
Dtvaram, 10, 45, 215, 217, 218, 219, Evvi I, 99, 107, 108, 122.
220. Evvi II, 108, 122, 125.
Devaram Hymnists, 217, 219. Evviyar, 99.
Diamper, 103. Eyil Pattinam, 177.
Di-Kho, 85. Eyinan, 78, 79, 85, 170.
Di-Sang, 85. Eyinars, 64, 78, 82.
Domitian, 182, 184, 185.
Dramidaka, 137.
l

Dravi dian,'2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 17, 84, Fabricius, 175.

193,205,209,210,211,212,213; Ferguson, J. f 227.

Civilization, 2, 5, 6, 105, 207, 210;
Frederick Goodrich Henke, 218.
 IlavantikaippaUi-ttinciya-Nanmaran,
146.
Galba, 185. IJaveJiman, 155.
Gandhara, 227. Ijaviccikko, 155.
Ganga Family, 170, Imayavaramban, 111, 116, 117.
Gangavadi, 170. Imayavaramban Netfuncheralalan,
Gautama, 129. 111.
Girnar, 168. India, 2, 3,4, 5, 6, 23, 84, 111, 135,
Godavari, 177. 145, 160, 162, 168, 169, 175, 176,
Gopinatha Rao, Mr. T. A., 135, 208. 180, 183, 184, 186, 205, 206, 207,
Greece, 174. 209, 219, 228, 229, 231, 251, 252 r
Greeks, 117, 178, 184, 192, 264; 261, 264.
Authors, 73, 163, 165, 172, 173, Indian Astronomy, 264.
174; Writings, 162, 175,178; Indra-Sala-Giri, 135.
Gupta Period, 264. Influences of Geographical Environ-
Guntur, 135. ment, 65, 216.
Iraiyanar, 255.
Jraiyandr Agapporul, See Agapporn\.
H Irumpitarttalaiyjir, 38, 129, 133.
Irumporai, 81, 83, 126, 136.
Haddon, A. C, 117.
Iruriko, 128, 140.
Hadrian, 182, 184, 185. Irunkdvel, 128, 140.
Harappa, 3, 207. Trunkovel II, 14(>.
Herder, 215, 216.
Hi<}a, 168, 169.
Hicja King, 168, 169, 170. J
Himalayas, 111, 125, 126, 251, 252.
Jacob i, 264.
Hinduism, 25, 219.
Jains, 9, 26, 27, 135, 145, 220.
Hindu Reaction, 39, 135.
177. Jainendra, 26.
Hiouen-Thsang,
Jainism, 27, 187, 206.
Hippalus, 179.
Java, 23.
Hirananda Sastri, M.A., Mr., 219.
Jesperson, Dr., 248.
History of Indian Logic 129. t

Julicn Vinson, Prof., 40.

History of the Tamils, 51.
Hobson-Jobson, 23.
Hocart, A. M., 24.
'Hora', 264.
Ka<Jal-Pirakkottiya Vcl-Kcki-Kultu-
I van, 124, 176.
Kadamba Tribes, 111, 124, 176, 215.
Iconography, 208. KadappiJ|ai, 155.
169. Katjattanatfu, 170.
!<}a,
I<Jaikka<Jar, 148, 235, 236.
Kaivaji, 211.
KakkaipiUtiniyar NaccelJaiyar, 39,
I<Jayar, 169.
126, 128, 139.
Itfayarmagan, 170.
Icjumbil, 125.
Kajabhra Interregnum, 194, 237, 261.
Ilaiyar, 64.
Kajahkaykkanni Narmu<}icheral, 126,
138.
Ijampuranar, 238.
Kajantai, 62.
IJanagan, 35, 149.
Kalai-tin-yanaiyar, 39.
Uance<Jcenni, 119, 120.
ijaiicheral Irumporai, 136. Kalar, 73, 80, 85, 158.
Kalattalaiyar, 39, 91, 92, 109, 110,
Hango-Aflgal, 127, 190, 251.
112, 191.
Uanka<Juhkd, 199.
Haii-kandirakkd, 155. Kalattur, 62.
Kalavali Narpatu, 155, 156, 195.
Uahkiranar, 103, 105.
Ilahkumanan, 155. Kalaviyal, 20, 254; 135-263.
Kalingattufiparani, 156.
Ilantiraiyan, 158.
Kalittokai, or Kali., 15, 23, 28, 30, 34,
IlavantikaippaJli, 149.
35, 37, 41, 42, 44, 189, 199, 205,
Ilavantikaippaili-tuficiya-Nalamkilli,
141, 206,224,235.
272 INDEX.

Kurunci,30, 35; 3-245; 24-243 57- Karuvur-KiJar, 196.

224 ; Marutam, 35 25-244 92-224
; ;
Karuvur - Peruncatukkattuppu Janar,
98-225; Mullai, 35; 104-225; 83.
Neylal, 35; 141-225; 143-225; Kashmira, 227.
Palai, 34, 35; 30-224: 35-224. Katti, 39, 78, 80, 85.
Kallatfanar, 145, 147, 197, 259. Kattur Kilar, 154.
Kalsi, 168. Kuttuvan IJamaJlaniir, 152.
Kajumalam, 174. Kavidi, 195.
Kajvar, 62, 147. Kaviri, 66, 67, 69, 73, 76, 80, 81, 93,
Kamban, 188. 96,99, 112,230,233.
Kanaikkal Irumporai, 156, 157. KavirippaUinam, 6, 131, 141, 146,
Kanakasabhai Pillai, 73, 190, 231, 149, 178, 197.
232. Kavisagara Perundevanar, 22, 255.
Kanappereyil, 143, 151, 152, 153, 172. Kaycina Vahicli, 152.
Kanarese, 26, 228; Country, 230; Kayc, G. R., 264.
Literature, 27. Keith, Dr. A. Berriedale, 209, 251,
Kancipuram, 10, 194, 196. 264,
Kanclan, 155. Kerala, 229.
Kanda Piljai, 155. Kcralaputra, 168, 193, 229.
Kanda Pillai Cattanar, 155. Kern, H., 25, 219.
KancJIram, 126. Kilamai, 193.
Kankan, 39, 78, 85. Kilars, 22, 67, 96, 134, 193.
Kannakanar, 53.
Kaniiaki, 127, 128.
Kilavar, 67, 193.
Killi, 39, 50, 89, 90, 98,
^
W119, 120,
Kai.manar, 154, 183. 130, 141, 143, 144. fm
Kannattanar, 110. Killi Valavan, 143, 148, I$o7l53.
Kapa<Japuram, 23, 24. Kingship, 24.
Kapilar, 32, 33, 35, 59, 91, 92, 98, 107 Kiranar, 110.
119, 120. 127, 128, 140, 161, 191, K5, 65, 85, 88, 96, 193.
197, 202, 203, 210, 235, 240, 241. K6-Cehkannan, 155, 156, 166, 185,
36. 191, 194, 195.
Kappiyarru Kappiyanar,
Kari,39, 118, 134.
Ko4ukur, 125.
Kocjunacju, 176.
Karikalan, 49, 50, 58, 59, 60, 70, 81,
'Ko/', 154, 213, 236, 242, 243, 246,
88, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 126, 129,
247, 248.
130, 332, 133, 134, 137, 141, 148,
Kolattunacju, 176.
181, 196.
Karikalan K51i, 74, 75.
I, 85, 90, 91, 93, 95, 98,
Kojiyur, 74, 106.
112, 120, 174.,
Kolli Mount, 118,231.
Karikalan the Great (or Karikalan
'Kon', 82.
II) 58, 59, 70, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94,
95, 107, 119, 126, 128, 130, 131,
Kongar, 82, 83.
132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 138, 140,
Kongu, 76, 77, 78, 79, 82, 83, 112,
117, 118, 121, 123, 124, 169,231,232.
141, 142, 143, 145, 148, 149, 158,
166, 173, 185, 186, 191, 195, 196, Konkanam, 82, 83, 169.
200, 201, 202, 210, 259, 261. Kd-Peruncholan, 53, 156, 158.
Karikkannanar I, 106, 131, 141. Korkai, 6, 72, 98, 99, 101, 102, 107,
Karikkannanar II, 146, 149. 108,114,120, 163,178,249.
Karinayanar, 134. Kosars, 95.
Kiiriyar, 143. Kolamangalam, 231.
Karmara, 173. Kottampalam, 103.
- -
Karunandacjakkan, 170. Kottampalattu tunciya Cheraman,
Karuhkai-oj-vdl-Perumpeyar Valudi, 103, 158, 199.
133. Kottanara, 73.
Karuvur, 73, 81, 82, 83, 84, 86, 87, Korellour, 81.
88, 108, 124, 138, 148, 155, 173, Kovalan, 127.
178, 179, 183, 192, 196, 231, 232, Kovalur, 153.
233, 260. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Dr. S., 188,
Karuvur-Eriya-ol-val-ko-Peruncheral 189, 190.
Irumporai, 81, 83. Kshemendra, 2.
 tNDEX. 273

Kubera, 105. Literary Criticism in the Renais-

Kudagu, 231. sance, 23.
Ku<Jakaram, 149. Lovenlhal Rev. E., 237, 249, 253.
Ku<jakarattu-tuficiya-Maran Valudi, Lucius Venus, 185.
149.
Ku<Jakko-Cheral-Irumporai, 136.
Ku<Jakk6-Ne<Jumcheralatan, 1 16. M
Ku(Jal, 6, 23, 25, 72, 74, 98, 99, 100,
101,102, 103, 107, 108, 110, 112, Macaltiyar, (Macatlanar), 178.
113,114, 120, 122, 123, 124, 145, Ma<}alan Ma<Juraikkumaranar, 141,
163,170, 173, 179, 192, 260. 143, 146.
Kutfalur Kilar, 28, 149. Madcya, 23.
Ku<}ana<Ju, 81, 82, 84, 137. Madura, 0, 14, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 34,

Ku<Janlai, 97. 72, 74, 98, 99, 105, 113, 127, 145,
Ku<Japulaviyanar, 145. 170, 173, 175, 183, 220, 224, 237,
Kiwjavayil, 88, 89. 249, 250, 255.
Kutfavayil Kiratlarar, 78, 174. Maduraikktifici, 15, 132, 136, 145, M6
Ktujavayil Kottam, 156. 182,201,202.
Ku<Jirai Malai, 118, 147, 150. Magour, 173.
Kulantai, 62. Mahabharatam, 16, 30, 33, 256.
Kulapatinayanar, 256. Mahabhiirata War, 104, 105.
Kujattur, 62. Maharashtra, 176.
Kalumam, 104. Mahavamso, 162, 190.
Kuiumur, 81, 103, 104. Mahayana, 219, 251.
Valavati,
Mahendra Varma, 135.
KuJamurratu/unciya-KijJi
148, 164, 1S5F Maine, Sir H. S., 12.
Kuiavanikan Qttalai Caltan, 188, Majjhantiko, 227.
189, 190. Malabar, 82, 179.
Kumanan, 155. Malaimancjalam, 261.
Kumbakonam, 88, 195. MaLiipadukatam, 15, 203, 202, 256.
Kun<;lukan-Paliyatan, 39. Malaiyaman, 148.
Kural, 10, 16, 42, 45, 126, 127, 189, Malaiyaman Tirumutji Kari, 134,
148.
197, 204, 217, 240, 2S5, 256.
Kurappajli, 131, 132, 143. Malakiita, 230.
-
KurappaJJi tuficiya
- Peramtiruma- Malanga, 177.
vajavan, 131, 132. Malava community, 64, 82, 210.
Kuravars, 64, 210, 227, 228. Malavalh l^llar, 215.
Kurukshetra, 104. Malaiyaman Natfu, 231.
Kurumbar, 83, 227, 228. Mallan, 74, 75.
Kurumporai, 81. Mamallapunim, 10, 15, 177.
Kuruhkoliyur, 74, 106. Mamulanar, 34, 48, 103, 158, 197, 199.
Kuruhkojiyur Kilar, 149. 'Maw', 67, 154, 229, 237, 238, 239,
Kuruncippatlu, 30, 201, 202, 203, 240,241,248.
235. MaijakkilJi, 125.
Kuruntokai, 12, 15, 28, 29, 32,35, 37, Mandagara, 118.
38, 39, 41, 138, 258-63; 258-68; Miindai, 118.
298-99; 393-123. Mangalorc, 137, 172.
Kutamalai, 230. Manikkavacagar, 16, 217, 218, 219,
Kuttana<Ju,73,81, 124, 176. 220, 221.
KuUuvan, 117, 176. Manimekalai, 42, 45, 125, 188, 189,
Kuttuvan Irumporai, 124. 190, 205, 251.
Kuttuvan Kiranar, 106. Manjusri, 25.
Mahkucji Kilar, alias Maiikucji
Alarucjan, 145, 146, 147, 149, 197,
201,202.
'Manra', 241, 242.
Mansehra, 168.
Larica, (Lalica), 176. Mantaran Cheral Irumporai, 149.
Lassen, 176. Mantaran Poraiyan Kacjuriko, 116.
Lewis Rice, Mr. B., 215. Manual of Indian Buddhism, 25, 219.
035
 INDEX.

Maran Valudi, 28, 149.

Marapu lyal, 626-260 ; 637-261.
Marcus Aurelius, 185. Naccejlaiyar, 226.
Mari Venko alias Ma Venko, 151, Naccinarkkiniyar, 96.
153. Naga Chieftains, 143, 227.
MarSkkam, 150. Naga Tribes, 63, 173, 227, 228, 259.
Marudan IJanaganar, 35, 67, 68, 146,
Nakkannai or Nakkannaiyar, 63,
147, 149,150, 155, 191,208. 64, 70, 74, 75, 161, 226.
Nakkirar or Nakkiranar, 19, 23,
Marutam, 30, 32, 34, 35, 36, 199, 211.
14.
29, 48, 123, 146, 150, 151, 152, 153,
Maski,
154, 161, 191, 197, 201, 202, 203,
Matti, 73, 80, 85, 158.
226, 236.
Mauryan Empire, 83, 168.
Nalatfiyar, 16.
Mavilahkai, 177. Nalam KiJli, 141, 142, 143, 144,
Max Miiller, Prof., 7. 14.8,
150, 172, 173, 226.
Mayura Varma, 215.
Memoirs of the Archaeological Nalkur Vejviyar, 22.

Survey of India, No. 18-204 ; No. Nallantuvanar, 28, 34, 35, 224, 226.
20-219. NaJU, 39, 211.
Nallini, 85, 86.
Menon, Mr. K. P. ., 176.
Naljikanam, 231.
Migniii, 79.
Modern Review, 7. Nalliraiyanar, 226.
(1913),
Nalliyakkocjan, 177, 201.
Modoura, 163. Nallur Nattattanar, 201.
Mdgur, 174.
207. Nalluruttiran, 35, 158, 226.
Mohenjo Daro, 3,
Monolithic Temples, 10. Nalvelliyar, 226.
Nalvettanar, 226.
Morlcy, Lord, 7.
Nalvijakkanar, 226.
Mdsi, 110.
Mo si Kaniiattanar, 110.
Nambian(Jar Nambi, 217.
Nancilnacju, 155, 167.
Mosikiranar, 110, 124, 197.
Nancil Valluvan, 155.
Mosippatti, 110.
Mosuku<Ji, 110. Nandipottarasan, 33.
Mount D'ely, 77, 175.
Nankurve], 47.
MutfamSsiyfir, 106, 109, 110, 116, 191.
Namnaran, 149.

MtKJattamakkanniyar, 92, 201. Nannari, 77, 78, 79, 82, 106, 201.
Nannan I, 85, 126.
Miujavanar of Aiyur, 150.
Nannan II, 124, 126.
Mmjinagarayar, 103, 104, 105.
Mudira Malai, 155. Nannaganar, 226.
Mu<JiUalai-k6-Perunarkilli, 85, 86,
'Naoura', 137.
106, 111, 166.
Napoleon, 140.
Nappalattanar, 226.
Mudukannan Cattanar, 143.
Nappasalaiyar, 150, 226.
Mudukudumi alias Mudukucjumi
Nappudanar, 201.
Peruvaladi, 135, 144, 145, 261.
Naravu, 137, 172.
Mukkanni Kadumba, 215. Narayanaswami Aiyar, Pandit, 95.
Mukunti Pallava, 215. Narconai, 125, 126, 226.
Mulam Kijar, 150, 152. Nariveruttalaiyar, 39, 84, 109, 197
Mullai, 30, 32, 34, 36. 256.
MullaipWtu, 15, 200, 201, 202. NarkiJli, 50, 150.
MalJur, 118, 134. Narrinai t 12, 15, 28, 29, 32, 33, 35, 37,

Muraficiyur; 103, 104. 38, 41, 90, 95, 110, 198, 199, 10-77;
Murugan, 203, 257.
18-157; 51-243; 58-67; 87-70 94-
Musiri, 6, 19, 151, 152,232. 246; 100-63; 110-243; 113-103;
Musiri Murriya Celiyan, 151. 122-243; 150-152; 180-90; 205-
Mutukurranar, also known as Mutu- 244; 225-245; 237-106; 265-90;
kuttaiiar, 67, 70. 305-244, 395-118.
Muvan, 157. Naura, 117, 172.
Mysore, 14, S2, 83, 118, 126, 168. Nayanmars, 217, 219.
Mysore and Coorg from the \
Nedumkilli, 141, 142, 143.
Inscriptions, 215. |
Ne<Jumpalliyattanar, 132.
 INDEX. 275

Nefanalvafai, 15,201,202. Palai Kautamanar, 118.

Ne<JunceHyan, 102, 10'<, 124, 152. Palai Patjiya Perunkacjunko, 34, 35,
Netfunceliyan I, 93, 102, 107, 120, 199.
163.
Pajaiyan, 76, 77, 78, 85, 174.
Nednficeliyan II, 108, 121, 131, 163. Pa]aiyan Maran, 153.
Ne<Jufice!iyan III, 132, 145, 146, 147, Palar, 96, 119, 175, 177,227,
167.
Palayi, 81, 106.
Neduncheralatan, 111, 116, 117, 124, Pali, 78, 79, 206.
125, 126, 144, 172, 174, 176, 251. Pallava, 10, 50, 63, 64, 69, 188, 196;
Netfunterceiiyan, 98, 102, 114. Art, 15, 135; Invasion, 194 ; King,
Nelcynda, 163, 175. 10, 33, 215; Power, 25, 194, 261.
Nero, 184, 185. Palney Hills, 127.
Nerva, 184, 185. Palsalai, 135.
Netravati, 137. Palsalai Mu<Juku<}umi or Palsalai,
Nettimaiyar, 132. Mu<Juku<Jumi Peruvajudi or Palya-
'Neytal', 30, 32, 33, 35, 36. gasalai Mii<Juku<}umi Peruvajudi,
Neytalahkanal, 96, 173. 49, 129, 131, 132, 133, 135, 196.
Neytalankanal IJancecJccnni, 119, 120. Palyagasalai, 135.
Nidamangalatn, 144. Palyanai-ccl-kchi-KuUuvan, 116, 117,
Nilakantan, 19, 175. 118, 231.
Nilam-taru-tiruvil Pancjiyan, 120, I \inainparanar, 259.
121, 124, 132, 145. Paixliya, 21, 28, 39, 51, 52, 58,59, 60,
62, 72, 92, 98, 100, 102, 103, 106,
Nilgiris, 82.
107, 108, 110, 112, 120, 121, 122,
Nitria, 137.
124, 133, 135, 144, 147, 148, 149,
Noura, 137.
129. 151, 152, 156, 157, 163, 164, 165,
Nyaya-K9sa,
167, 168, 170, 171, 187, 192,249;
Coins, 253 ; Country, 89, 124, 143,
163, 104, 172, 260; King, 25, 53,
81,99, 101, 102, 107, 108, 113, 114,
120, 123, 129, 131, 134, 143, 145,
Odaikihir, 106.
116. 146, 151, 156, 163, 165, 199, 249.
Okandur,
'Pandu Kuli/ 14.
Okkfir, 178.
PannacJu-tanta-PantJiyan, 28, 120,
Ollaiyur, 108, 112.
121, 198, 199.
Ollaiyur KHar, 190. I

l',imian, 150.
OlJaiyur-tanta-Putappan<Jiyan, 112,
'Pans', 211.
115, 122, 124, 163.
'Paralia of the Sorctai,' 120, 173,
On Ihe Ancient Coins and Measures
' 177.
of Ceylon, 27.
Orampokiyar, 30, 32. Param, 77.

Ori, 39, 118. Paraniakucji, 110.

Oriental and Linguistic Studies, 4. Paraml.u Hill, 118.
Orif/in and Cult of Tdra, 219. Param-kunru, 175.

Origin and Development of the Paranar, 43, 58, 59, 63, 68, 69, 70,
33",

Bengali Language, 213. 71,' 75, 79, 80, 90, 91, 93, 95, 99,

Orthoura, 62. 102, 107, 112, 116, 118, 119, 122,

Orucirai Periyanar, 155. 123, 124, 127, 128, 129, 153, 154,
Otalanlai or Otalantaiyar, 30, 32, 34. 161,191,197,210,235,236,251.
Paratavars, 64, 80.
Pari, 39, 40, 118, 128, 140.
Paripafal, 15, 23, 28, 37, 41, 42, 44,
263.
Patfappai, 81. Parthians, 117.
Pacjappu, 81. Pasalai Nagar, 69.
Pajumarrur, 110. Pasumpui? Cenni, 129.
Pahlava, 117. Pasumpus Pancjiyan, 49, 108, 120,

Pahruji River, 132. 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 133, 163,
Paisachi, 3. 164, 165, 166, 170, 171, 249, 250.
'Palai', 30, 32, 34, 36, 77, 199. Patalipnttiram, 136.
276 INDEX.

Patirruppattu, 15, 28, 36, 41, 43, 44, |

Pliny, 39, 137, 162, 173, 176, 179, 180,
57, 83, 84, 85, 86, 105, 110, 111, 183, 186.
117, 118, 124, 125, 137, 138, 139, Poduvars, 94.
172, 174, 176, 200, 231, 233; 52- Poigaiyar, 153, 155, 157, 158.
138; 56-138; 57-138; 28-233; 43- Pope, Dr., 50, 240.
233 ; 88-233. Por, 76, 77, 85, 88, 112, 119, 156.
Paftinappalai, 15, 130, 136, 140, 181, Poraiyarrukilan, 147,
200, 201, 202. Poraiyaru, 155.
Pattuppaffu, 15, 27, 38, 41, 42, 44, Portuguese, 177.
130, 181, 189, 200, 207, 225, 229. Porunai, 66, 98, 232, 233.
Pavagandi, 246, 247, 248. Porunarfirruppajai, 15, 92, 130, 136,
Pekan, 127, 128. 200, 201, 202.
Pegnai or Pennar, 81, 175, 177, 231. Porunar, 257.
Peoples of India, 84. Poruntil IJanklranar, 149.
PerSlavayar, 100, 107, 108, 110, 112. Porvai, 75, 76.
Pgralavayil, 23, 74. PorvaikkS, 76, 78.
Preyil Muruvalar, 156. Porvaikko PerunarkiJJi, 75, 166, 185.
Penplus of the Erythraean Sea t 39, Pothiyil, 77, 78, 113, 114, 115, 118,
116, 118, 137, 162, 163, 164, 165, 122, 123, 147, 163, 165, 167, 169,
166, 170, 174, 175, 176, 177, 179, 170, 171.
180, 183, 186, 187. Pothiyil Celvan, 115, 163.
Penyapur&nam, 134, 156, 217, 232. Pottiyar, 53.
Periyar, 66, 73, 81, 82, 83, 106, 155, Prakrit, 12, 212.
232, 233. Priyadarsin, 168.
Persia, 117,229. Pseudostosmos, 106.
Perumcheral Irumporai, 124, 126, Ptolemy, 39, 62, 69, 74, 81, 83, 89,
136. 99, 106,117, 120, 162, 163, 164, 165,
Perumcheralatan, 91, 95, 113. 166, 167, 168, 169, 171, 172, 173,
Perumchorratan alias Perumchor- 174, 176, 177, 178, 179, 186, 187,
rutiyan Cheralatan, 91, 103, 104. 227, 228, 229.
Pcrumkalittokai, 23. Pulatturai Murriya Ku<}alur Kilar,
Perumkoli Naikan, 70, 74. 28.
PerumkoHyur, 74, 106. Puliijacju, 82, 126, 174, 231.
Perumkunrur Kijar, 128, 137. Pullarrur Eyirriyanar, 53.
Perumpacjappai, 81. Pulli, 62, 147, 259.
Perumparipadal, 23. Pullika<Ju, 62.
Perumpayarruppailai, 15, 158, 201, PulJunatfu, 78, 79, 82.
202.
Punrurai, 78, 85.
Perumpekau, 127. Purandnuru or Puram., 12, 15, 28, 29,
Perumpini Cenni,90, 119, 174. 3~0, 31, 32, 33, 36, 37, 38, 41, 43, 44,
Perum-tiru-Mavalavan, 132, 148. 45, 50, 74, 78, 85, 86, 87, 93, 98, 99,
Perunturai, 97. 101, 105, 106, 112, 113, 116, 120,
PerunaUi, 126. 121, 122, 126, 132, 133, 134, 142,
Perunciltiranar, 155. 144, 145, 146, 147, 150, 151, 152,
Perundevaniir, 16, 30, 31, 32, 33, 35, 153, 155, 156, 157, 198, 211, 230,
197. 232, 237, 240, 241, 243, 244, 245,
Peruhkotisikanar, 201. 246, 248, 250, 252, 258, 259, 263 ;
PerunarkiHi, 75, 85, 153. 3-133 ; 5-85 ; 6-133 ; 9-122, 132 ; 11-
Perunlalai Cattaniir, 155, 157. 233; 13-87; 15-134; 26-241; 27-
Pcrumtdlatan, 91,.95. 144; 45-142; 48-153; 49-153 52- ;

Pcyaniir, 30, 32, 34. 252; 54-146; 62-1 12; 63-1 12; 65-
Pinakini, 175. 93 ; 66-93 67-252 ; 71-1 13 72-145
; ;

Ping-k'i-lo, 177. 74-155; 75-241; 76-121; 80-74;

Pirate Coast, 118. 99-153; 128-116; 129-250; 130-
Pisir-Antaiyar, 53. 250; 136-106; 149-211 170-147;
;

Pittan, 147, 150. 172-147; 173-150; 201-120; 206-

Pittan I, 147. 245; 208-155; 209-157; 224-134;
PHtan II, 147. 225-144; 233-99; 234-99, 245;
Pittan Korran, 147, 150. 235-245; 240-106; 243-245; 261-
 INDEX. 277

241; 273-244; 278-126; 328-101; 26,196,197,198; 254. Third, 21,

336-241; 343-244; 347-98, 246; 196, 197, 198, 238, 258.
351-78,246; 367-151; 374-106; Sa^kara, 219.
380-252; 381-232; 385-147; 391- Sanskrit, 3, 12, 13, 21, 26, 33, 39, 85,
147; 396-147. 137, 145, 152, 174, 175, 176, 187,
Furikko, 28, 198. 206, 209, 212, 213, 216, 227, 230,
Putappantfi, 122. 238, 264.
Futappaijdiyan, 108, 110, 112, 113, Sanskritists, 2, 3, 175, 177, 207, 209,
114, 115, 122.
Pyrrhon, 117. Sapta Sailam, 77, 175.
Satakarni, 176.
Q Satavahana, 215.
Satischandra Vidyabhushana, Dr.,
Quilon, 178, 129.
Satiyaputra, 168, 193.
Sattantaiyar, 74, 75, 161.
Satti MakkaJ or Makkal, 168, 169.
Raghava Aiyangar, Pandit R., 61, Sattimangalam Pass, 176.
87, 230, 231. W.
Schoff, H., 172, 175, 177, 180,
Rajasiiya Sacrifice, 50, 150, 151, 153. 183, 184.
Rajasuyam-Vetta-PerunarkiJJi, 50,
Sekkijar, 217.
150, 166, 185, 191.
Semetic Tribes, 206.
Ramagiri, 134.
Semplc, E. C, 65, 216.
Ramayana, 23.
178. Sendan, 68, 69, 70, 71, 73.
Ramcsvaram, 175,
Sendamangalam, 70.
Rapson, Prof. E. J. f 184.
Septimius Sevcrus, 185.
Relative Ages of Purananfiu and
45. Seshagiri Sastri, 105.
Tolkappiyam,
Seyyul-Iyal, 391-260.
Rice, E. P., 27.
83. Shahl>a7garhi, 168.
Richards, F. J.,
Si am, 206.
Rig Veda, 45, 213.
Period 263. Siddhapur, 6, 83, 168.
Rig Vedic Dialect, 45 ;
Sikandar Malai, 175.
Rock Edicts, 168, 170.
Roman Simhavishmi, 10.
Coinage, 183, 184 ; Writers,
Siva, 105, 156,217, 219,220.
162, 163, 192; Trade, 179, 186.
Sivaflnanabddhaw, 219.
Rome, 129, 180, 186. Siva Prajna, 219.
Rudran Kannan II, 158.
Rudra Sanma Kannar, 22. Sivaperuman l^iruvandadi, 235.
Skanda Giri, 175.
Smith, Dr. Vincent A., 6, 14, 73,
135, 160, 172, 190, 231.
Sadaraijyam, 175, 227. Solomon's Ivory, 205.
Saiva Literature, 195. Sopatma, 177.
Saiva Siddhanta Philosophy, 219. Sopattinam, 177, 178.
Sakti, 219, Sornagas, 69.
Sakyamuni, 25. South Indian Coinage, 184.
Salai, 135.
South Indian Inscriptions, 14.
Salem, 83, 118, 231, 233. South Indian Palaeography, 177, 207.
Salem Manual, 83. Sovira, 205.
Sallekhana, 92. Spingairn, 23.
Sri Harsha, 62.
Samayakuravars, 218.
vSamudragupta, 62.
A Study the
in Psychology of
Sangam, 17, 18, 19, 20,21, 22, 23, 24, Ritualism, 218.
25, 26, 27, 41, 45, 70, 105, 116, 152, Subrahmanya, 205.
189, 197,203, 204, 235, 255, 258;
Sundara or Sundaramurtti, 217, 218,
220.
Collections, 13, 42, 189, 197, 202;
Literature, 1, 6, 15, 16, 17, 25, 27,
Sundaram Pillai, Prof. P., 195.
33, 37, 38, 40, 45, 47, 56, 106, 161,
Suniti Kumar Chatterjee, Prof., 213.
175, 178, 183, 184, 186, 187, 190, Su-Patana, 177.
198, 258 ; Story or Tradition, 18, Supparaka, 205.
278 INDEX.

Swaminatha Aiyar, Pandit Maha- 174, 175, 176, 177, 178, 179, 184,
mahopadhyaya, 14, 134. 187, 188, 189, 190, 205, 215, 217,
Swarupam, 81. 221, 227, 236, 238, 242, 249, 251,
Synchronistic Tables, 38, 44, 45, 46, 252, 253, 255 ; Poets, 30, 35, 98,
47, 48, S3, 60, 132, 135, 152, 156, 106, 115, 121, 174, 178; Triumvirs,
157, 158, 159, 160, 161, 163, 164, 51,61,66, 115, 169.
165, 171. 172, 173, 174, 175, 179, Tampraparni, 66, 72, 98, 102, 233.
186, 187, 189, 191, 192, 193, 194, Tanjore, 88, 96, 145, 178.
196, 197, 198, 199, 200, 204, 205, Tanrikkon, 150.
208, 209, 210, 215, 216, 225, 232, Tantrism, 219.
235, 248, 253, 255, 259, 260, 261, Tayan Kannanar, 150, 151, 152.

262, 263, Ten Idylls, 15, 27, 30, 38, 41, 130,
145, 200, 235.
Ten Tens, 36.
Thibaut, 264.
Tacitus, 180.
Thurston, 215.
Taine, 214.
Tiberius, 184.
Taka<Jur, 124, 131.
Irum- Tinai, 35, 36, 47, 64.
Taka<Jur-erinta-Peruncheral
Tinnevelly, 14, 98, 178.
146, 147, 'Tirams', 211.
TaUiyaiamkariam, 144, 145,
182. Tiraiyan, 164.
148, 149, 165, 167, 171,
- Certi - Venra Tiraiyars, 63, 64, 69, 154.
Talaiyalainkanattu or Jfianasam-
23, 25, 49, 132, 144,
Tirugnanasambanda,
Nedumceliyan,
banda, 10, 45, 188, 189, 194. 217,
165, 171, 201.
150. 218, 220.
Tainan Tanrikkon,
Tirukkarur, 73, 230, 231.
Tambapanni, 168. Tirumavalavan, 61.
Tamil, 1,2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12,
40, 42, 45, Tirumavunni, 127.
14, 15, 16, 17, 20, 21, 30,
Tirumnrai, 217, 235.
46,51,55,58,60,61,62,04,66,69, Tirumuruyarruppadai, 15, 201, 202,
83, 84, 94, 96, 105, 100, 110, 112,
135 136, 203, 204, 2~5~7.
121, 130, 131, 132, 134,
167, 168, Tiruppati, 62.
137 139, 152, 162, 163,
175, 176, Tiruppor, 156.
169! 170 172, 173, 174,
188 189, Tiruppur, 76.
177178, 179, 182, 184, 110.
208, Tiruppuvanam,
190191, 195, 205, 206, 207,
216, 217, 221 Tiruttonfar Tiruvandddi, 217.
209,' 210, 212, 215,
242, Tiruttondattokai, 217.
227 228 229, 230, 237, 238,
258, Tiruvacagam, 217, 218, 219, 220, 221.
243, 246] 249, 253, 254, 255,
45 TiruvilaivCufalpuranaw, 23, 134, 220,
259, 261, 262, 263 ; Chronology, 235.
162 163, 167, 190; Country (Tamil-
18 22, 24, 25, 27 Tiruvalluvamalai, 22, 196, 197, 255.
agam), 9, 10, 13, Tiruvalhivar, 127, 204, 255.
66, 77 83,
39, 46, 51, 60, 62, 65, 167.
131, 135, 136, 37, Titiyan,*95, 113, 114, 115, 165,
106, 110, 115,
175, Titiyan II, 146, 147.
140, 143, 163, 168, 170, 172,
Tittan, 63, 67, 69, 72, 73, 74, 76, 88,
176 178 179, 180, 181, 183, 184,
89, 142, 166, 191.
186 187 IBS', 192, 193, 194, 1%,
216 217, Tittan Veliyan, 73, 74, 75, 85, 166,
205, 208, 209, 214, 215,
259, 185, 260.
227; 229, 231, 252, 254, 256,
26, 44, Titus, 182, 184, 185.
260, 261, 262, 263 ; History, 197.
Totfittalai Viluttan dinar,
49 61, 71, 89, 106, 125, 127, 139, 189,
Tolkappiyam, 10, 19, 23, 45, 62,
158, 161,164; 167, 174, 175,186, 260,
187 J88, 190, 191, 194, 215, 216, 204, 205, 222, 223, 258, 259,
36,61 66, 263, 264.
237, 258; Kings, 6, 10, 237,
130, 131, 134, 143, 148, Tolkappiyar, 19, 45, 204, 223,
106, 116, 247,
196, 238, 240, 241, 242, 243, 246,
172, 176, 179, 185, 186, 194,
248, 253, 258, 259, 260, 261, 262,
201 231, 232, 260; Lexicon, 116,
263, 264, 265.
227; Literature, 7, 8, 11,12,13 15,
132, 157, Toncjaiman, 154, 229.
20, 40, 45, 54, 64, 66, 131,
169, Tondaimandalam, 134, 261.
162, 163, 164, 165, 167, 168,
 INDEX. 279

Toij<iaiman IJantiraiyan, 154, 158, Vanci, 232.

201, 261. Vanidasan, 188.
Togdaiyar, 61, 63, 64, 154. Vanigars, 22.
Tontfi, 137, 157, 178. Vanjimanayar, 61.
Tonrikkon, 150. Vanparanar, 128, 210.
Travancore, 73, 122, 124, 163, 177, Varahamihira, 264.
249. Varkalai, 177.
Travancore Archaeological Series, Varuna, 202, 263.
170, 208. Vattaru, 147, 167.
Tret and Serpent Worship, 227. Vattefettu, 208.
Tribes of Southern India, 215. Vcdars, 64, 99, 227, 228.
Trichinopoly, 73, 76, 112, 231, 232, Vcdic Dialect, 213; Period, 264;
233. Rile, 136.
Trimurtis, 219.
Vl, 65, 67, 68, 193, 229, 260.
Trivandrum, 178.
Vejiman, 155.
Tulu country, 117, 126, 172.
Vejirs, 21, 85, 94, 96, 229.
Turaiyur, 106.
Vejiyan, 74, 75, 76, 78, 79, 80, 85, 86,
Tyndis, 117, 13/ f
172.
117, 191.

U VcHyan Tittan, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 73,

74, 75, 166, 185, 260.
Vel Keiu Kuttuvan, 90, 124, 125, 126,
Udiyan, 85, 103, 104.
Udiyan Cheral alias Udiyan Chera- 137, 144.
latan, 83, 85, 86, 91, 103, 104, 105, Vcllerukkilaiyar, 99, 107.
-
112, 138. VrJUyamhalaUu-tunciya Permnludi,
Udiyanperur, 103. 131, 132, 140.
Ukkirappcruvaludi, 143, 15\ 152, Velmagan, 67.
153, 172, 173, 198, 199. Velmagal, 229.
Uloccanar, 155. Velmal, 229.
Umparkatfu, 117, 231, 235, 249. Vejman, 67, 88, 89, 155, 229.
Onpotipasunkucjaiyar, 38. Vejpah -
tac^akkai -
PerunarkiHi or
Urugapuram, 175.
Peruvirarkilji, 59, 109, "lioj 111,
Uraiyur or Urantai, 6, 62, 67, 08,
117, 119,142, 166, 185.
69, 70, 71, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 80,
72",
Venkai Marpan, 152, 153.
86, 87, 88, 89, 96, 97, 98, 105, 106,
Venkatam, 158,259.
110, 111, 119, 120, 130, 141, 142,
Venni, 91, 92, 93, 112.
143, 147, 175, 178, 179, 192, 260.
Vcniii-Kuyattiyar, 91, 92.
Urattur, 62, 178. Venni vayil, 93.
Uruva-pah-ter-Jlancedcenni, 59, 119, Veri-Padiya-Kamakkanni} ar, 257.
"12S, 128, 142, 165, 166, 185, 191. Vcrrivel Ccliyan, 102.
Uttara Ramayanam, 188.
Vespasian, 182, 184, 185.
Vicci, 128.
Viccikko, 128.
I

Village Communities, 4, 12, 210.

Vacjama Vannakkan Damodaranar, Villavar Tribe, 78.
147.
Virai, 67, 08, 69, 71, 73, 88, 89, 98.
Vatfama Vaiinakkan Pcruiicattanar, Virai Vejman Vejiyan Tittan, 71.
149, 150.
Visnu, 249, 263.
Va<Japulam, 176, 251. Vi$nuvardhana, 170.
Vadavurpuranam, 220.
Viyalur, 125.
1
Va^imb&lamba-ninra-PancJiyan, 20,
121, 130. W
Vaigai, 66, 99, 102, 114,224.
Vaigal, 195. Wanderings of People,\\7.
Vaiyavi, 127. Weber, 264.
Vajranandi, 26. Western Ghats, 77, 82, 106, 231, 251,
Vakai, 78, 85, 94. 252.
Vajavan, 148. White Islands, 117.
'

Vajjuvan Kancjan, 167. Whitney, Prof., 4, 264.

&80 INDEX.
Ydna, 168.
, Yule, 23, 137, 172.
Yagas, 131, 133, 135, 196, 214, 215.
Yal, 211.
- Irum-
Yanaikkaij-Mantaran-Cheral
porai, 28, 149. Zeno, 183.
Yava'nas, 117, 174.
 AUTHORS AND WORKS CONSULTED.

(i) ENGLISH.

Allen, Carlcton Kemp Village Communities and Customary Law.

Anderson, J. D. Peoples of India.
Bayley, Sir B. Clive On the Genealogy of the Modern Numerals.
Bhandarkar, Dr. R. G. Early History of the Deccan.
Breeks, J. W. Primitive Tribes and Monuments of the Nilgim.

Buhler, Prof. G. Memorandum to Sir C. Bayley on the Origin

of the Indian Alphabet and Numerals.
Boirnell, Dr. A. C. South Indmn Palaeography.
Caldwell, Dr. Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian

Chatterji, Prof. Suniti Kumar The Origin and Development of

the Bengali Language.

Clifford, Prof. W. F.~ Collected Works.

Cox, A. F. and II. H. Stuart Manual of North Arcot.

Cunningham, Alexander Ancient Geography of India.

Cust, Dr. The Origin of the Indian Alphabet.

Das, Nobin Chandra Ancient Geography of Asia.

Davids, Dr. Rhys Buddhist India.
On the Ancient Coins and Measures of Ceylon.

Dubreuil, Prof. J. The Pallavas.

Pallava Antiquity, Vols. I and II.
Duff Chronology of India.
Dutt, Manmathnath Translation of Manu Samhita.
Elliot, Sir W. Coins of Southern India.

Fergusson, J. Tree and Serpent Worship.

Geiger, Dr. Wilhelm Mahavamso.

Goldstiicker Panini.

Gopinatha Rao, T. A. History of Sri Taishnavas.

Gupta, Surendranath Das A History of Indian Philosophy.
C 36
 AUTHORS AND WORKS CONSULTED.

Haddon, Dr. A. C. Wanderings of Peoples.

Henderson Keith Prehistoric Man.
Henke, Frederick Goodrich A Study in the Psychology of
Ritualism.
Hirananda Shastri The Origin and Cult of Tara.

Hocart, A.M. Kingship.

Hodgson, B. H. Miscellaneous Essays relating to Indian Subjects,
Vol. I.

Hopkins, E. Washburn Great Epic of India.

Kanakasabhai Pillai Tamils, Eighteen Hundred Tears Ago.
Kaye, G. B. Hindu Astronomy.
Keane, A. H. Man Past and Present.

Kielhorn, Prof. Synchronistic Tables of the South Indian Kings.

Keith, Dr. A. B. Buddhist Philosophy.
History of Sanskrit Literature.
Aitareya Aranyaka.
Kern, H. Manual of Indian Buddhism.
Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Dr. S. Beginnings of South Indian
History.
Early History of Vaisnavism
in South India.

Lee, Rev. Samuel The Travels of Ibn Batuta.

Logan, William Manual of the Malabar District.
Loventhal, Rev. E. The Coins of Tinnevelly.
McCrindle, J. W. TJie India of Arrian.

Ptolemy.
Periplus of the Erythraean Sea.
Macdonell, Prof. History of Sanskrit Literature.
Maine, Sir H. S. Village Communities.
Moret, Prof, and A. Davy From Tribe to Empire.

Morgan, Dr. Lewis H. Ancient Society.

Morize Andre Problems awd Methods of Literary History.
Morley, Lord Burke.
Muir, Dr. John The Oriental Studies.
Nicholson, P. A. Coimbatore Manual.
Oldenberg, Dr. H. On the Dates of Indian Inscriptions and
Going,
 AUTHORS AMD WORKS CONSULWD. 288

Pittard Eugene-r-jRooe and History.

Pliny Natural History.

Pope, Dr. Translation of the Purananuru Lyrics.

Translation of Kura%.

Purnalingam Pillai, M. S. History of Tamil Literature.

Ramavatara Sarma Piyadasi Inscriptions.

Rapson, Professor B. J. Ancient India.

A Catalogue of Indian Coins in the

British Museum.

Rice, B. Lewis Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions.

Rice, B. P. Kanarese Literature.
Richards, F. J. Saltern Manual.
Satischandra Vidyabhushana, Dr. History of Indian Logic.
Schoff, W. H. Periplus of the Erythraean Sea.
Semple, E. C. Influences of the Geographic Environment.

Smith, Dr. Vincent A. Early History of India.

History of Fine Art in India and

Ceylon.

Spingairn Literary Criticism in the Renaissance.

Sturrock, J. Manual of South Kanara.
Sundaram Pillai, Prof. The Age of Tirugnanasambandha.
Thibaut, Dr. G Varaha Mihira's Pancha Siddhantikas.
Thurston, E. Cast&s and Tribes of Southern India.
Tiurnour George Mahavamso.

Whitney, Prof. Oriental and Linguistic Studies.

Wills, Lieut.-Col. Mark History of Mysore.
Yule and Burnell Hobson-Jobson.

(ii) TAMIL WORKS.

I. BASIC WORKS FOR THE TABLES.

Agananuru.
Kuruntogai.

Purandnuru.
2$4 ^ AUTHORS AND WORKS CONSTTLTBD.
*

II. SECONDARY WORKS.

Pattirrupattu.
-Pattuppatfu.

III. OTHER WORKS.

Cttappadikaram.
Iraiyanar Agapporul.
Kdlavali Ndrpadu.
Kalifigattuppurwni.
Kalittagai.
KongudesardjSkkal.

Manimekalai.

Periyapurdnam.
Tamil Ilakkiya VaraJdru.
Tiruvdcagam.
Tiruvilayafalpuranam.
Tolkdppiyam.

Vddavurpurdnam.
Vancimdnagar.

(iii) PERIODICALS.
Epigraphia Indica, Vol. II.

Modern Review, 1923.

Travancore Archaeological Series.

PRINTED AT THE MADRAS LAW JOURNAL PRESS, MYLAFORE, MADRAS.