Chap. XXV. 



AGHASTYA. 



413 



Malabar, tlie rise of Chira in tlie west, of the state of Chola 

 ill the east, and of Eamnad in the south.' A long list of 

 kings is mentioned in the native annals, with numerous wars, 

 first against the Budhists, and afterwards with the Kajahs of 

 Chola and Ramnad. 



The most flourisliing period of Madura history appears to 

 have been during the reigns of Vamsa Sekhara and his son 

 Vamsa Churamani, in about 200 a.d. They erected grand 

 temples and palaces, and the more ancient and massive parts 

 of edifices still in existence probably date from their reigns. 

 A college, called Sangattar, was founded at Madura, at this 

 time, for the cultivation of the Tamil language and litera- 

 ture.^" The first stimulus was given to this movement by the 

 famous Rishi or sage, Aghastya, the leader of a colony of 

 Brahmins, whose migration to the south is mentioned in the 

 Ramayana. He was a chief agent in diffusing the worship of 

 Siva in the Deccan ; and it is supposed that there was a 

 second man of learning of the same name in the eighth or 

 ninth century. Aghastya is said to have been the offspring 

 of two gods, Mithra and Varuna, and he received the Brah- 

 minical string from seven holy prophets. He became a 

 most wonderful and enlightened personage, and composed 

 works on medicine, moral and natural philosophy, and botany, 

 in high Tamil verse, called Yellaeanum, greatly improving 

 and refining his adopted language. Aghastya's memory is 



9 The author of the Periplus of the 

 Ei-j'thraian Sea mentions Nelcjnida 

 (Neliceram), Paralia (Malabar), and 

 Comari (Cape Comorin), as under 

 King Pandion (Regio Pandionis) ; 

 and Dr. Vincent thinks that the Pand- 

 yan Kings of Madura lost IMalabar 

 between the time of the author of the 

 Periplus and that of Ptolemy ; because 

 the latter does not allude to Pandion 

 until Cape Comorin is passed. Chira 

 is the modern Coimbatore, and the 

 capital of the Chira state was at 



Caroor. The state of Chola is the 

 modern Tanjore. Tlie word Pandya 

 is probably of Sanscrit origin, but the 

 masculine termination of on is Tamil. 

 1" "In Tamil few Brahmins have 

 written anything worthy of preserva- 

 tion : but the language has been culti- 

 vated and developed with immense 

 zeal and success by native Sudras." 

 — CahhceU, p. 33. Tamil literature, 

 now extant, dates from the eighth or 

 ninth century : p. 68. 



