No. 35. — 188 7. ] TIRUKKETI'SVAK AM. 



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made I learn that, except a few leaves, nothing more of it is 

 extant. It is admitted on all hands that the period during 

 which the English, the French, and the princes of India were 

 fighting for supremacy in the Deccan, proved very destructive 

 to literary works preserved in the libraries of South India. 

 Perhaps the purdna I refer to existed before or about the 

 commencement of these wars, say 150 years ago, when 

 Mayilvakanam wrote the history of Jaffna, entitled Yalppdna 

 Vaipava Mdlai. He lived in the time of the Dutch 

 Governor Maccara (1736), and may have seen the purdna in 

 question, because it is recorded by him in positive terms in 

 the history of Jaffna that Prince Vijaya, soon after he landed 

 on the shores of Ceylon in the sixth century B.C., " caused to 

 be rebuilt the temple of Terukketisvaram, which had long 

 been in ruins." That would take us to a much earlier period 

 than 543 B.C., the year of Vijaya's landing. The only event 

 recorded of Ceylon anterior to that event is the reign of 

 Ravana and his subjugation by Rama. When did these 

 heroes flourish ? Valmiki identifies the date of Rama's birth 

 with the occurrence of an uncommon astronomical fact, from 

 which Bently, in his work on Hindu Astronomy, computes 

 that the birth of Rama must have taken place in 961 B.C. 

 Other authorities assign a much earlier period. As at least 400 

 years intervened between the time of Rama and Vijaya, are 

 we justified in believing that the temple of Tirukketisvaram, 

 even if it had gone to ruins " long before " the landing of 

 Vijaya, did exist in the days of Rama ? Seeing that the 

 Rdmaydna does not, so far as I remember, make mention 

 of it, though lying on the path taken by Rama to Ceylon, 

 we may conclude that that temple was founded some time 

 after the epoch of Rama and many years before the advent 

 of Vijaya. 



"We are, however, treading on firmer ground when we read 

 what is recorded of this temple in one of the most sacred 

 writings of the Tamils, the Tevdram, which are hymns in 

 praise of Siva sung by Suntra-murthi and Sampanta- 

 murtti. When did these divines live ? Their lives, like those 



