NO. 46. — 1895.] ANCIENT TAMIL LITERATURE. 



21 



Maran, and he is still worshipped as a saint under that 

 name.* Nambi Andar Nambi mentions him : " The Maran, 

 conqueror of Nelveli, who formerly impaled the Jains whom 

 Jnana Sambandha overcame."! Sundara Miirtti says, "lam 

 the servant of the devotee, the righteous Nedumaran, who 

 conquered Nelveli."% 



The word Nedumaran is convertible into Neduncheliyan, 

 as Maran and Cheliyan have the same signification, viz., 

 Pandiya. Neduncheliyan was a contemporary§ of Karikala, 

 and was the subject of poems by Nakkirar and Mankudi 

 Marutanar.|| The latter calls him, " great king, who 

 captured Nel-in-ur."^ Nel-in-ur means, ur the country, 

 in of, nel paddy or rice. Nelveli means also the country of 

 Nel** and Nachchinarkkiniyar says that by Nel-in-ur is 

 meant Saliyur*\\ And there is only one Pandiya in Tamil 

 literature, who is styled the conqueror of Nelveli, or Nel-in-ur. 

 If my conjecture, that the terms Nedumaran and Nedun- 

 cheliyan denote the same Pandiya king, be correct, then 

 Jnana Sambandha must have lived about the time when 

 Jesus was born, when the throne of the Cholas was occupied 

 by Karikala, a conclusion which is supported by the fact 

 that, judging from the Tamil literature of that period, this 

 was the time when the Jain religion began to lose ground 

 in Southern India. 



Let us come back, however, to Purandnuru. Amongst 

 several collections or anthologies made by the Sangam is 



* Cf. above quoted " Age of Jnana Sambandha." Also Periyapuranain 

 (Sadasivappillai's edition, Madras, 1884), p. 246, v. 8, and p. 493. 

 f Tiruttondar Tiruvantati. 

 X Tiruttondattokai. 



§ Cf. Tamil " Chilappatikaram "; also note * on page 31, infra. 

 || Both poets were members of the last Sangam ; the poems referred to 

 are Nedunalvadai:and Maduraikkanji, respectively, 

 •f Maduraikkanji. 



** Veli as an affix means ur, or country. (See Winslow's Tamil-English 

 Dictionary, under the word (2<su6$.) 



ft Nel = Sanskrit, Sdli = paddy or rice. 



