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



19 



I am aware that Dr. Caldwell says that the last days of the 

 third Sangam, if it ever existed, should be placed in the 

 thirteenth century.* But I think that those who have studied 

 the results of Dr. Hultzsch's researches in South Indian 

 Archaeology, as well as the ancient Tamil works which have 

 been printed since the second edition of Dr. Caldwell's 

 Grammar of the Dravidian Languages appeared, will see 

 ample reason to doubt the correctness of the dates assigned 

 by Dr. Caldwell to ancient Tamil authors and kings. I 

 give a few instances in illustration of his erroneous 

 conclusions. 



Karikala, the Chola king, contemporary of Nakkirar, 

 according to Dr. Caldwell lived in the thirteenth century. I 

 have established that Karikala lived prior to the second 

 century .f 



Dr. Caldwell says that Jnana Sambandha, Appar or 

 Tirunavukkarasu, and Sundara Murtti, the three authors of 

 ""Devaram," lived in the time of Sundara Pandiya, who, he says 

 reigned at the end of the thirteenth century. All these three 

 authors are mentioned in an inscription of the time of the 

 Chola king Raja-raja Deva, which states that their images were 

 worshipped in a certain temple (South Indian Inscriptions, 

 vol. II., part II., p. 152), and Raja-raja Deva's reign began in 

 1004 of the Christian era (South Indian Inscriptions, vol. I., 

 p. 169), Mr. P. Sundaram Pillai, M.A. and Professor of 

 Philosophy at the Maharaja's College at Trivendrum, has 

 shown in his essay "On the Age of Jnana Sambandha" 

 that Jnana Sambandha's age must be placed prior to the 

 seventh century. But there is perhaps reason for placing 

 it even earlier, — earlier than the second century. Those 

 who are familiar with Tamil literature have read of one 

 of the miracles performed by Jnana Sambandha, viz., his 

 raising to life a man of the Vaniga caste, who had died of 



* Dr. Caldwell's introduction to his " Grammar of the Dravidian 

 Languages," second edition, p. 131. 



•f See Journal, Royal Asiatic Society, Ceylon Branch, vol. XIII., pp- 

 190-193. 



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