No'. '44,— 1893.] 



CHILAPPATIKARAM. 



83 



We also know that 107 years before, i.e., in the year of 

 Christ 779, the Tamil translation of the Skdnda-purdna was 

 published by Kachchiyappar. 



Before Kampan's Rdmdyana and Kachchiyappar'siS'&and^- 

 purdna, the poem now under notice, viz., Chilappatikdram, 

 and some other works, such as Chintdmani, Manimekalai, 

 Kundalakesi, and Valaydpati, which are all referable to about 

 the same period, had acquired throughout the length and 

 breadth of Tamil territory not only the reputation of being 

 classics, but classics of ancient times. For works to have 

 attained such a reputation in a conservative land like India, 

 some centuries at least must have passed since their publica- 

 tion. I shall therefore be not far wrong in supposing that 

 at the time of the Tamil Skdnda-purdna (Anno Christi 779) 

 these five poems were over five or six hundred years old. 

 Mr. C. W. Tamotharam Pillai,* formerly Judge of the High 

 Court of Pudukkoddai and one of the most enlightened Tamil 

 scholars of our day, believes that Chintdmani was published 

 about 1,800 years ago.t 



There is internal evidence in Chilappatikdram itself to 

 show that it was also composed about that time ; for the 

 author states that at his time Gaja Bahu of Ceylon was 

 ©n a visit to the Chera kingdom, and that on his return he 

 introduced into Ceylon the worship of Pattini. The author 

 refers to Gaja Bahu as having been the guest of his brother 

 Chenkuttuvan. 



The Mahdwansa speaks of only two Gaja Bahus as having 

 reigned in this Island. Which of them is referred to in the 

 Chilappatikdram ? 



Gaja Bahu I. is believed to have reigned circa 113 Anno 

 Christi4 while Gaja Bahu II. reigned in 1142, long after the 



* Nachchinarkkiniyar, the well-known commentator, lived 1,200 years 

 ago {of. Mr. C. W. Tamotaram Pillai's Preface to PorulatiMrqm), and wrote 

 a Commentary on Natkirar's Tirumtirtikdttuppadai, which at his time was 

 regarded to be an old poem ; and Natkirar in his commentaries cites 

 CMlappatiTidi'airn. 



f Cf. Preface to Viraclioliyam. 



% Turnour, Epitome, gives a.c. 109 ; Wijesinha Mudaliyar, A.c. 113. 



G2 



