No. 45. — 1894.] which gaja bahu visited india ? 149 



several poems to the prince on the subject, and brought about a recon- 

 ciliation. Kapilar' s friend and one of his patrons was Prince Pari, and 

 on Part's death the aged poet's untiring endeavours to wed Parts 

 portionless daughter— for Pari died poor — to some one of the great 

 princes of Southern India, and his visits to court after court with that 

 object, form an interesting chapter in Tamil literature. 



" Paranar' s chief patron was the Chera King Senkuttuvan, who, 

 according to the Chilappatikdram, was visited by Gaja Bahu. Paranar 

 addressed to Senkuttuvan several poems, including the fifth Pattu 

 of the Padittuppattu, and received from him several important gifts, 

 including Umbatkdttuvdri. 



" These are all matters to be gathered from our ancient Tamil 

 poems,* and the poems addressed by Kapilar and Paranar on the 

 occasion above mentioned are also extant. 



" For the purposes of the present investigation we have to remember 

 that the two VallaVs, Pekan and Pari, and the two poets, Kapilar and 

 Paranar, were contemporaries, and that the Chera King Senkuttuvan 

 was Paranar 's patron. Now Pari is mentioned in one of the hymns of 

 Sundara Murtti thus :f " Even if you flatter cowards by styling them 

 Bhimas and Ar guanas, and misers Paris, who will reward you now-a- 

 days, O ye poets ? " Sundara Murtti, as you are aware, is one of the 

 three authors of the sacred hymns of the Tamils known as Devdram. 

 Where is the earliest authentic reference to him ? The researches of 

 Dr. Hultszch enable us to answer this. Plate No. 38 given in the 

 South Indian Inscriptions, vol. II., part II., page 152 et seq., which is 

 a copy of one of the inscriptions at the temple at Tanjore, gives the 

 weight of the images worshipped at that temple and, amongst them, of 

 the images of Sunday a Murtti and Paravaiydr his wife. The inscription 

 is dated the twenty-ninth year of the reign of Rdja-Rdja-deva, 

 which has been ascertained to be 1033 of the Christian era (South 

 Indian Inscriptions, vol. I., page 169). I do not ask you to say how 

 many centuries must have elapsed after Sundara Murtti' 's death before 

 he and his wife came to be worshipped in a temple of Siva ; but this 

 fact remains that Pari must have been long prior to 1033, which date 

 is at least 100 years before Gaja Bahu II. began his reign in Ceylon. 

 As there are only two Gaja Bahus between the first and twelfth 

 centuries of the Christian era, and as Pari, Kapilar, Paranar, and 

 Senkuttuvan were contemporaries, the prince who visited Senkuttuvan 

 was undoubtedly Gaja Bahu I. ; and as this visit must have occurred 

 during this reign, that is, between 113-125 after Christ, we are able to 

 fix the dates of the Chera King Senkuttuvan, and the two poets 

 Kapilar and Paranar, as prior to the second half of the second 

 century." 



Mr. J. Harward said that, in view of the record made so persistently 

 in the several Sinhalese works cited by Mr. Ranasinha, the tradition 

 that Gaja Bahu I. visited India appeared to him worthy of acceptance 

 as a bond fide tradition, and as that was constantly associated with the 

 introduction into Ceylon of the worship of the goddess Pattini we need 

 not hesitate to believe that Gaja Bahu I. introduced that worship. 



* Consult, among others, Chirupanattuppadai, Patittuppattu, Pura- 

 nanur, &c. 



f Sunkaramurttikevaram in Tiruppukalur Midukkalatanai. 



D 2 



