1837.] Historical Sketch of the Kingdom of Pandya. 



151 



marvels enough; but the aspect which it gives to the one visit of the 

 Chola-chief, is rather construable into a well wrought piece of con- 

 trivance on the part of the Brahmans, and the nodus thought worthy 

 of the god to untie, is the restoration of the seal on the temple-gate, 

 which had been broken during the night. Copies may vary ; and at 

 best perhaps the tale is merely a gibe at " the shameless sect" of the 

 hated Samunar. 



I hesitate as to allowing no existing work to Narkiren the famous 

 chief of the Madura College, at least on the reason alleged. The MS. on 

 palm-leaves (Des. Cat. vol. 1, No. xxiii) entitled Alakeswara-katha, may 

 at once be set aside on the ground assigned by Mr. Kindersley, but 

 among the MSS. on paper there is one in a book,* No. 7, sec. 

 2, entitled Alakesa raja Cadha, apparently the one intended by Mr. K. 

 to which however his remark in reference to difficulty will not apply, 

 for in portions of ir, there are verses in it dark as the Sphinx's riddle, 

 and expressly so intended to be. Popular tradition ascribes this work 

 to Narkiren, as a jeu d'' 'esprit ; but my own reason for doubting his 

 authorship arises from the part which the poetess Avvaiyar, is made 

 to take in it. A just deduction will I think place Avvaiyar much later 

 than Narkiren; and a haughty Brahman who (sic dicitur) would not 

 concede the palm to Siva himself, was not the person to do honour to 

 a P aria-poetess. 



With regard to Agastya, I believe, that many of the works imputed to 

 him are not genuine ; but I think so much is due to uniform tradition 

 as to concede that an individual so named, first gave to the Tamil 

 people a written alphabet, and some outlines of grammar, and this too 

 at a very early period,* though his labours were ultimately eclipsed 

 and set aside, as regards grammar, by the Tolcapiam and N annul. 



The opinion given by Professor Wilson in the catalogue as to the 

 existence of Bauddhas and J ainas at Madura, re-appears in the 

 sketch, though very considerably modified. The translation by the 

 Honorable G. Tumour, Esq. of the Mahawanso a Pali work, having 

 since confirmed the conjectures thrown out by me in the two vols. 

 .0. H. MSS. as to the original identity of those two sects, I should not 

 advert to the subject, were it not to state that 1 do not see, how for a 

 moment the work of Tiruvalluvar, could even in conjecture be thought 

 to have subserved the introduction of the Jain or Bauddha faith into 

 Madura. Hindus look upon his book as quite orthodox. I may note 



* I have not succeeded in tracing out this book in the Des. Cat : the document Sec. 2 

 Art. xxiii. p. xlii. App. vol. 2, seems to be only a duplicate copy of the other tale, and 

 the contents do not accord with those of the five sections in book No. 7. 



During the interval between writing this note, and correcting the press, I hare found the 

 tale mentioned in the Catalogue, under the title q/'Tamul Perumal Cheritra— By Seyallar. 



