190 Historical Sketch of the Kingdom of Pandya. [July 



buted to Agastya, besides his grammatical aphorisms. These consist 

 of poems in praise of Siva, and a number of medical works.* It is 

 not very probable, however, thai the appropriation is generally correct. t 

 At the first institution of the Madura sangattar, it would appear that 

 some dispute arose immediately between the professors and the Saiva 

 priests, connected, not impossibly, with that contention for pre-emi- 

 nence of knowledge which has ever prevailed in the Tamil countries 

 between the Brahman and inferior castes. J The priests, however, 

 proved the more powerful ; and a reconciliation took place between 

 them and the literati of Madura. At least, we may thus interpret the 

 legend of Narakira incurring the wrathful glance of Siva, and only 

 escaping being burnt to ashes in the flames emanating from the eye in 

 the forehead of the god by plunging into the holy pool Pattamari, and 

 there composing the Andadi Panyam, a poem in honour of Siva. After 

 this event the parties continued upon good terms; and Siva presented 

 to the professors a diamond bench of great critical sagacity, for it ex- 

 tended itself readily for the accommodation of such individuals as were 

 worthy to be upon a level with the sages of the sangattar, and reso- 

 lutely detruded all who pretended to sit upon i-t without possessing 

 the requisite qualifications. In other words, the learned corporation 

 of Madura resembled learned bodies in other countries, and maintained 

 as strict a monopoly as they possibly could of literary reputation. 



The foreign transactions of Vamsa Sek'hara's reign were limited 

 to a war with Vikrama, the Chola prince, who besieged Madura, but 

 was repulsed with the aid of Siva. The son of this prince was more 

 fortunate ; and he was engaged in disputes of no more serious a na- 

 ture than those which were engendered by the rivalry of his literary 

 dependents. 



* One of these, the Agastyar Vaidya Anguru, is cited by Dr. Ainslie, Preface to the 

 Materia Medica of Hindustan. 



t In a manuscript account of Agastya, in the Collection, List, No. 14, thirty-eight 

 works attributed to him are said to be still current. His grammar is, however, said to be 

 lost, in consequence of a curse denounced upon it by Tulagappyam, the disciple of 

 Agastya, according to some legends. In a MS. written by an intelligent native, and 

 already referred to under the title of Chola Purvika Charitra Vydkhyanan, it is said, that 

 the reputed invention of the Tamil language by Agastya is very improbable, as, in the 

 medical works uniformly ascribed to him, the style indicates a very confined possession 

 of the language ; and as to the Jlgastyam, or Grammatical Institutes, said to be lost, there 

 is little reason to suppose it was ever written, as least by Agastya, as he never mentions 

 it, although he states in his Gnydnam, or work on theology, that he has written a lack of 

 sentences on theology, an equal number on alchemy, and two lacks on medicine.. These 

 inferences are scarcely questionable, as applied to an Agastya of, perhaps, the eighth or 

 ninth century ; but the traditions that ascribe the introduction of letters and religion 

 amongst the people of Dravira to an earlier teacher of that name, do not seem to have 

 originated wholly in imagination. 



t Ellis on the Malayalam Language, p. 26. 



