192 Historical Sketch of the Kingdom of Pandya. [July 



kavt, poems in praise of the Saiva worship.* The scene of his con- 

 test with the Bauddhas was at the temple of Chidambaram, and his 

 opponents chiefly teachers from Ceylon, f the king of which country, 

 it is said, was present at the controversy. The Bauddha disputants, 

 it is asserted, were converted to the orthodox faith, and no persecution 

 appears to have ensued. 



Another barren series of names occurs between Arimerddana and 

 Kuna Pandyan, who appears as the twelfth successor of that monarch. 

 According to some traditions, the date of Kuna Pandyan is called 

 950 of Salivahana, or a. I). 1028; J but there are several reasons for 

 supposing this to be erroneous. The Madura Parana, and its origi- 

 nal, the Halasya Mahatmya, come down to the end of this prince's 

 reign ; and they are attributed to the reign of Hari Vira Pandyan, in 

 9/3, giving an interval of but twenty-three years for their composition, 

 and for the bold assertion of marvels which it could not be supposed 

 they would venture to advance at a period so close to the realities thus 

 distorted. Either their date, therefore, is erroneous, or that of Kuna 

 Pandyan is incorrect; but there is every reason to suppose they are not 

 much misplaced, as the zeal of the Saiva priests and writers to whom 

 these and other compositions of the same period are evidently to be as- 

 signed, was, no doubt, particularly active in and about the ninth cen- 

 tury. Again, the chief instrument in the religious revolutions of the 

 Pandya state that occurred in this reign was a Saiva priest, Gnyana 

 Samandar,§ whose works, and those of his first converts and disciples, Ap- 

 pa and Sundar, are well known in the south, and are uniformly referred to 

 the ninth century ;|| w T hence it follows that we must place Kuna Pandyan 

 about that time. The date derives some confirmation from its agreement 

 with the period when the Jain religion, of which Kuna Pandyan was 

 a votary, had grown into credit in the neighbouring regions.^ 



Whatever may have been the date of this prince, it appears that 

 prior to his reign two events of some importance had occurred in the 



* Account of Tamil Works, No, 9; and List of Tamil Authors, No, 10. 



+ Life of Manikyav£saka, -t List of Tamil Authors, No, io. 



\ Wilks, on the Authority of a MS, in the Mackenzie Collection, calls him a 

 Pandaram, or Sudra priest of Siva (vol. i, p, 156). This does not appear, however, 

 from any of the MSS. consulted on the present occasion. Gnyana Samandar Charitra 

 Mackenzie Collection, vol. i. p. 203, App. xix. 



|] They are joint authors of the Tevaram, hymns in honour of Siva. 



IT The earliest Jaina inscriptions of an authentic character that have been found aro 

 those of kings of Humchi, dated Salivahana 804, 819, S2t >, &c. To them succeed the 

 grants of the Belal kings in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, - 



