1837.] Historical Sketch of the Kingdom of Pandya. 193 



Pandya kingdom, which are, not improbably, connected, although the 

 connexion is not adverted to in any of the native accounts. These are 

 the abolition of the sangattar, or Madura college, and the establish- 

 ment of the Samanal religion. 



The abolition of the sangattar is narrated in the usual marvellous 

 manner.* A candidate for the honour of a seat on the bench of pro- 

 fessors, appeared in the person of Tiruvalavar, a pariah priest of 

 Mailapur,t and the author of an ethical poem. The learned professors 

 were highly indignant at his presumption, but, as he was patronised 

 by the raja, they were compelled to give his book at least the trial. 

 For this purpose it was to find a place upon the marvellous bench, 

 which the professors took care to occupy fully. To their astonish- 

 ment, however, the bench extended itself to receive the work, and the 

 book itself commencing to expand, spread out so as to thrust all other 

 occupants from the bench. The raja and the people of Madura wit- 

 nessed the scene, and enjoyed the humiliation of the sages; and the 

 professors were so sensible of their disgrace, that, unable to survive it, 

 they issued forth, and all drowned themselves in a neighbouring pool. 

 In consequence the establishment was abandoned. 



If we contemplate this event in a literary view alone, we need not be 

 at a loss to understand it. The first professors were eminent in 

 Tamil composition, for the cultivation of which the college appears 

 to have been founded. The members, however, had subsequently, 

 in all probability, directed their attention more to Sanskrit composi- 

 tion, and had, at all events, neglected the cultivation of their native 

 literature. That the latter was the case, is evident from the remark of 

 Avayar, that the old Tamil was preferable to the new; J indicating 

 that, even in the ninth century, the dialect had been so far neglected 

 as to have become partially obsolete. With Tiruvalavar, however, 

 circumstances changed. The old system was subverted, and a new 

 impulse was given to the study of Tamil, which produced, in the 

 course of the ninth century, in the Pandya and Chola kingdoms, a 

 number of the most classical writers in the Tamil tongue.§ 



The date at which the subversion of the college occurred, is another 

 subject of enquiry, and, if we trust to the tradition which connects it 

 with Tiruvalavar, we must identify it with the period of his existence. 

 Other legends make him a brother of Avayar; but, as this family 



* Account of the Madura Sangattar, vol. 16. 



+ St. Thome. Possibly, therefore, something of an attempt to propagate Christianity is 

 here blunderingly and imperfectly narrated. 



$ Asiatic Researches, vol. vii. ; Dr. John on the Life and Writings of Avayar. 



? As Gnyana Samandar ; Appa and Sundara, above noticed ; Avayar herself, and 

 Kamban, the translator of the liamayan. 



