or

called Agastya's hill,' from which the Porunei' Tamraparni,' the sacred river of Tinnevelly, takes its rise." None of the numerous works attributed to Agastya proceeded from his pen. One of them is so very modern that it treats of a disease deriving its name from Europeans. The object of these literary forgeries was to secure credit for the treatises.

Dr. Caldwell, from the evidence of copies of inscriptions in his possession, considers that the long lists of kings at Madura contained in the local Puranas are generally fictitious.* No attempt will therefore be made to fix the date of the introduction of writing in south India.

Madura College. Several of the Pandyan monarchs were munificent patrons of learning. Poets frequently recited their compositions before the king in presence of his courtiers, and were dismissed with liberal gifts. Vamsa Sekhara is said to have founded the Madura College for the cultivation of the Tamil language and literature. His son Vamsa Churamani completed his father's design, and established the College on a proper footing. "Madura was then probably the most celebrated seat of learning in all Hindustan. If the court of Vikramaditya had its nine gems, the Madura College is reported to have had more than five times that number."+

The Madura College exercised as great an authority over Tamil literature, as the Academy of Paris in its palmy days in France. It had, however, to encounter opposition. Wilson, in his sketch of the Pandiyan kingdom, gives the following notice of one of the struggles:

"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-eminence of knowledge which has ever prevailed in the Tamil countries between the * Dravidian Comparative Grammar, p. 59. + Rev. II. Bower, Calcutta Review.

Brahmans and inferior castes. The priests, however, proved the more powerful; and 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 honor 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 extended itself readily for the accommodation of such individuals as were worthy to be upon a level with the sages of the Sangattar, and resolutely detruded all who pretended to sit on it 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 College came to a sudden end. Wilson thus describes it, with its probable explanation:

"The abolition of the Sangattar is narrated in the usual marvellous manner. A candidate for the honour of a seat on the bench of the professors, appeared in the person of Tiruvalluvar, a Pariah priest of Mailapur, 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 astonishment, 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 witnessed 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 comprehend 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 composition and had, at all events, neglected the cultivation of their literature. That the latter was the case, is evident from the remark of Auvaiyar, that the old Tamil was preferable to the new; indicating that, even in the ninth century, the dialect had been so far neglected as to have become partially obsolete. With Tiruvalluvar, 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 Pandiyan and Chola kingdoms a number of the most classical writers in the Tamil tongue."

Oldest Existing Literature. Dr. Caldwell remarks as follows:

Leaving out of account various isolated stanzas, of high but unknown antiquity, which are quoted as examples in the grammatical and rhetorical works, the oldest Tamil works now extant are those which were written, or are claimed to have been written, by the Jainas, or which date from the era of the literary activity of the Jaina sect. The Jainas of the old Pandiya country were animated by a national and anti-Brahmanical feeling of peculiar strength; and it is chiefly to them that Tamil is indebted for its high culture and its comparative independence of Sanskrit." The following 18 works are said to have been received the sanction of the Madura College

·--

15 IT SULY 15 IT SÅ LAG þæÿ ÿjämä
பால கடுங்கோவை பழமொழிமா மூலம்

மெய்நிலைய காஞ்சியோ டேலாதியென்பதூஉங்
கைநிலைய வயங்கீழ்க் கணக்கு.

1. Naladiyar, 2 Nanmanikkadikai, 3 Iniyavai Narppatu, 4 Inna Narppatu, 5 Kar Narppatu, 6 Kallavali Narppatu, 7 to 11, Tokai, 12 Kural, 13 Tirikadukam, 14 Asara Kovai, 15 Pala Moli, 16 Siru Pansa Mulam, 17 Mutu Moli Kanji, 18 Elati.*

The Jaina period extended probably from the eighth or ninth century, A. D., to the twelfth or thirteenth. In the reign of Sundara Pandiya, which appears to synchronise with Marco Polo's visit to India, the adherents of the *Stokes' Niti Neri Vilakkum, p. ix.

religious system of the Jainas, were finally expelled from the Pandiya country; consequently, all Tamil works which advocate or avow that system must have been written before the middle of the thirteenth century, A. D., and probably before the decadence of Jaina influence in the twelfth. The general opinion is that the grammar called the "TOLKAPPAYAM, or ancient composition, is the oldest work extant. Dr. Caldwell places it at the very commencement of the Jaina period, or about the 8th cent. A. D. It contains quotations which must belong to still earlier works.

66

Much of the Tol-Kappiyam has been lost. Dr: Caldwell says that "the 'KURAL' of Tiruvalluvar, which is regarded by all Tamilians (and perhaps justly) as the finest composition of which the Tamil can boast, appears to be not only the best but the oldest Tamil work of any extent which is now in existence." He places its date not later than the 9th century, A. D. Several reasons are assigned for this, only one or two which can be mentioned. There is no trace in the Kural of the mysticism of the modern Puranic system; of Bhakti, or exclusive, enthusiastic faith in any one deity of the Hindu Pantheon; of exclusive attachment to any of the sects into which Hinduism has been divided since the era of Sankara; or even of acquaintance with the existence of any such sects." "From the indistinctness and undeveloped character of the Jaina element which is contained in it, it seems probable that in Tiruvalluvar's age Jainism was rather an esoteric ethical school, than an independent objective system of religion, and was only in the process of development out of the older Hinduism."

"Certain poetical compositions are attributed to Auvaiyar, 'the Matron,' a reputed sister of Tiruvalluvar, of which some at least do not belong to so early a period.

"The most celebrated poem which was written by an avowedly Jaina author-the CHINTAMANI,' a brilliant romantic epic, containing 15,000 lines" probably belongs to the tenth century.

The NAN-NUL, a High Tamil Grammar of great excellence, and the poetical vocabularies, which were all written by Jaina scholars, must be placed a little later than the 'Chintamani'; but yet anterior to the Chola conquest of the Pandiya country, which took place in the eleventh century."

The Tamil translation, or rather imitation, of the RAMAY

ANA, Dr. Caldwell supposes to have been written in the eleventh century*

TAMIL POETRY.

With the exception of commentaries and some modern works, the entire Tamil literature is in poetry. Some account of its character is, therefore, desirable. Dr. Caldwell remarks:

"It is deserving of notice that alliteration is of the essence of Dravidian poetry, as of Welsh.... The chief peculiarity of Dravidian rhyme consists in its seat being, not at the end of the line, but at the beginning-a natural result of the love of alliteration. The rule in each Dravidian dialect is that the consonant which intervenes between the first two vowels in a line is the seat of rhyme.

"The agreement of these two consonants constitutes the minimum of rhyme which is admissable; but often the entire first foot of one line rhymes with the same foot in the second; sometimes the second feet in each line also rhyme; and the rhyme is sometimes taken up again further on in the verse, according to fixed laws in each variety of metre."+

Beschi, in his Grammar of the High Dialect of Tamil, describes the thirty kinds of feet, divisable into five classes, of Tamil poetry. He mentions one peculiarity:

"In Latin a verse would be considered lame, and devoid of harmony, if each word in it were a distinct foot; the feet of a verse, therefore, are so disposed, that, in scanning, the words are run into each other, and concatenated like the links of a chain. The cadence of the Tamil verse, on the contrary, requires, that, not only in singing, but even in reading, the close of each foot should be marked by a slight pause; so that, to read a verse, and to scan, are one and the same thing. Hence, although a Tamil foot may consist of several whole words, yet no word can be divided, as among the Latins, so as to belong, partly to one foot, and partly to another." p. 70.

As a rule, every Tamil poem, even of the filthiest character, begins with an invocation. There are three

* Abridged from Dravidian Comparative Grammar, pp. 84-88. + Dravidian Comparative Grammar, p. 89.