The Tamilian Antiquary Glimpses Of Ancient Dravidians Volume I, No. - 5

About the Book:-Volume Five has notices on: glimpses of ancient Dravidians, the Augustan age of Tamil literature, the ten Tamil idylls and lastly, Dravidian kingdoms. The book has been contributed by different contributors like --Glimpses of ancient Dravidians / E. S. W. Senathi Raja . The Augustan age of Tamil literature / S. Krishnaswamy Aiyengar . The ten Tamil idyls / P. Sundaram Pillai Dravidian kingdoms / T. M. Rengachariar & T. Desikachariar. The date of Manikkavasagar is, to their mind, not quite satisfactorily settled. From two references to the Pandya king Varaguna in the Tiruchchittamhalakkovai they tentatively assigned the saint to the middle of the 9th century. The existence of earlier Pandya kings bearing the name Yaraguna is not precluded. Consequently, the tentative date assigned by me may have to be altered in the light of future research. Attempts have been made to explain away the absence of any reference to Manikkavasagar in the Tiru- Thonda- Thogai of Sundaramurti Nayanar. K. G, Sesha Aiyar who assigns Manikkavasagar to the 4th century A.D. has called in question the authority of Nambi Andar Nambi for the explanation of the derm Poyyadimai-illdda-pulavar which occurs in the Tiru- Thonda-Thogai. I am not quite prepared to follow Sesha Aiyar in thus overthrowing the traditional current at the time. Thus the life of Sambandha begins and ends with miracles. But in spite of these supernatural elements, it is impossible not to see in him a powerful historical personality. If the downfall of Buddhism, at least in the Tamil districts, can be ascribed to one individual more than to another, that individual is Jnanasambandha. That he looked upon the final overthrow of the Jainas and the Buddhists as the one object of his life will appear from every one of his numerous hymns, the tenth verses of which is uniformly devoted to their condemnation.