Asiatic Quarterly Review (Full Title: The Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review, and Oriental and Colonial Record): Volume XIII, No. 26 [‎492v] (109/238)

322 The Age of Mdnikka Vdfagar.
assigned to Manikka Vd^agar is thought to some extent
to depend.
There being, therefore, no authoritative determination
as to the exact period at which the sage lived, I hope it
will not be deemed presumption on my part if I discuss
the subject, and endeavour to elucidate it.
It will conduce to clearness if I approach the question
by first considering the evidence as to the periods at which
some other celebrated Tamil writers lived, and that at
which the Tamil Academy flourished.
Considerable difference of opinion at one time existed as
to the age of Jnana Sambandhar. Dr. Pope, influenced
perhaps by the opinion once expressed by Dr. Caldwell,
has placed him subsequent to Manikka V^agar, in about
the year 1000 a.d. Since the appearance, however, of the
essay of the late lamented Mr. Sundaram Pillai already
referred to, a general agreement appears to have been
arrived at as to the approximate period at which he lived.
This period is placed at about the seventh century a.d.
He is known to have flourished in the time of King
Narsimha Varman Pallava, whose date is given in Duffs
“ Indian Chronology ” as 642 a.d. Jnana Sambandhar was
a contemporary of a general of King Narsimha Varman
Pallava, by name Siruttondan, who defeated Pulikdsan II.,
a western Chdlukya King, and destroyed his capital, Vat&pi
(Bad&mi, Bombay Presidency The name given to each of the three divisions of the territory of the East India Company, and later the British Raj, on the Indian subcontinent. ).
Now, Pulikdsan began to reign in Saka 532, correspond
ing with 610 a.d.* This date is well ascertained from
ancient inscriptions. 642 a.d. is probably not far from
the limit of Narsimha Varman Pallava’s reign, as his son
and successor was Mahendra Varman II., and he was suc
ceeded about 660 by his son Parameswara Varman. t So
from the commencement to the middle of the seventh
century would probably be about the period at which
Jn&na Sambandhar flourished,
* See Mr. Tirumalai Kolundu’s work, pp. 47 , 48 , and Duffs “ Indian
Chronology,” Dynastic Lists, p. 278.
t Duffs “Indian Chronology,” pp. 52, 55.