Asiatic Quarterly Review (Full Title: The Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review, and Oriental and Colonial Record): Volume XIII, No. 26 [‎493v] (111/238)

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The Age of Mdnikka Vdfagar.
as that of the poem cannot have been written by kambar
himself, but must be an unwarranted addition, and that
Kambar must have lived in the early part of the twelfth
century. The importance of this will presently appear.
Another period which has been the subject of great
discussion is that of the third and last Sangam, or col
legiate existence of the Academy of Tamil literature in
Madura, at which, as tradition affirms, Tiruvalluvar pre
sented himself with his surpassing work, the Kural, a
monument of ethics and diction and exquisite verse.
Many learned men would date this Sangam as of the
earliest century of the Christian Era, or perhaps the second
century. Others would bring it down to the eleventh or
twelfth century, while others — and among them Mr.
Seshagiri Sdstriy&r, in his learned essay already referred
to, under pressure, perhaps, of the difficulty of reconciling
conflicting views—have gone the length of doubting if
there were ever an actually existing academy, or whether
its existence were not simply legendary.* Mr. Seshagiri
Sastriyar has shown a very substantial foundation for his
doubts, and certainly no mind with an historical sense can
accept the accounts of the first and second Sangams as
other than legendary.
Mr. Tirumalai Kolundu, after a considerable discussion
on the subject in his little book, “ The Age of Manikka
VY^agar,” arrives at the conclusion that the beginning of
the second century a.d., or thereabouts, was the period of
the third Sangam.
Assuming that this so-called third academy had a real
historical existence, it appears to me, for the reasons I am
about to adduce, that a much later date must be assigned
to it.
There is a celebrated Tamil poem called the Silappad-
hikaram, or “ The Epic of the Anklet,” by Uangovadial.
He was a brother of the Chera King Senguttavan, at
whose court was a poet and critic named Sittalai Sattamir,
’ Mr. Seshagiri Sastriyar’s “ Essay on Tamil Literature,” No. i, p. 39.