________________
SRINIVASA AYYANGAR.
87
(3) a period of struggle between Saivas and
Jains (9th century); (4) a period of Saiva predominance (10th
century); and . (5) a period of Vaishnavas (15th and
16th centuries).
As we have already seen, we must look to the middle half of the 7th century A.D. for the period of struggle between the Saivas and the Jains. After that period the Jains were exterminated and their influence was little felt, and yet it is exactdy in that century Julien Vinson would have us suppose that the Jains predominated. We have stated the position taken up by the various English scholars as regards periods of Tamil literature merely to show that; so long as we are not able to fix milestones in the history of literature, no such attempt can be considered as either sound or rational. Nevertheless, it had become the fashion for writers on Tamil history and literature to adopt such a plan. The talented author of the Tamil Studies, . notwithstanding his trenchant and accurate criticism of the views of various scholars M. Srinivasa in regard to this subject, has himself committed
Ayyangar's
to the error: which he warned others to avoid. We shall therefore take up for our consideration whether his division of Tamil literature into periods is at all sound. He has exhibited his arrangement thus :
u
b
i
veu classification.
