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ance.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE SANGAM AGE. It will be readily admitted by all scholars Sangrame
chronology: that no progress can be made ih the attempt to its importresuscitate the ancient history of South India, unless the date of the Tamil Sangam can be fixed. Realising this, several distinguished scholars have been making elaborate researches to find out the true date of the famous Madura Academy. It was the late Professor Seshagiri Sastriyar that first contributed materials for a clearer understanding of the various epochs in the long history of Tamil literature: A certain officer of the Ceylon Rifles' wrote a small history of the island of Ceylon. In the list of kings which he furnished and which he prepared from the Sinhalese chronicles, there were two Gajabāhus. One of TheGajabābuthem existed in 113 A.D., while the date assigned to the other was about 1127 A.D. For obvious reasons, the 'learned Professor identified the Kayavāhu of Silappadikāram with the Gajabāhu of Ceylon, and thus was able to fix the age of Silappadikāram and hence of Senguttuvan as second century A.D. This, however, did not mean that the Profesapr believed that the third Sangam existed during the time of Senguttuvan, for he seriously doubted the very existence of the Academy. The credit of having established the identity of Kayavāhu with Gajabāhu of Ceylon belongs to Mr. Seshagiri Sastriyar.
1 The contents of this chap- been reproduged here with the ter originally appeared in the kind permission of the editor Hindu' dated 14th, 15th and after some elaboration. 17th April 1922 and have now
synchronism,
