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APPENDIX C.
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the Court of the Chēra King Senguttuvan at the time of inauguration of temple ceremonies for the goddess கண்ண கி and identifying கயவாகு with the earlier Gajabāhu of Ceylon history, he was able to fix the age of Senguttuvan and of the incidents related in Silappadikāram (not necessarily of the composition of the work in its present shape) as the 2nd century A.D. This Gajabāhu-synchronism was adopted by the late Kanakasabhai Pillai as the basis of his work · The Tamils Eighteen Hundred Years Ago!arld it forms the sheet anchor of Dr. S. Krishnaswami Ayyangar's theories elabo-s. K. Ayyan
gar's view. rated in The Beginnings of South Indian History. In this book the learned Doctor places the Sangam poets in and about the time of the reign of the Chēra King Senguttuvan, and after making a detailed examination of all references made by the Sangam poets to contemporary and past events he arrives at the following conclusions :
(1) That there was a great invasion of Southern India by the Mauryas who penetrated as far south as the Qurumd mountain.
(2) That the invaders were in hostile occupation of forts on the northern borders of the Tamil land.
(3) That the Aryans were beaten back when the central Mauryan power became weak and that their dislodgment from the south niust be referred to the period of Māmūlapār and other poets of the Sangam age.
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