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36 THE JAINS IN THE TAMIL LAND. • Nāyanārs and Vaishnava Àlvars. 3. The Modern period. The works published during each of these periods throw a flood of light on the life and activities of the Jains in the Tamil kingdoms. It, therefore, becomes necessary for us to examine each period separately. In this task we are assisted by the combined labours of the great Tamil scholars whose antiquarian researches have enabled us to fix some milestones in Tamil literature.
1. SANGAM PERIOD.
a vexed
Sangam Age: According to Tamil writers, there were three question. Sangams or Literary Associations :--the first, the
intervening, and the last. The date and history of these Academies are to-day the subjects of keen controversy among scholars entitled to form
opinions on them. The late Mr. Kanakasabhai · Pillai and Prof. S. Krishnaswami Ayyangar have more or less fixed the date of the last Sangam as the second century A.D. Convincing as some of the arguments of these scholars are, it is, however, quite possible to hold different opinions in the matter of interpretation of some of the Sangam poems, frota which mainly Prof. Krishnaswami Ayyangay, at any rate, has sought to establish that the Sangam existed in the second century A.D. These points are discussed in this work elsewhere and the attention of scholars to that portion is respectfully invited. It is here tentatively assumed that the II century A.D. is the period of the last Sangam.
