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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
name in Dr. Hultzsch's table of Chôla kings, as the one, from whom Rajaraja, who ascended the Chôla throne in 984-85 A. D., was the fifth in succession. The tenth collection contains the mystic songs of an old Yogin, called Tirumalar. The eleventh and last, evidently looks like a supplement, and was perhaps intended to provide room for all other sacred writings current at the time. It embraces a number of miscellaneous treatises, some ascribed to Nakkirar of the old Madura college. The last ten pieces in the eleventh Tirumurai were written by Nambi Andar Nambi himself; and of these ten pieces, the third or the Tiruttondar Tiruvandadi forms the basis of the Tamil Purana, popularly called the Periyapuranam; and this completes the analogy we have drawn between Nambi Andar Nambi and Vyasa, - the compiler of the Aryan Védas and the supposed author of all Purinas. These eleven collections, together with the Periyapuranam, make up the sacred literature of the Saivas, if we put aside the works of the Santana-Achâryas, called Siddhanta-Sastras, fourteen in number and professedly philosophical. These last correspond to the Védúnta-Sutras and their commentaries, which, though not looked upon as revealed, form still an integral portion of the sacred Sanskrit writings.
[MAY, 1896.
From this short account, it must be clear what position Tiruñânasambandha holds among the Tamilas as a religious teacher. He is decidedly the greatest and most popular of the Tamil Rishis. There is scarcely a 'Saiva temple in the Tamil country where his image is not daily worshipped. In most of them, special annual feasts are held in his name, when the leading events of his life are dramatically represented for the instruction of the masses. All classes of poets, from his colleagues Appar and Sundarar to the latest of Purana-writers, from the purest of Vêdântists like Tattuvarayarlo to the most uncompromising of dualists like Arul Nandi Sivacharya, from the iconoclastic Kannudaiya Vallalarll to the Vira-Saiva Sivaprakasa, unite in invoking his spiritual aid at the commencement of their literary labours. Indeed any Tamil scholar ought to be able, at short notice, to compile a goodly volume of the encomiums paid to the memory of this religious teacher by an appreciative posterity.
Even as a poet, Sambandha has more than ordinary claims to be remembered. His hymns, of which three hundred and eighty-four padigams12 or more than 19,000 lines are now extant, are models of pure and elevated diction, generally earnest and touching, but always melodious and well-turned. Most of them appear to have been uttered impromptu; and all of them, being lyrical, are set to music. The original tanes are now mostly forgotten. They were lost in the later airs introduced by the Aryan musicians of the north. Some of the old names13 are still retained; but it is difficult to believe that they denote, in the new system, the same old Dravidian melodies. The very instrument upon which these melodies were played, namely the yál, is so completely forgotten that no small difficulty is felt in following the descriptions of it in such ancient classics as the Ten Idyls and the Silappadigúram. The viņai now in use would appear to be of quite a different structure: The melody of some of the hymns of Sambandha, therefore, may not be fully realised, since the tunes to which they were set are now lost. Taken all in all, Sambandha must be reckoned as a great genuine Tamil poet, certainly the greatest in the lyrical department. It is a pity that he composed nothing
7 South-Indian Inscriptions, Vol. I. p. 112.
* See ante, Vol. XXIII. p. 297, and Ep. Ind. Vol. IV. p. 68.
? Umapati Sivacharya was the last of the four Santana-Acharyas, for whom the Saira Calendar provides an annual fast-day. They constitute, together with the devotees whose lives are described in the Periyapuranam, the canonized saints of the Saivas.
10 This excellent poet and subtle metaphysician deserves more attention than he now generally receives.
11 The only work of this author now extant, called Oliviloukkam, is an endless mine of what Dr. Bain calle "intellectual similes." Compared with his merciless sarcasms on all kinds of idolatry, the words of Sivavákyar and others, so frequently quoted, are the tamest of jejune platitudes. The author of the Tamil Plutarch does not mention this writer. He mistakenly ascribes his work to Santalingar, of a totally different school.
12 A padigam is a collection of ten stanzas. Sambandha generally adds an eleventh, giving his own name, etc. 13 Such as the tunes now called kuruji, kolli, etc.
The Tiruvasagam distinguishes the vinai from the old yd. So also do the Kalingattu Parani and other works of the middle ages.
