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MAY, 1896.]
curious missing city and country, is sufficient evidence, to declare that the Tamil people had no literature till the eighth century A. D.! It cannot be untrue that some angels, in their flights, do extend their wings too far forwards to be good for their vision! With all my admiration, I can find no other explanation for the state of mind that could indulge in such gratuitous and unprofitable dogmatism. Possibly the indifference noted is also not to letters in general, but only to Buddhistic canons, in search of which the pious Chinese traveller came to India. Lastly, as regards Dr. Burnell's emphatic assertion about Tamil literature being but an exact copy of Sanskrit works, it need not concern us much, seeing what proofs the author gives in the same paragraph of his scholarship in that literature. Even one that has studied no other Tamil classics than the popular Kural, may know, if pressed, what answer to give to this charge. I am sorry, only for the reputation of Dr. Burnell, that this unlucky note of his, as unlucky as uncalled for, has found its way into the stately columns of the Encyclopædia Britannica.
THE AGE OF TIRUNANASAMBANDHA.
119
Be it far from me to disparage the labours of the few European scholars, to whose indefatigable endeavours alone is due whatever light there exists in this and similar branches of study. The blame, if anywhere, must rest with the native scholars themselves. If they fail to imbibe the historical spirit of modern times, and do not stir themselves to help forward the researches made regarding their own antiquities, they will have themselves to thank, if their favourite language and literature are condemned and thrown overboard, as is summarily done by Dr. Burnell.
Returning to our subject, I am aware of only two serious attempts to determine the age of Kun Pandya, or which is the same thing, the age of Sambandha. The first is that of Dr. Caldwell in his Comparative Dravidian Grammar, Introduction, pages 137-143, and Appendix III. pages 535-540, and the second is that of Mr. Nelson in his District Manual called the 'Madura Country,' Part III. Chapter II. pages 54-70. Neither of these two attempts appears to me successful or satisfactory. It would take too much space to review their arguments in detail, but I shall briefly note what strikes me as the leading features of these theories.
Dr. Caldwell's hypothesis as to the age of Sambandha is based entirely upon two assumptions first, that Kûn Pandya's name was Sundara-Pandya, and second, that Sundara-Pandya is identical with the Sender Bendi of Marco Polo that reigned in 1292. As Mr. Nelson also proceeds upon the first of these two suppositions, it is necessary to observe once for all that Sundara-Pandya is hardly a proper name. The deity at Madura is called Sundara, and SundaraPandya by itself is no more the name of any particular Pandya than is Sri-Padmanabhadâsa the individual appellation of any sovereign of Travancore. Hence we find the term Sundara associated with the name of so many kings of Madura. That it never stood by itself as the distinctive name of any individual Pandya, it may be hazardous to assert, but that it was too common a designation to yield us any historical clue, requires no proof. Still, for the satisfaction of European scholars, I shall quote just one or two authorities. Dr. Hultzsch says with reference to the phrase 'crown of Sundara': "The name Sundara occurs in the traditional lists of Pandya kings. In the present inscription the term 'crown of Sundara' seems to be used in the sense of "the crown of the Pandya king." So Sandara means nothing but Pandya. Be it also noted that this expression, Sundara's crown,' occurs in an inscription of Rajendra-Chola, who, according to Dr. Hultzsob, ascended the throne about 1014 A. D., that is, 278 years before Marco Polo landed at Kâyal.
27 This is the view adopted in my first article on " The Ten Tamil Idyle."
28 The loss to the Tamil language and literature by the death of this venerable Tamil scholar is really great, and it may be long before that language finds so devoted a student and so patient an enquirer as The Right Rev. Bishop Caldwell.
29 South-Indian Inscriptions, Vol. I. p. 96.
