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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
(JUNA, 1914.
course of his Aívamedha campaign! They then received a palayam at Tribhuvana74 where they lived for centuries, till one of the chiefs killed two dacoit brothers on the hills of modern Sivagiri, and was therefore honoured by the then Panilya king by being made a Põlygar of the very scene of his glory. His descendants ruled there continuously; and the chief, who was the contemporary of Visvanatha Naik, was confirmed in his ancestral estate and dignity, like many other indigenous chiefs in their ancestral estates. The stories of the other Polygars are equally wild and legendary though some are not quite so miraculous and incredible. Chokkampați, for instance, traces its history to an alleged Pândyan king of the 12th century at Tenkasi called Sivili Mâranic. It is said that the first Valangaipuli Téva was a servant of that king, and rendered great service to the country in subduing a formidable rebel, who occupied the region covered by modern Chokkampatti and had successfully defied for long the king's generals. The first Polygar of Talaivankottai owed his position, it is said, to a similar achievement. His heroism and skill enabled him to capture a terrible boar, which had committed immense havoc in the country and had eluded the attack of all the royal hunters. Examples of this kind may be multiplied; but it is unnecessary, as the detailed history of every palayam is given in the appendices, and as a reference to them will enable the reader to gain the needed information about the subject. It is sufficient here to note that most of these Tamil chiefs of Tinnevelly claim to have ruled their estates from the time of the Mahâbhârata or a Sivili Rája; and there can be no question that, even though the antiquity which they claim is, as a rule, absurd, they were much more ancient than the Tóttiyans who immigrated into the country in the 15th and 16th centuries, and were formally recognised as Polygars by the generous statesmanship of Visvanatha Naik. Having been long in possession of the different parts of the country and highly valiant in arms, the Tamil Polygars were, out of considerations both of expediency and necessity, placed by the founder of the Naik dynasty in a position of equality with Tóttijari chiefs, like Ettappa Naik of Ettiyapuram, Katta Bomma Naik of Pânchalankuruchchi, and Iravappa Naik of Nâgalapuram,
(To be continued)
THE DATE OF MAHAVIRA.
BY JARL. CHARPENTIER, PH.D.; UPSALA. IN writing for the Cambridge History of India,' Vol. I., the chapter concerning the history of the Jains it has, of course, been necessary to me to try to ascertain the real date of Mahavira ; and, as it is impossible in the limited space assigned to that chapter to discuss fully the various facts concerning this most important question, I have found it convenient to set forth here my considerations, upon which I have founded my opinion concerning the date of the founder of the present Jain Church. Moreover, no full discussion of this theme has ever been entered upon since the time, when Professor Jacobi, in his introductions to the
T4 The famous centre of Baivism, 12 miles south-east of Madura.
75 About 15 miles N. of Tenkasi. It is not a living Zamindarf. I have collected a number of MSS about it and I shall abstract them in the appendix. The palace is now in ruins.
46 Sivili Raja is a celebrated figure in the Tinnevelly traditions. To him are attributed a number of temples (eg, the temple of PA ayam-kðttai near Tinnevelly) and other holy works. He was evidently a king of Tenkasi, but nothing definite is known about him. In later days Ativirs Rama Papd ya was known by this title.
7 See Appendix VI on Tinnovelly palayame.
