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MEDIEVAL JAINISM by Sēikkilār in a.d. 1150 in the reign of king Anapāya Cola (Kulottunga Coļa Deva II). Pille Nāyanār was a Brahman born in siyāļi in the Tanjore district. Of his many contemporaries we may mention Kūn Pāņdya, the king of Madura ; Jinasena, a great Jaina teacher ; Vādībhasimha, a celebrated Jaina scholar who disputed with Pille Nāyanār on the merits of saivism ; and Vāgāśa, also called Appar or Dharmasena. Of these we have to eliminate the last named Nāyanār, since his name does not help us to fix the date of Tirujñānasambandhar.
It must be confessed at the outset that in spite of our eliminating Appar, there are considerable difficulties centring round the date of Tirujñānasambandhar. While some maintain that this latter great saiva saint is to be placed in the seventh century A.D., others would assign him to a later age. The former view is based on the contemporaneity of Sambandhar with Siruttonda Parañjoti, the Brahman commander of the Pallava king Narasimhavarmā I, and, secondly, on that of the Pāņdya king Nequmārān.
The advocates of this view argue thus : From Sambandhar's hymns it is learnt that he was a great friend of Siruttoņda.2 Siruttoņda or Dabhrabhakta was the general who was present at the conquest of Vātāpi or Bādāmi, the Western Cālukyan capital, by the Pallava king Narasimhavarmā
1. Rice assigned the composition of this great work to the eleventh century A.D. E. C. IV. Intr. p. 34. See also I.A., XVIII, p. 259; S. I. I., II, p. 153. But Rangacharya has pointed out that Sēkkilār should be assigned to the age of king Kulottunga Cola Deva II. Top. List, II p. 1349. See also Ramaswami, Studies, p. 61 where it is rightly said that Sēkkilār composed the work in A.D. 1150.
2. Ramaswami, ibid, pp. 65 ; S. I. I; II. p. 172 ; Rangacharya, ibid, II. p. 1323 ; Ep. Rep. S. Circle for 1913, p. 87.
