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CRITICAL TIMES
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1.1 Since the burning of Vātāpi by Narasimhavarmā I (A.D. 630-A.D. 668) has been assigned to A.D. 642 by some scholars, 2 it is surmised that that is also the age in which Tirujñānasambandhar lived.
The above conclusion seems to receive support when we take into account a few facts about the Pāņdya king whom the great saiva saint converted from Jainism into Saivism. All Saiva accounts agree that this conversion, indeed, took place. The king who was converted, however, is given the following names—Ninrasir Nedumārān, Māravarman, “the Great Māran who fought the battle of Nelvēli and won lasting fame in it", as the Periyapurāna puts it, Kubja Pāņdya, Sundara Pāņdya, or Kūn Pāņdya. Mr. K. V. Subrahmanya Aiyer identified "the Great Māran" with Arikesari, the contemporary of Hiuen Tsiang. Both he and Mr. Ramaswami Ayyangar would, therefore, place Tirujñānasambandhar in the seventh century A.D.*
This, however, does not solve the difficulty. On the other hand, it makes the question more complicated. If the identification of Nedumāran with the victor of the battle of Nelvēli, i.e., with Arikesari Asamasaman Māravarman, whom the Vēlvikkuļi plates make the victor of the same battle,"
1. Periyapurāņa, p. 452 (Madras, 1923); Subrahmanya Aiyer, Sketches, p. 39; Heras, Studies in Pallav History, p. 38; S. K. Ayyangar, Beginnings of S. Indian History, p. 183.
2. Ramaswami, ibid, p. 65 : Dubreuil Ancient History of the Deccan, p. 70, where the date of the Pallava king is given. Dr. Shama Sastry places him about A.D. 634. M.A.R. for 1925, p. 11.
3. Ramaswami, Studies, pp. 62-63; Subrahmanya Aiyer, Sketches, p. 40; S. K. Ayyangar, Beginnings, pp. 277-278; M.A.R. for 1925, p. 11, K. A. Nilakantha Sastri, The Pāņdyas of Madura, p. 53.
4. Subrahmanya Aiyer, ibid, pp. 122-3, 126-7; Ramaswami, Studies, pp. 65-66.
5. Subrahmanya Aiyer, ibid, p. 123.
