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134 THE SANGAM AGE. we know from history that it was Asoka that was responsible for the spread of Buddhism in the extreme south of India. If Senguttuvan was, therefore, a contemporary of Chandragupta Maurya who was a prominent Jain of the times, how can we account for the spread of Buddhism at this remote period ? Yet another point. In Manimekalai, canto 28, l1. 123-131, there is a reference to an ancestor of Kõvalan, who flourished nine generations previously having built a Buddhistic Chaitālaya at Vanchi (Karūr). If, therefore, Senguttuvan was a contemporary of Chandragupta Maurya, how is it possible for a Buddhistic temple to have existed in the south, so early as 560 B.C. (290 plus 270) ? Evidently it is absurd to make Senguttuvan a contemporary of Chandragupta Maurya.
Who were these "Mauryas', then, who invaded South India during the time of Senguttuvan ? Before answering this question, let us consider the various interpretations in regard to the expression 'Vamba Moriar. It has been pointed out that the word “Vambu' (oviy) is used by Tolkāppiyar in the sense of 'unstable' (1512019 TL). Some, therefore, have taken 'Vamba Moriar' to mean the unstable or nomadic Mauryas ’, evidently referring to the Mauryas who settled in the Konkan. It is argued that the passages of Māmūlanār have
1 That. Vanchi' is Karur has Christian College is of the same been incontrovertibly established view, as can be seen from by Vidyan R. Raghava Ayyangar his article on Vanchi' in the in his Vanchi Mahanahar. Mr. • Hindu' dated 80th August R. Rangachari, M.A., L.T., of the 1922..
Vamba Moriar':
