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146
THE SANGAM AGE.
to the Sangam age will be readily admitted by all scholars. Thus Divākarar, a Sangam poet, makes mention in his work of the Chalukyas of whom the earliest record is to be found only in the end of the 5th century A.D. It follows, therefore, that the poets of the third Academy must have dourished somewhere about that time. This view is further strengthened by the fact that the legendary account of the Vēlir, as given by Kapilar, a Sangam poet, is exactly the same as that traditionally attributed to the Chalukyas. It, therefore, seems highly improbable that Sangam should have flourished in the second century A.D.
Manimēkalai, one of the Sangam epics, has the following :
"குச்சரக் குடிகை தன்னகம்புக்கு" "குச்சரக் குடிகைக் குமரியை மரீஇ''
-18th Canto, 11, 145 and 152.
The Gurjara
diffioulty.
These are interpreted by Mahāmahõpādhyāya V. Swaminatha Ayyar to mean “ The small temple built in Gurjara style of architecture." Here is, therefore, a clear reference to the Gurjaras. The late Mr. V:''A. Smith' has pointed out that this reference to the Gurjaras in Manimēkalai is a great stumbling block for accepting the orthodox view regarding “ The Sangam Age.” No one has attempted to satisfactorily prove that the Gurjaras existed in the second
1 See V. A. Smith's Introduction to S. Krishnaswami Ayyangar's Ancient India.
