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APPENDIX IV
509
of Tamil Saivism may be said to have been given by Sekkilar in the twelfth century, by recounting the lives of the Saiva saints in his Periyapurānam, based on the earlier work of Nambi Andār Nambi. The organisation of Vaisnavism initiated by Nathamuni in the tenth century and continued by Yamunācārya was completed about this time by Rāmānuja, who seems to have been an elder contemporary of Sekkilār. The activity of the Vaişpava Acāryas thus falls within the period of the Saivite Colas. Rājarāja the Great was liberal in his outlook, and though a devout Saiva, built Vişņu temples in Mysore and richly endowed others. But it is significant that Rāmānuja and his followers were persecuted by a Cola king usually supposed to be Kulottunga I who commenced bis reign in 1070 A. D. There are other instances of the Cola persecution of the Vişņu cult ; and, in any case, the initial triumph of Rāmānuja was achieved not in the Cola country, but in Mysore under Bittideva or Vişnuvardhana Hoysala who reigned in the first halt of the twelfth century,
APPENDIX IV
THE KĀLĀMUKAA SEOT In Chapter XIII, p. 350, we have referred to the important Kālāmukha sect and its influence in the Mysore country in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The Kālāmukhas were influential also in the Cola country from about the tenth century A. D.; and the relevant evidence is summarized by Prof. Nilakanta Sastri in his Colas, Vol. II (part I), P. 494. A matha of the Kālāmukhas existed at Melpāļi (North Arcot), where Krşņa III established his camp during his invasion of the Cola kingdom, as recorded in Somadeva's Yasastilaka. Kālāmukha teachers bearing the names Sailarāśi and Jñānarāsi are mentioned in connection with endowments in the temple of Tiruvānaikkoyil (Chingleput) in the years 1127, 1205 and 1231. A. Kālāmukha teacher sold some land to the temple at Koyil Tevarāyanpettai (Tanjore district) in 1123 A. D.
As we have seen, the Kālāmukhas of the Mysore region were Pāśupatas, and are often described as exponents of the Lākula creed; and sometimes a teacher is compared to Lakuliśvara, the founder of the system, or styled as Lakulīśvara-Pandita. Similar evidence is furnished by the Cola inscriptions. The head of the matha of the Kālāmukhas at Melpādi was, for instance, called Lakulīśvara-Pandita. Some of these Kālāmukha teachers are called also mahāoratin, possessed of the great vow'. An inscription from Jambai (South Arcot) of the reign of the Cola king Virarājendra (1063-69 A. D.) mentions a Mahāvratin Lakulīśvara-Pandita in connection with the local temple. An inscription of the twentieth year of the reign of Krşņa III, i. e. about 959 A. D., describes how a certain man of a noble family,
1 Sastri (op. cit.), p. 224.
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