and of one or two epic poems Kamban's Ramayanam, Ativiraramapandya's Naishadam, Tolkapyam, Pavanandi's Nannul, Amritasagarar's Karigai, Dandi Alankaram, Divakaram and Chudamani Nigandu together with one or two antadis and kalambakams met all the requirements of these versifiers. This easily earned scholarship and consequent self-complacency, blinded them to the merits of many important Tamil works written by Buddhists and Jains, which were disliked on account of their authorship. These were left in the sun and rain to decay or to be eaten up in course of time by white-ants; while many more were consigned to the floods of the 18th of Adi (August)
But such a charge cannot be laid at the feet of Nacchinarkiniyar, or Adiyarkunallar and generally of all the erudite commentators of the middle ages. Their study was extensive and their exposition thoroughly logical; and yet the critical methods of research and investigation which characterize the inquisitive scholar of modern times were absolutely unknown to them; for, as Dr. Caldwell, pertinently remarks, the critical spirit even in the west is of modern growth. The ancient Hindus did not cultivate it, because they had the greatest, perhaps blind, regard and veneration for their ancestors and their works; and implicitly believed as sacred truths whatever their elders said, absurd though they might be. Further, the Science of Philology or the historical and scientific study of languages did not come into existence
