Prabhulingalilai and Dravida Mahabhashyam were all written during this period. And the famous ascetic Tayumanaswami composed his sweet religious and philosophical songs ; Ativira Rama Pandyan published his Naishadam and Vetriverkai and translated the Linga and Kurma Puranas, while his brother wrote Kasikandam and other works. Among the Vaishnavas, Villiputturar translated the Mahabharata and Pillai perumal Aiyangar wrote his eight Prabhandas. Among the Muhamadans, Umaru Pulavar wrote the Sira Puranam, and Javvadu Pulavar composed Muhiud-din Andavar Pillai-Tamil; while the celebrated Italian Missionary Constantius Beschi (Tam. Viramamuuni) rendered the biography of Jesus Christ into a Tamil epic (Tembavani), after the fashion of Kamban's Ramayanam, and published it in A. D. 1769, together with a work on Tamil grammar entitled Tonnul Vilakkam. In 1895 Mr. H. Krishna Pillai, a native Christian poet of Palamcotta, translated Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress in fine Tamil verse.
This period is marked by the cultivation of Sanskrit learning by the Vaishnavas as well as the Smartas, Settling on the fertile banks of the sacred rivers and streams, and congregating in agraharas around a Vishnu or Siva shrine hidden beneath shady groves and surrounded by extensive rice fields, the Brahmans formed themselves into exclusive communities, sometimes venerated, sometimes disliked, but always administered to by their Dravidian neighbours. Tutored and encouraged by the Tambirans, Pan-
