wrote works on music, dramaturgy and prosody, and that the lost work of Agastya embraced all the three. The twelve desciples wrote each a chapter on Purapporul which collectively was known as பன்னிருபடலம் or the 'Twelve Chapters'. Its existence is doubted, but in its place we have now the 'Venba-Malai' of Aiyanaridanar which is said to have been based on the above work. According to Adiyarkunallar Sikhandiyar was a student of Agastya ; and he is said to have written Isainunukkam, a treatise on music, which is now lost. Quotations from the grammatical works of his students Kakkapatiniyan, Natrattanar and Avinayanar may be found in the ancient commentaries on Agapporul, Tolkapyam, Yapparunkalam and other standard books. Chief of them, Tolkapyar was also a member of the second academy like his renowned master. About the precise date of Agastyar's migration to the South nothing definite can be said, but as has been pointed out above, it cannot be earlier than the fifth or sixth century B. C.
It is believed that in the first Sangam there was a poet by name Vanmikiyar. His work, the name of which is not known, was considered by Nacchinarkiniyar as the best of its kind. From this dubious statement and similarity in names a writer of the Neo. Tamil school jumps to the conclusion that Valmiki, Gautaina, Kapila and other famous sages and Sanskritists of Upper India were by birth Tamilians, and that after they had become famous they were admitted as members of the Tamil acade-
