yalvar should therefore have been an elder contemporary of Satagopan though unknown to each other,
(7) The Dravidian tune or pan (பண்) is invariably prefixed to all the paigams (decads) of Nammalvar while in the case of the works of other Saints, especially of Tirumangai Alvar, it has been found wanting. Probably the names of tunes assigned to these padigams must have been lost during the course of the long period that had elapsed before their collection and compilation by Sri Nathamuni. Had Tirumangai Alvar Aourished three or four centuries later than Satagopan, as the Vaishnava biographers allege the pans of Tirumangai Alvar's hymns should have been preserved a fortiori with greater easiness. But the fact was otherwise. We cannot understand why these pans of Tirmangai Alvar were lost while those of his Saiva contemporaries and predecessors, Appar and Sambandar, were handed down to posterity. Perhaps the Aryan Vaishnavas had not cared so much for the preservation of the sacred writings of the Dravidian Saints before the days of Nammalvar and perhaps in imitation of the Saivas, the Vaishnava Acharyas may have got into their head the idea of collecting the works of Alvars and compiling them into one sacred volume, probably subsequent to the laborious undertaking of Nambiyandar Nambi of the Saiva sect.
10. From the Elephant Rock inscriptions quoted above we see that the builder of the Vishnu temple was one Kari or Madhurakavi, a son of Maran and
