Mámúlanâr (A.D. 100-130): many verses composed by this bard are found in the Akananuru, and a few in the Kurunthokai and Narrinai. It appears from these verses that he was a great traveller and visited the Chera, Chola, and Pandya Kingdoms, Panan-Nadu (Wynaad), Tulu-Nad (South-Canara) and Erumai-Nadu (Mysore Province).[1] He frequently mentions “the festive and wealthy town of Venkadam (the modern Tirupathi) ruled by the generous Pulli,” who seems to have been his patron.[2] He alludes also to several ancient kings : Perunj-Chôrru-Utiyanj-Cheral ;[3] Cheral-Athan who conducted an expedition by sea and cut down the Kadambu ;[4] another Cheral-Athan who was defeated at Vennil by Karikal-Chola ;[5] and the illegitimate Mauriyas who led their army up to Pothiya Hill, when Mohoor did not submit to the Kosar.[6]
Kallândâr (A.D. 100-130) appears to have been a native of Venkadam, which town he says he quitted with his family during a severe famine.[7] He travelled southwards and found
- ↑ Akam, 15, 114.
- ↑ Ibid., 61, 294, 310, 393.
- ↑ Ibid., 233.
- ↑ Ibid., 346, 126.
- ↑ Ibid., 55.
- ↑ Ibid., 250.
- ↑ Puram, 391.
fragrant? “No” said the defiant Nakkirar. “Are not the tresses of celestial women fragrant” enquired the god irritated. “No” repeated Nakkirar “unless they wore the celestial Mandhâra flower in their hair.” “Are not the tresses of Parvati, the goddess whom you worship, naturally fragrant is” asked the god with kindling anger. “No” asserted the obstinate Nakkirar. The wrath of the god was now uncontrollable. The eye in the centre of the god’s forehead opened and emited flames. “It is false: even if thou openest a thousand eyes,” said the dauntless Nakkirar, carried away by his blind zeal to maintain what was right. The divine eye flashed a ray of fire on Nakkirar, and the latter scorched by the heat fell instantly from his seat, into the tank of the golden lotus: and the god disappeared. In humble repentance the poet then composed the nine poems to appease the wrath of the god.
The Mahatmya names Kapilar and Paranar as the contemporaries of Nakkirar during the reign of Champaka Mâran. Continuing the narrative the poem states that fourteen kings reigned at Madura after Champaka Mâran; and during the reign of the fifteenth king Kulesa Pandya that is, after the lapse of about a century, it introduces again, with no little absurdity, the poet Kapilar and his friend Idaik-Kâdar.See also Tiru-vilaiyâdar-purânam, chapters 51, 53 and 56.