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Rh III. Modern. From A.D. 1400. Ativira

rama Pandiyan, Villiputturar, Arunagiri, Paranjoti, Sivaprakasar, Tatvarayar, Tayumanavar, Viramamuni and other

poets flourished. The above classification, though not open to serious objections like the preceding one, seems to us somewhat unsatisfactory in that it is wanting in historical perspective ; nor is each period sufficiently explanatory of the spirit and influence of the time which it professes to deal with. It is a strange mixture of conflicting traditions with historical facts. His early period, which covers a long interval of 8100 years, no historian of any existing literature would make up his mind to believe. He seems to accept unreservedly the traditional account of the Tamil academies which no scholar acquainted with the modern critical method would do. His mediæval period extends over a pretty long period of 1300 years, while his third occupies only 500. It is not understood on what established data he has based his classification, no distinguishing land-marks being assigned to it.

Dr. Caldwll's Classification :-In his introduction to 'A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian Languages', Dr. Caldwell aims at giving a brief history of Tamil literature. He divides it into seven cycles or periods citing some authors or works as representative of each cycle. They are,

1. The Jaina cycle or the cycle of the Madura