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224 Sanskrit Upanishads. Itihasas and Puranas. Any one can at a glance perceive the immense difference between the easy flowing chaste Tamil of Nachchinarkinivar or Parimelazhagar and the mixed style of Periyavachan Pillai.

During this period the works produced were not confined to any one subject or department of literature. They embraced Hindu theology, philosophy, ethics, traditions and grammar. Islamism and Christianity also added their contributions to the Tamil literature of this period.

Politically this was an important epoch, because it witnessed the downfall and total extinction of the ancient dynasties of Tamil kings and the occupation of the Tamil nads successively by the Telugu speaking Nayaks, the Mahratta chiefs, and the Musalman generals. Naturally these people had no sympathy for Tamil literature.

Though Tamil had thus lost state patronage, it did not want supporters. The Saiva monasteries richly endowed and managed by Tambirans and Pandarams, learned in the Saiva Agamas and Siddhantas, were coming into existence ; and they served as seats of Tamil learning and centres for the propogation of the Saiva cult among the Tamil Dravidians. Ilakkana-kottu, Ilakkana Vilakkam and Suravali Tolkapya-sutra-Vritti, Nanneri, Nitineri-Vilakkam,