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232 Tirumangai Alvar, a Vaishnava saint who lived about the latter half of the eighth century, speaks of ‘Sanga-muka-Tamil' and 'Sanga-mali-Tamil' in his Periya Tirumoli (III. v. 10). Manikka Vachakar, one of the four great Saiva Saints of the ninth century, refers indirectly in his Tirukkovai to a Tamil sangam at Madura. Allusions to the Tamil sangams may be quoted from the works of other poets. One of the most trustworthy references to the founding of a Tamil academy prior to the eighth century will be found in the copper plates discovered at Chinnamanur in the Madura district. And lastly there are references to the Madura College in the Tiruvilayadal or Madura Stalapurana.

The Tamil sangam is known to some English scholars as the 'Madura College' and to others as the 'Madura University.' In Sanskrit the word sangam means an association (of learned men), and it seems to have been introduced into the Tamil language by early Buddhists from Northern India, no Tamil word having existed before to express that idea. Some Tamil scholars are, however, of opinion that avai which was in use in the days of Tolkapyar to denote such an association or assembly is a pure Tamil word. But ava', savai or sabhai is also a Sanskrit word. A college ordinarily means a teaching institution, and a university is also a body of examiners. The Madura sangam was an examining association, but it was never a teaching institute. To designate this sort of society another word now