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Rh ally the Digambaras, were numerous'. W see then, at the early half of the seventh century that Buddhism was in its decline, and the sects of Siva Vishnu and Jain were fighting with one another for ascendancy. The later history of the Saiva and the Jaina cults will be dealt with in the second volume. As the subject matter for our immediate consideration is the development of Vishnuism we shall for the present part company with our Saiva and Jaina brethren.

For the separation of the Vaishnava cult and its development into a distinct sect in the Tamil country the Alvars were mainly instrumental. They were the first to hymn the praises of Vishnu and to propagate His worship. It might be gathered from their hymns that allusions and references to the miraculous deeds of Rama, Krishna and other incarnations of Vishnu were drawn largely from the two great epics— the Ramayana and the Mahabharata—and from the Bhagavata and Vishnu Puranas. Their hymns were collected, arranged and compiled by Sri Nathamuni, probably under the editorship of Nammalvar into a single volume called the 'Nalayira-Prabandam', or the 'Book of 4000 hymns', about the middle of the tenth century A.D. Among the Tamil Vaishnavas (especially the Tengalais) this collection of Tamil poems is being regarded as sacred as the Sanskrit Vedas. Why this work has come to be esteemed so we cannot conceive. It is neither a translation of