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Rh temples and Brahmans, and the second was the builder of Vinnagaram at Conjeevaram. And the king alluded to in (2) should have been Mahendra Varma II (A. D. 650) as he is stated to have built the Second prakara or wall at Srirangam. Lastly, the Chola king referred to in (3) was Ko-Chengannan who has been canonized as a Saint by the Saivites, and described as Kocchengatchola Nayanar in the Periyapuranam. The Saiva saint Tirugnanasambanda also refers to this king. Like his distant successor Parantaka i (Vira Narayana Chola of the Kongu chronicle) he may have been an ardent worshipper of Vishnu in his early days and afterwards changed his faith to Sivaism, as the apostles of both sects praise him in their works. In a previous chapter (Vide, p. 250) the date of this Kocchengannan has been tentatively fixed as 580 A. D.

In his Siriya Tirumadal our Alvar speaks of one Vasavadatia. This suggests that he may have been acquainted with the Sanskrit play of that name written by Subandhu about the beginning of the seventh century, which must be taken as the earliest limit of his date. Again, he has a hymn on the god of Tirumokur in the Madura district. Two miles near it and at the foot of the Yanaimalai there is another Vishnu temple, which as the following inscription will show, was built by a Pandya minister in A. D. 770 and endowed with a rich agrahara for its maintenance. 'Pre-eminently charming in manners a resident of Karavandapuram the