Page:Tamil studies.djvu/421

394 number of Pandya kings does not exceed twenty. On the other hand, the Madura Stalapurana gives a long list of some seventy-three Pandyas beginning with Kulasekara and ending with Madhuresvara, besides another list of some forty-one illegitimate Pandyas. The purana narrates miraculous events connected with the local deity. Most of the names in the lists seem to be fanciful or mythical, corroborated neither by literature nor by inscriptions. Before proceeding to compare and examine them it will be necessary to give an outline of the salient points from the Halasya Mahatmya so far as they relate to the Tamil academies and the early poets, first according to the order of the sacred sports' or the deeds of Siva and secondly according to the succession of the Pandya kings.

I. The 51st sport was the establishment of the Madura College during the reign of Vamsasekara Pandya ; (52), in the reign of Champaka Maran the pride of Nakkirar was subdued by Siva ; (53 and 54) Siva directs Agastya to teach Tamil grammar to Nakkirar; (55) Nakkirar's commentary on Traiyanar's Agapporul recited before the dumb Brahman child, Rudra-Sarman ; (56) refers probably to Tiruvalluvar's contest with the members of the academy ; (57-61) miracles concerning Manikkavachakar which occurred in the reign of Arimardhana Pandya ; and (62, 63), the Jains were persecuted by the Saivite apostle Trignana Sambanda during the reign of Kubja, Kun or Sundara Pandya.

II. The fourth king was Ugra Pandya. He is said to have performed ninety-six Asvamedha or horse sacrifices, and he was the founder of a Sangam or