Page:Tamil studies.djvu/438

Rh is a repertory of old traditions, ghoulish legends and mixed miracles relating to the Saiva religion and literature, narrated in such a form as to allure the Dravidian mind. It is one of those religious books which are highly valued by the Tamil Saivas ; and it has given rise to the proverb—கல்லாடம் கற்றவனோடு மல்லாடாதே. (Venture not to argue with one that has studied the Kalladam).

They prove further that the author of Kalladam was not unacquainted with Nakkirar's commentary on Iraiyanar's Agapporul and that he must have lived several years after Perundevanar, one of the forty-nine professors of the Madura College. In our essay on the Tamil academies it has been shown that this commentarv on Agapporul was written sometime after A. D. 750 and that Perundevanar, the reputed author of the Tamil Mahabharatam, lived somewhere about A. D. 785. Further, the number of sports played by Siva at Madura came to be definitely fixed as 64 during the time of Kalladar, while it was not so in the days of the last four great saints. It is thus pretty evident that Kallada Deva Nayanar lived between A. D. 850 and 950, and that he may have been a younger contemporary of Manikka Vachakar whose Tirukkovayar served, according to a traditon, as the model for his Kalladam.

The word Tiyan designates a class of toddy drawers in Malabar, Travancore and Cochin, and it is commonly supposed to be a synonym for Izhuvan, which is