Page:The Tamils Eighteen Hundred Years Ago.djvu/219

Rh relief in the fertile regions on the banks of the river Kaviri, where the chieftains of Poraiyuru and Ambar welcomed him and treated with all the honor due to a minstrel. He accompanied the Pandyan army to the battle of Alankànam, and when the battle was over he sang the praises of the Victor Nedunj-Cheliyan and received a share of the spoils. He refers in his verses to the battle in which Kari, king of Mullûr, defeated and killed Ori, king of ‘the Kolli Hills, and to the battle in which Kalankâikkanni-nâr-mudich-cheral defeated Nannan. A commentary to the Tamil Grammar Tolkâppiyam is said to have been written by him, but it is not extant. The poem Kallâdam which recounts the miracles performed.by the god Siva at Madura is also ascribed to him; but the language of the poem and the numerous allusions to later events contained in it, stamp it as a spurious work.

Mankudi-Maruthanar (A.D. 90-130) or Maruthanâr of Mankudi is the earliest poet laureate mentioned in Tamil literature. The Pandyan King Nedunj-cheliyan, victor of Alankânam, speaks of him as the chief of the poets of his court. A few stanzas composed by him are found in the Pura-Nânuru; but the work by which he is, best remembered is the poem Maduraik-Kânchi, which he addressed to the king Nedunj-cheliyan. It is a moral epistle, and the author appears in the character of a teacher and a moralist; but as it is addressed to a restless and ambitious warrior flushed with success, who is his own patron and king, the author has considered it proper to render the moral to be conveyed as agreeable as possible by a profuse panegyric on the king and his prosperous dominion. The poem opens with an eloquent apostrophe in which the justice and wisdom and martial glory of the ancient line of the Pandyas is set forth; then it relates in glowing terms the various exploits of the king which have extended his authority and increased hia fame; and extols