The Colas c11.2

c11.2

The earliest Cōḷa kings of whom we have tangible evidence are those mentioned in the Śaṅgam literature. Scholars are now generally agreed that this literature belongs to the first few centuries of the Christian era.¹ The internal chronology of this literature is still far from settled, and this remains at present an insuperable obstacle in the way of giving a connected account of the history of the period. We gather the names of kings and princes, and of the poets who extolled them; we also learn much of uncommon interest about the life and work of the people. Some of the kings, we can see, were men of real distinction, with a good title to fame; and the poets were often great artists who could add beauty to truth in the manner of their expression. In this body of early Tamil literature, the individuals depicted stand out in bold relief and their characteristic traits are most unmistakably revealed to us; it is thus all the greater pity, that we cannot work it into a connected history. We shall see that when the chronology becomes firm, with the Cōḷas of the Vijayālaya line, literature loses its early qualities of realism and strength, and lapses, particularly in the delineation of persons, into the easy devices of court poetry.