The Colas c11.80

c11.80

Again, the dates of the three Dēvāram hymnists and of Tirumaṅgai Āḷvār have been fixed on proper grounds in the seventh century and after; Appar, the oldest of them all, must have lived in the early part of that century. The most superficial student of Tamil literature can hardly fail to notice striking differences in vocabulary, diction, and metre between the compositions of these holy men and the entire body of Śaṅgam literature, which surely indicate a growth through some centuries. The fact that Appar knows of Śeṅgaṇāṉ as a spider transformed into a Cōḷa king, by showing that Śeṅgaṇāṉ had already become a legendary figure, points in the same direction; and Śeṅgaṇāṉ was apparently among the latest of the early Cōḷas of whom we have spoken in this chapter.