The Colas c11.85

c11.85

³ Kanakasabhai's work *The Tamils Eighteen Hundred Years Ago* (1904) remains still invaluable in many respects. But working solely upon mss. of works little understood at the time, he succumbed to a natural temptation to formulate conclusions on material that had not been subjected to any proper criticism. Pandit M. Raghava Aiyangar *Śēran-Śeṅguṭṭuvan*, (ed. 2, pp. 106-7 n) raises several valid objections to Kanakasabhai's scheme of genealogy of the Cēras and the Cōḷas. But the Pandit's own scheme of Cōḷa genealogy (*ibid.* p. 103) is not altogether free from uncertainties, though it must be admitted that it is the best among those put forward so far. That Karikāla had two sons Maṇakkilli and Peru-Viṟaṟ-Killi; that Neḍungiḷḷi was the brother of Naṟcōṇai, and that these were the children of Maṇakkilli, and that Peruṇaṟkkiḷḷi of Rājasūyam fame (*Puṟam* 16) was the son of Neḍungiḷḷi and identical with the prince who sought refuge with Malaiyamān Tirumuḍikkāri (*Puṟam* 174), that Kiḷḷi Vaḷavan (of the *Maṇimēkalai*) and Nalangiḷḷi (the foe of Neḍungiḷḷi) were the sons of Viṟaṟ-Kiḷḷi, all these statements are based on assumptions which, however plausible, seem to lack positive evidence. Again, it appears unlikely that the same prince, Irāyasūyam-Vēṭṭa Peruṇaṟkkiḷḷi, was aided on the same occasion both by Śeṅguṭṭuva and Malaiyamān Tirumuḍikkāri; there is nothing in the language of *Śilapp.* xxvii ll. 118-23 and *Puṟam* 174 to suggest such an identification; on the other hand there is something to differentiate the two.