The Colas c34.2

c34.2

In literature, as in most other spheres, the age of the imperial Cōḷas constitutes the most creative epoch of South Indian History. After the brilliant achievement of the Śaṅgam age, in which the princes of the Cōḷa lineage took a good part as patrons of poets and sometimes as authors, literature and arts pass under the protection of the Pallavas and the Pāṇḍyas for a period of four or five centuries. During this period, Tamil and Sanskrit literatures were extensively cultivated; there was also some writing in Pāli undertaken principally by the Buddhist divines of the period. The *Dēvāram* and the *Tiruvāśagam*, and the bulk of the ‘Four Thousand Sacred Hymns’ of the Tamil Vaiṣṇava Canon belong undoubtedly to this period, as also the *Pāṇḍikkōvai*, *Śūḷāmaṇi*, the *Nandikkalambakam* and the *Bhārataveṇbā* of Perundēvanār. In the domain of Sanskrit, the illustrious names of Kumārila and Śaṅkara belong to the same age.