The Colas c34.24

c34.24

The *Periya-Purāṇam* has influenced the lives and thoughts of the Tamil Śaiva population almost incessantly from the date of its composition. It has certainly thrown into the shade, at least in popular estimation, many an other work of pure literature, not suffused with the didactic and religious purpose that pervades this Purāṇam. And to this day there are thousands of Tamils who accept the legends embalmed in Śēkkiḻār’s melodious verse as literally and historically true. To us the significance of this work lies in the rank it takes among the masterpieces of Tamil literature and in the picture it gives of the heroic age of Tamil Śaivism as it was visualised by one of the most talented and deeply religious seers of the Tamil land. In every way, it is a composition that worthily commemorates the great age of the Imperial Cōḷas and their sustained devotion to Śaivism.