The Colas c34.45

c34.45

The *Piṅgalandai* and the *Cūḍāmaṇi* are two lexicons that may be assigned to the Cōḷa period with great probability. The *Cūḍāmaṇi* or the *Nigaṇṭu-Cūḍāmaṇi* as the author, Maṇḍala-Puruṣa, seems to have designated his work, distinctly mentions the *Kārigai* of Amitasāgara in giving the different senses in which that word is applied; the *Cūḍāmaṇi* must therefore have been composed after the *Yāpparuṅgalakkārigai*; how long after it is not easy to decide.⁶⁴ The two lexicons mark progressive stages in the advancement of lexicography in Tamil. It should be noted that if the *Piṅgalandai* was, as its *pāyiram* states, composed by the son of the author of the earliest Tamil *nigaṇḍu* known, the *Sēndan-Divākaram*, and if those are right that assign a very high antiquity to the *Divākaram*, the *Piṅgalandai* must be taken also to belong to the age anterior to the rise of the Vijayālaya line of kings.⁶⁵