The Colas c9.18

c9.18

In Tamil literature, the poems of the Saṅgam age are very realistic and *prima facie* trustworthy and do not share the demerits of the literature of a more fulsome age; but by a cruel irony of fate these poems are involved in some chronological obscurity; and the compositions, especially those of the Cōḷa period, of which we know the authors and dates, exhibit in abundant measure all the defects of court poetry. Still, after all allowance is made, the evidence from indigenous literature for the history of the Cōḷa kingdom will be seen to be not inconsiderable in volume and will, if used with care, go far to eke out the testimony of archaeology.