Studies in Cola History and Administration c6.11

c6.11

It is not our aim in this essay to reach a final conclusion on the difficult issues thus raised. Though the volume of the literature of the *Śangam* is not great, the historical and linguistic problems presented by it are so complex, and competent scholars who can deal with them systematically from all aspects are so few, that their proper study can hardly be said to have begun. The linguist waits for the historian to settle the chronology of this literature, without a knowledge of which the study of the growth in language is not feasible; the historian on the other hand, seeing how inconclusive the other lines of evidence are on this question, hopes for some conclusive results from the study of language development. We have therefore to wait for a synthesis to be effected between the different lines of approach and for definite conclusions to emerge on the internal chronology of this literature. Our object here is limited to examining the soundness of