Studies in Cola History and Administration c6.19.1

c6.19.1

In the History of the Tamils, the same author makes some statements on the Puraṉāṉūru and urges certain considerations against the authenticity of the colophons which, if wellfounded, would prove almost fatal to all chance of our getting any history from that collection. It is, therefore, necessary to examine them carefully. We shall be led, however, too far afield if we enter on a discussion of his general views on the internal chronology of these poems, or the tests he adopts for separating earlier anthologies from later ones and so on; such a discussion is not necessary for the limited purpose before us. Of the Puraṉāṉūru he says: "It differs from the other collections in several ways. First, it deals with the wars of kings and the gifts they gave to the poets who sang them. Secondly, dealing with wars, it also contains a number of elegies on dead kings and nobles." These are, as has been pointed out already, just the differentiae of Purapporuḷ and hence their great interest for us.