Studies in Cola History and Administration c7.185

c7.185

We have been told,† however, that apart from the difficulty in fixing the age of the Śaṅgam, there are other objections to an early date for Karikāla and it is necessary, before concluding this study, to consider the validity of these objections. It has been said that neither the Periplus nor Ptolemy mentions Karikāla though they refer to much less celebrated monarchs. The obvious answer is that such silence on the part of foreign writers means little; and it is not denied that some of the monarchs mentioned by these writers are also found in the Śaṅgam literature which mentions Karikāla. Then it is argued that "Ptolemy's geography of Tamil India in the II century A. D. gives us the picture of a land ruled by several petty monarchs and not one that had been brought under the sole discus of a great monarch as the Tamil poems describe Karikāla.