Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c8.1244.1

c8.1244.1

Though the period of the 'Saṅgha poets and their works' has been assessed differently by different scholars, the majority have fixed it as the first few centuries of A.D. In these Saṅgha poems the gods of the Aryans are praised. The gods Sūrya (the Sun), Candra (the moon), Varuṇa (god of water), Baladeva (Śrī Kṛṣṇa's elder brother) and Viṣṇu (Supreme God) are specially mentioned in 'Cilappadikāra'. The Saṅgha work 'Puraṇānūru' is an encomium to the purity of the Vedas and Agnihotra Brahmins (Brahmins who maintain the holy fire by burnt offering). In those days the King carried on the administration of the country with the advice of Brahmins. Economics, Grammar and law were taught in royal palaces. Pañcākṣara and such other spells, reading of the scriptures, Aryan ways of marriage, Recitations of Purāṇic stories etc. were prevalent in those days. Maṇimekhalā is stated to have reached the capital of the Cera King and learned Vedas and Sāṅkhya doctrines (one of the six systems of Indian Philosophy dealing with evolution) from the prominent teachers here. The diction of both the works 'Cilappadikāra' and 'Maṇimekhalā' is, to a certain extent, indebted to Sanskrit. Many of the Sanskrit poetic traditions are used in these poems. When these proofs are taken into account, it is not wrong to presume that in the period from 1st century to 5th century A.D. Aryan civilization prevailed in south India.