History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c18.s2.7

c18.s2.7

Although Tamil authorities of the older school claimed a much greater antiquity for their early literature, we may tentatively attribute the oldest and most important of the anthologies, the *Puranānūru* and the *Akanānūru*, to the early centuries of the Christian era.¹ Somewhat later come the so-called "epics", two of which contain definite evidence of the presence of Ājīvikas in the extreme south.