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Saint. But such a statement is made by the author of Tiruvilaiyadalpuranam also a later work than Skandapuranam. 'Wherever there is a difference between Skandim and Tiruvilaiyadal it is the former that should be relied upon more than the latter. Hence we cannot attach importanod to the latter in this respect, especially from the considerations that follow. It is stated in Tiruvachakam that in the Mahendra hills God Siva vouch-safed Agamic wisdom to certain Holy Saints. The agamio account is that the Saints were five in number, four of whom received five agamas each and that Akattyar who was the foremost of them obtained eight agamas of importance. The Gotras of the said five sages are not Aryan in character. Considering the fact that Mahendram was identical with Kumari and was situated in the Tamil country south of the Pothia hills, we are led to infer that the five Saints above referred to must have belonged to the Tamil race and hence Saint Akattyar the most famous of them must have been a Tamil Saint from the beginning. It appears that the sage must be one of those who reformed the Tamil language in the antediluvian days. As a Divine Saint of miraculous Psychic powers he could have lived for acons before and after the first deluge. He might have taught Tamil to Saint Tolkappiar and other disciples subsequently to the inundation and continued to live in the age of the Ramayana. It is stated in Valmiki that the permission of Akattyar was required for any one who wanted to cross the river Tampravarni and go southward. Saint Akattyar is described by Valmiki as gifted with peerless spiritual effulgence. lo some of the versions of Valmiki there is an account of another Saint of the same name who is said to have. reclaimed the forest of Dandaka. He should not be confused with the Tamil Saint Akattyar of the Pothia hills. He might have been a leader of the Aryans who for the first tim invaded Southern India in the days of the Second Sangam. While the author of Skandapuranan describes St. Akattyar's wife as the daughter of a northern prince, the commentator Nachinarkiniar gives the account that she was the sister of Pulastiyar. This also confirms the view there were two Saints of the
