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karo worintos Whether St. Tolkappiar was an Aryan or Tamilian it matters very little. There is no room for doubt that he was a distinguished Tamil scholar and wrote his immortal and inimitable work in the beginning of the age of the Second Sangam. Some portions of Porulacikaram, especially many of the verses in Marabial ( 9 ) might have been added in the later days of Aryan admixture. So far as AS STU (orthography) is concerned it is so purely Tamilian that it may be considered as a work of the age in which there was little Aryan influence. The kind of metre special to the composition of the books like Grammar is called Nurpa (sr our) in Tamil and it is not identical with the term Sutram in Sanskrit; the term 'Sutram' occurs only in the interpolated passages of Marabial. Hence there is no good trying to fix the date of Tolkappiam in the Sutra period of Sanskrit literature. The work of St. Tolkappiar was completed long prior to the age of the Mahabharatha. The verses referring to castes and ceremonies are really interpolations of a latter date. In the age of St. Tolkappiar there was neither Jainism nor Buddhism in existence. And Vaishnavism was not organised into a religion although there was the worship of Vishnu. Since it is clear that St. Akatiyar belonged to the Saiva Religion of the olden days there may be no error in concluding that St. Tolkappiar also professed him master's creed. Frony a comparison of Tolkappiam Porulatikaram with the substance of Tirukkural we have reason to infer that both the great authors probably held fast to the same faith with St. Akattyar. It should be noted that in subsequent times, the Jains and the Buddhists adopted the phraseology of the Tamil Saiva Saints to expose their own religious ideas and sentiments. This caused a contusion of religions which misled some scholars into the belief that St. Tolkappiar, St. Tiruvallur and even Akattyar were Jains or Buddhists. This is entirely a mistakea view of their religion and runs counter to the facts of history. In Silappadikarum and Chintamani the God of the Jains and their salvation are described in terms of the Saivite religion. Aruhan is called Siva Paramurthi and the stage of highest bliss in Jainism is styled Sivagathi. bo Silapped and runs of the described
