xi seen in the works of Periyälvår, Ånta; and Tiruttakka Tevar. As regards the internal evidence furnished by the names of the horse it is not a very serious problem because one is not quite sure when ‘Kanawattam’ and ‘Pātalam' really originated and the surmise is not farfetched that we have only the later use of these two special concepts while in truth they might have been evolved centuries earlier, a point not corroborated because of the absence of all the early works except the Muitollayiram using them. - 3. The probable length of the work : The problem as to the length of the work appears the easiest because of the seemingly self-explanatory character of the title. Muttollayiram siterally means ‘three nine hundreds.’ It is simple arithmetic that three nine hundreds make two thousand seven hundred. Therefore, the Motitollāyiram must have contained 2700 verses in three parts of 900 each. But the problem is not so simple, as scholars have raised interesting issues on the arithmetical import of the title itself: Is it three nine hundreds, or is it nine hundred on three subjects The ' Mut' prefix meaning Munru" or ‘three may go immediately with ‘Tollāyiram’ as Such a mathematical convention was quite common in poetical composition. For example, o Pattoțāru-nūrāyiram ' (LÄGG rl-fr.p £76,749 rio).” The hymns of the Nālāyiram are full of such poetical handling of arithmatic, and the end of each decad has an arithmetical computation in such a form. There are, however, those that believe that the work must have contained only nine hundred verses, possibly three hundred to each one of the crowned heads. Sri N. Sethuraghunathan is the best representative of this point of view. The three' before ‘ nine hundred’ refers to the Piuţiyan, Cöian and Céran. This view receives good sustenance from a Sūtra whose substance is as follows: “An en ceyyuí (a poem named with reference to the number of its verses) is a poem in which the glory 9. Kaliokattu-p-paraži-Verse 198.
