mies. It is not worth entering into any controversy with him as he claims to himself a sense of truth and critical acumen 'which he may not be so charitable as to concede to his opponents.
In Purananuru, which is an anthology or a collection of 400 lyrics compiled by some poet of the third academy, there is a sang ascribed to Mudina. garayar who was a member of the first sangam. This poem is a sort of epistle addressed to a Chera monarch named Odiyan Cheraladan. The poet here extols the king as the commissary agent or supplier of provisions to the contending armies on the battle field of Kurukshetra :—
நீயோ பெரும்,
வலங்குளைப் புரவி யைவரொடு சினைஇ
நிலந்தலைக் கொண்ட பொலம்பூந் தும்பை
யீரைம் பதின்மரும் பொருது களத்தொழிய
பெருஞ்சோற்று மிகுபதம் வரையாது கொடுத்தோய்.
This informs us that the Chera king Udiyan Cheraladan, lived at the time of the Mahabharata war, i.e. about the 10th or 11th century B. C. Among the nations and tribes who fought in the great war of the Pandavas against the Kauravas, the Cheras and the Cholas did not actually fight; but as allies helped them with armies or supervised other details of the company. Pandiya king Sarangadwaja, a friend of Sri Krishna and a devoted admirer of the Pandavas, drew only one contingent of troops from each of the other Tamil tribes. Another tradition says that Arjuna came to Madura and married the daughter of a Pandya
