Within the past quarter of a century epigraphy has progressed by leaps and bounds, and the facts and theories of these writers require considerable revision. To quote from these writers would, therefore, be exceedingly unsafe. One example from the Imperial Gazetteer (New Edition) will suffice. In Volume II of this monumental work, Mr. R. Sewell, while speaking of the literature of the Tamils, writes thus:—‘Several Tamil poets of this age, i e., about A. D 600—50 are greatly renowned, among whom mav be mentioned the Saiva devotees of Tirunavukkaraiyar, Tirgnanasambandar and Sundaramurthi Nayanar ; Manikka Vasagar also belongs to this period' (p. 330). And Dr. Grierson who has devoted three precious paragraphs in the same volume for this ancient literature, says— ‘The worship of Siva in the Tamil country found its earliest literary expression in the Tiruvasagam or ‘Holy word' of Manikka-vasagar who lived in the eleventh century (p. 425)... A later and larger collection of hymns addressed to Siva is the Tevaram of Sambanda, Sundara and Appa (p. 426)... After the Jain period we have the great Saiva movement of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries to which we owe the hymnologies already described (p. 435).' It is not our object to decry the labours of these European scholars; but it is to be regretted that such paragraphs have found their way into the pages of the Imperial Gazetteer published under the authority of the Government of India.
Mr. Vinson's Classification :-The only other Wes-
