tern student of Tamil literature whom we should not pass over unnoticed is M. Julien Vinson of Paris. 'I can hardly admit', he writes, 'that Tamil literary age began before the seventh century A. D'. He further thinks that there were five periods in it, which for the sake of brevity and distinctness we subjoin in a tabular form:-- 1. 6th and 7th
Period of essavs, pamcenturies.
phlets and short poems. II. 8th century.
Period in which the
Jains predominated. III. 9th century.
Period which saw at the same time the struggle between Saivas and Jains, and in which Buddhists came from
Ceylon, IV. 10th century.
Period in which the Saivas were the undis
puted masters. V. 15th and 16th
Period in which apcenturies.
pear the Vaishnavas, This classification, though it is a marked improvement on the previous one, is still open to the following objections:
(1) For the first period of essays and pamphlets M. Vinson should have had in view Aingurunuru, Padirrupattu,Purananuru and other anthologies which were collected and arranged by the third academy. He must have either overlooked Tolkapyam, (fourth or third century B. C.), Kural (first century A. D.), Silappadikaram and Manimekalai (third century), or
