believe the only earliest source of information on the subject. According to this account the members of the first academy were Agastya (President), gods Siva and Subrahmanya, Mudinagaraya of Murinjiyur, Nitiyin Kizhavan and 544 other poets. The number of authors who obtained the imprimatur of the College for their works was 4449. Dakshina or Southern Madura was the seat of the University, and it is also stated that this city of Madura submerged in the Indian ocean. Its patrons were eighty-nine Pandya kings from Kaysina-valudi or Ugra Pandya to Kadum-Kon, seven of whom were also poets. Some of the works which were approved by the academy were Paripadal, Mudunarai, Mudu-kuruku and Kalariyavirai. Their grammar was Agastyam. It lasted for 4,440 years.
If the above facts be submitted to strict historical criticism, most of them will have to be rejected as pure myths, there being nothing to corroborate them either in Tamil literature or in the contemporary annals of other countries. The number of members of the academy and of the kings who patronized it and the long period during which it is stated to have lasted, are all incredible and cannot be verified. The list of eighty-nine Pandya kings is not to be found either in the Puranas or in any other extant works Nor have any of the writings attributed to this academy come down to us in their entirety, excepting probably a few doubtful quotations from Agastyam and one or two others. Apparently all these had
