furnishes the following information :—The members of the college were Agastya, Tolkapyar, Mosiyar, Sirupandarangan, Vellur Kappiyan, Tuvaraikkoman, Kirandaiyar and fifty-two other scholars ; and the works of about 3,700 poets were passed by this academy. The seat of it was another submerged town, called Kapatapuram. It was patronized by fifty-nine Pandya kings from Venderseliyan to Mudatirumaran, five of whom were also learned scholars. The standard works of this period were Kali, Kuruku, Vendali, Mapuranam, Vyalamalai, Bhutapuranam, Isainunukkam, &c. It lasted for 3,700 years.
It will be seen that the interval between the abolition of the first and the founding of the second academy could not have been long, as Agastya and some of his students were represented at the latter College-board also. Consequently the second inust be considered a continuation of the first, but held at a different place after the destruction of the original Madura by the flood. This supposition is strengthened by the statement of Adiyarkunallar in his valuable commentary on the Silappadikaram, that one of the seven Pandya poet kings of the first academy by name 'Makirti' was also at Kapatapuram, as a patron or royal visitor of the second academy. Kapatapuram which in Sanskrit meant the 'gate city', must have been a village situated three or four miles east of Madura, occupied temporarily as the king's residence before the modern city of Madura was built. Out of the questionable mention of this Sanskrit
