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THE VISHNUVITE SAINTS
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And Udli

Chola (A. D. 948-960) and another on the god of Raja Chola's shrine at Tanjore which was built towards the close of the tenth century, while a third by Karuvur Devar refers to a temple built by

konda Chola in or about 1015 A. D. If the above tradition be trusted Nambiyandar Nambi should have lived about 1025. As it is said that the Periyapurana of Sekkilar is based upon one of the poems of Nambiyandar Nambi (திருத்தொண்டர் Smalb 57 9), Sekkilar should have been either his contemporary or his successor. He was a minister under a Chola king and had the title of Uttama Chola Pallavaravan conferred on him as a personal mark of official distinction. Inscriptions inform us that the term Uttama was the name of Rajaraja's predecessor (A. D. 970-985) and one of the birudus of his successor Rajendra 1. (A. D. 1012). Several shrines are said to have been built by the first Uttama Chola and by his mother Sembiyan Mahadevi (queen of Ganda. raditya). But it is said that the Periyapurana was written under the patronage of a Chola king named Anapaya, which, it is understood from an inscription in the Tiruvalur temple, was the title of Kuluttunga Chola (A. D. 1070—1118). Taking then the reign of Kulottunga Chola as the latest limit, it might be said with tolerable certainty that the Sawa poets Nambivandar Nambi and Sekkılar1 Hourished between

1. It will not be out of place to mention here that Chintamani, a Jaina work widely studied during the time of Sekkilar inay have been written by Tuuttakka Deva izbout the middle of the tenth century A. D.