to be disappearing. They have brought to light several facts hitherto unknown, and furnished valuable data to fix the different stages in the progress of Tamil literature. The genealogical table which has been constructed from the materials supplied by them goes up to the beginning of the seventh century, causing a lacuna of nearly three hundred years between it and the one given above. Perhaps this was the period of the Jaina ascendancy; and the Jains might have been instrumental to the occupation of the Pandya country by the Kalabhras or the Jaina rulers from the Carnataka country.
Before giving the actual pedigree of Pandya kings, the plates proceed to mention the achievements of the real or mythic kings in the past without mentioning their names. Among these may be stated,—the churning of the ocean for nectar, appearing on the throne of Indra, mastering the Tamil language, bringing back the sea, obtaining the titles of Puzhiyan and Panchavan, founding the city of Madura, excelling pandits in learning, leading elephants into the Bharata country after the death of the great charioteer, absolving Vijaya from the curse of Vasu, engraving the fish, the tiger and the bow on Mount Meru, constructing many tanks, defeating two kings at Talayalankanam, translating the Mahabharata and establishing the College of poets at Madura. To these the Sanskrit portions of the bigger Chinnamanur plates and the Velvikudi grant add that Agastya was their family priest, that one of the Pandyas induced Ravana to sue for peace, that one of them went as ambassador to the gods and that the god Brahma requested the Pandya who had survived the 'deluge' to take up the protection of the three worlds.
