The Bhikṣuṇī Maṇimēkhalai

18 - Introduction
have good reason for regarding these as classics of Tamil, which may
be treated as of the same literary character as Śangam works.
The historical and geographical details which can be gathered round
a character like Śenguṭṭuvaṉ Cēra, and just a few others who happen
to figure in these romantic poems, when carefully collected and
collaborated, tell the same tale of contemporaneity between the
works themselves and between the two works and other Śangam
works so-called. Specific instances of historical incidents are dealt
with in full detail in the lectures themselves. We need hardly do more
here than merely to point out that the four capitals of Puhār, Madura,
Vañji, and Kāñcī occur in the poem. Their condition and the rulers
that held sway over them are described incidentally in the course of
the story, and these admit of definite treatment in comparison with
the condition of these capitals, as we find them described in the
Śangam works. One point which clinches the matter and provides a
definite test of the age is that throughout the story as narrated in these
two works, Kāñcī remained a viceroyalty under the authority of the
Cōḻas, who, under Karikāla, are credited uniformly by Tamil
tradition with having civilized this land and brought it into the pale of
Tamil civilization.
Without going into too much detail here, it may be said that the
country round Kāñcī which became peculiarly the territory of the
Pallavas, remained under Cōḻa rule, and a Cōḻa, a prince of the blood
very often, held the viceroyalty. The one remarkable change for
which we have evidence in the Śangam works is the placing of this
viceroyalty in the hands of a Toṇḍamāṉ chief by name Iḷaṁ-Tiraiyaṉ.
[xx] This took place in the last period of the age of the Śangam from
the evidence of the Śangam literature itself. In the classics with which