latter. There is one more reference to Kṛṣṇa in Agam. "Like the garland on the wide, all-conquering breast of the wielder of the discus whose bright spokes are well-arranged, was the rain-bow."⁹

Rāma is alluded to once in Puṛam and once in Agam. In the former poem it is said that monkeys picked up Sītā's ornaments which she dropped when Rāvaṇa carried her in his aerial car, and wore them topsy-turvy.¹⁰ In Agam, the following simile occurs. "As was silenced the banyan tree with many aerial roots (the sound of whose birds disturbed) the thoughts of victorious Rāma, near the shore of the roaring ocean at the ancient Koḍi (Dhanuṣkoḍi), which belongs to the Pāṇḍyas of the conquering spear."¹¹

To turn from Ārya legends to Ārya beliefs which had begun to gain a foothold at last in Tamil India. The world of the Devas of the Āryas is noticed in a few passages. The Devas are "the denizens of the fair world where there are forests of gold flowers."¹² Svarga is called "the world of the Gods," "the world to which people go rarely," "the world of the high," "the world of the Gods," "the world of the superiors."¹³

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⁹Agam. 175. 11. 14-16.

¹⁰Puṛ. 378. 11. 18-21.

¹¹Agam. 70. 11. 13-16.

"As the jewels sparkled on the red-faced relations of the monkey that saw the bright ornaments dropped on the ground by Sītā, the wife of Rāma of the strong car, when she was forcibly carried away by the powerful Rāksasa".

This story of the silencing of the birds nesting in the banyan tree, like that of the monkeys wearing Sita's jewels topsy-turvy, is unknown to Sanskrit literature. The Paṇḍiyas are called kavuriyar perhaps because they worshipped Gauri i.e., Minākṣi.

¹²Puṛ. 38. 1. 12.

¹³Puṛ, 22, 1. 35;lb. 176, 1. 20; lb. 228, 1. 11; lb. 229, 1. 22; lb. 260, 1.21.