The mention of the palmyra ensign pertaining to Balarama elder
brother of Krishna in the 285th rule of Tol-kappiyam, and the
epithet nƒnmaŠai muŠŠiya, well versed in the four Vedas, given in
the Introductory poem to Tolkappiyam,to AdaŒg†——ƒšƒn, who
presided over the assembly of poets and grammarians before
whom Tolkappiyam was brought for approval, fix the upper limit,
and the epithet Aindiram niŠainda, ‘fully conversant with Aindram’
given to Tolkappiyar, the author of Tolkappiyam, in the same poem,
the lower limit, at 1000 and 500 B.C. respectively, for the age of
Tolkappiyam the generally admitted dates of Mahabharata and
A™—ƒdhyƒyi the predecessor of Aindram being 10th century and 5th
century B.C. respectively.

     According to Prof. Ramachandra Dikshitar, an accredited and
reliable authority on South Indian History, the Third Academy was
formed in the 5th century B.C.

     Tolkappiyar's grammar was not brought before the Third
Academy, and he lived much earlier.

     Tolkappiyar describes the Tamil country of his time, as
comprising only the three peaceful and prosperous sovereign
states of the Pandiya, Chola and Chera dynasties, by the phrase
“va-puga‰ m‡var ta-po‰il varaippu’. As the literature of the Third
Academy bristles with accounts of bloody wars fought by the
three hereditary Tamil kings, among themselves and with their
ecalcitrant vassel chieftains, Tolkappiyar ought to have lived during
an earlier period, when the three Tamil kings alone had the right
to wear a crown.

     The use of rational honorific plural in the poetic dialect
strictly forbidden by Tolkappiyar, became prevalent in the poems
of the Third Academy including TirukkuŠa˜ and there must have
been a