lapse of long time to allow such a deviation from a recognized
grammatical usage.

     The purity and elegance of the style of Tolkappiyam points
to a time much anterior to that of the Third Academy.

     The four boundaries of the Tamil land of Tolkappiyar's days
laconically stated by the phrase ‘nƒŠ peyar ellai’ in the 1336th rule
points to a time when the coastal strip of land to the west of the
Western Ghats was too narrow to be inhabited by a big
population.

     The Tamil land of Tolkappiyar's time was bounded by the
Vadugu country on the North, the Kumari river on the South, the
eastern sea or Bay of Bengal on the East, and the Western
Ghats on the West, and hence the phrase “nƒŠpeyar ellai”, the four
boundaries bearing different names.

     Owing to some geological activity, the western coastal strip
became broader after the sea receded to some extent. It was
this dereliction that gave rise to the legend that Parasurama shot
an arrow into the sea, and made it shrink back exposing new land
or pitching his hermitage.

     The KoŒgu country originally constituted the Chera Nadu, with
Karur of the Trichirappa˜˜i district as its capital. After the expansion
of the western coastal region, people moved thither, multiplied and
replenished the land. As the KoŒgu country became the cockpit of
Tamil Nadu, the Chera king shifted his capital to the seaport town
of Va?ji, and added the name Karur to it. It is because of the
eastern origin of the Kerala people, the words ki‰akku (east) and
m„rku (west) are retained in their speech, though the physical
features of their land make the terms ironical.

     Tolkappiyam doesn’t contain any foreign word other than
Sanskrit. The word ‘†rai’ occurring in the 1081st rule of Tolkappiyam,
is a pure Tamil word signifying a sign of the zodiac, and has
nothing to do with the Greek ‘hora’ meaning ‘hour’.

     For the reasons given above, we have to come to the
conclusion, that Tolkappiar lived during the 7th century B.C.