பக்கம்:முத்தொள்ளாயிர விளக்கம்.pdf/22

ix That the Muttoliayiram could have been a Cañkam work no one can doubt if pattern and literary excellence should have been the criteria. But in the traditional list of Cañkam works the work is not mentioned. Of course, the traditional list itself is still not invested with any historicity. Those who listed certain works as Cañkam works must have depended upon a tradition handed down from generation to generation." The absence of Muttollayiram in these lists may indicate that at the time the tradition took shape Muifoliayiram had not been either written or was not considered of a standard to be mentioned with the other works. The Muttollāyiram might have been a product of the late third Cañkam period, but not given the status of a Cañkam work. It is very difficult to fix the exact date of either Nalańkilli or Muttollayiram. And all that is possible is a shrewd guess that the work must have been composed about the third century A.D., and that in all probability the Câla king who patronised the poet was Nalafikilii. - Other internal evidences also point to the same belief. The . Pallavan period was one of great religious upheaval, and the Alvars and the Nāyanmärs had created a revolution in Tamil poetry. The predominantly nature-based erotic poetry of the earlier age taking its motifs from the realities of life was substituted by purely religious poetry of a mystic nature. The history of Tamil poetry from the Pallavan period is the story of how religion became the dominant motive force in poetry. The Muifoliayiram is far away from the mysticism of the poetry of the Pallavan and the post-Pallavan epochs. It is not to say that religion had no place in early poetry, but the religion of later poetry was more complex, highly denominational and based on the whole universe which the Agamas had unfolded. In contrast, earlier poetry spoke of gods worshipped by the common folk without the gods being too much involved in Purānic and other legends. The Muttollayiram mentions only the M ayon, the Sēyõn and Siva." The religion of the period was the simple faith in 6. Igaiyanâr Kalaviyal-Sütra-1. Commentary . p. 57, 7. Verse—18, 19, 20 - - 2