________________
THE SANGAM AGE.
frequently for purposes of common deliberation. In ancient India, nay, even in comparatively modern times, such places of assembly 'existed and they were invariably underneath the tall and shady banyan tree with its branches spread far and wide. It is such a place that is described by the poets. In Tamil, moreover, Podiyil' is always used to denote the vacant site underneath a tree. Hence the interpretation that the Mauryas with their advance guard, Kōsar, came £s far as the Podiyil hill in the Tinnevelly district, seems to be untenable.
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It must be plain to those who have been with Mohoor following us so far that the Mohoor chieftain
Identity of Palayan
chieftain
and the
contempora neity of the
who came in conflict with the Kōsar was Palayan, the contemporary of Senguttuvan. It is, the incidents therefore, more natural to suppose that Māmūestablished. lanar sang about a contemporary Mōhoor chief than to imagine, on insufficient grounds, that he referred to a chief of Mōhoor who perhaps flourished in dim ages past. While there existed during his life-time a Palayan of Mōhoor, of whose exploits other contemporary poets such as Paranar make laudable mention, why should Māmūlanar alone go out of the way and bring in for purposes of illustration another Mōhoor chieftain who, according to our learned Professor, Krishnaswami Ayyangar, was a contemporary of Chandragupta Maurya, the grandfather of Asoka. If Māmūlanar had really meant a different Mōhoor chief, he could be expected to employ
