Gajabahu synchronism is the chronological device used by historians to help date early Tamil history

History of Tamil Nadu

The region of Tamil Nadu in modern India has been under continuous human habitation since prehistoric times, and the history of Tamil Nadu and the civilization of the Tamil people are among the oldest in the world. Throughout its history, spanning the early Paleolithic age to modern times, this...

. The synchronism, first propounded by Kanakasabhai Pillai in 1904 in his "The Tamils Eighteen Hundred Years ago" was adopted by some scholars of the time to date Tamil literature. Kamil Zvelebil

Kamil Zvelebil

Kamil Václav Zvelebil was a distinguished Czech scholar in Indian literature and linguistics, notably Tamil, Sanskrit, Dravidian linguistics and literature and philology.- Biography :...

, even while acknowledging the fragility of the synchronism, called it the "sheet anchor" of the dating of Tamil literature. The synchronism however, involves numerous conjectures and has been dismissed by Gananath Obeyesekere

Gananath Obeyesekere

Gananath Obeyesekere is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at Princeton University and has done much work in his home country of Sri Lanka. He completed a B.A. in English at the University of Ceylon, Peradeniya, followed by an M.A. and Ph.D at the University of Washington...

 in his The Cult of the Goddess Pattini (1984) as ahistorical and invalid.

The 'synchronism'

From a mention in the Silappatikaram, the Sinhalese king of Lanka

Lanka

Sri Lanka is the name given in Hindu mythology to the island fortress capital of the legendary king Ravana in the great Hindu epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata...

, Gajabahu is taken to be a contemporary of the Chera

Chera dynasty

Chera Dynasty in South India is one of the most ancient ruling dynasties in India. Together with the Cholas and the Pandyas, they formed the three principle warring Iron Age Tamil kingdoms in southern India...

 king Senguttuvan

Senguttuvan

King Senguttuvan; also Chenguttawan, was the most famous and powerful Chera king who ruled in Ancient south India during the early centuries of the Common Era. He is famous for the legends surrounding Kannagi, the heroine of the legendary Tamil epic Silapathikaram...

. The genuineness of Gajabahu synchronism as an instrument to date early Tamil literature is accepted by most scholars today.

Dating of Senguttuvan

In the Silappatikaram, there is reference to a certain Kayavaku, the king of Sri Lanka. He is said to have attended the coronation of the Chera king Senguttuvan.

The 30th Canto, 160, in translation, reads -

The monarch of the world circumambulated the shrine thrice and stood there proferring his respects. In front of him the Arya kings released from prison, kings removed from central jail, the Kongu ruler of Kudagu, the king of Malva and Kayavaku, the king of sea-girt Ceylon, prayed reverently to the deity thus...

Kayavaku here, despite some disagreement has been conjectured to mean Gajabahu. The Silappatikaram, therefore is read to imply that, Gajabahu was a contemporary of the Chera king Senguttuvan, the protagonist of the epic. Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...

n history, however records the reign of two Gajabahus. According to the Mahavamse, Gajabahu I

Gajabahu I

Gajabahu I , also known as Gajabahuka Gamani was a Sinhalese king of Rajarata in Sri Lanka. He is renowned for his religious benefactions, extensive involvement in south Indian politics, and for possibly introducing the cult of the goddess Pattini to Sri Lanka...

 reigned between 113 - 134 CE, while Gajabahu II reigned in the 12th century CE.

Kanakasabhai's reasoning for not considering Gajabahu II as the king mentioned is as follows:

In the long list of kings of Sri Lanka preserved in Singhalese chronicles, the name Gajabahu occurs only twice. Gajabahu I lived in the early part of the second century A.D. and Gajabahu II in the twelfth century. If the latter was king referred to in the Cilappathikaram, Karikala Chola, the grandfather of the Gajabahu contemporary, Imaya Varamban should have lived in the eleventh or twelfth century A.D. But in many Tamil poems and inscriptions on copper plates recording the grants of Chola kings who lived in the tenth and the eleventh centuries, Karikala Chola I is described as one of the earliest and most remote ancestors of the Chola kings then reigning. It is evident therefore that the Gajabahu referred to in the Cilappathikaram could not be Gajabahu II, but must have been Gajabahu I, who was king of Ceylon from about A.D. 113 to A.D. 125.

This, in turn, has been used to imply that the Chera king kuttuvan, who, according to the Pathirruppaththu

Pathirruppaththu

Pathiṟṟuppaththu is a classical Tamil poetic work. It is the fourth book in the Ettuthokai, an anthology of Sangam literature. The name Pathiṟṟuppaththu means 'ten tens', referring to the ten sets of ten poems the book contains. The first and the last ten poems have been lost beyond recovery...

ruled for 55 years may be dated to c. 110 - 165 CE. This computation, which was first proposed by V Kanakasabhai Pillai in his book, The Tamils 1800 years ago (1904), has come to be known as the Gajabahu synchronism. Kanakasabhai also mentions another reference from Silappatikaram which has the Chera king meet the Magadha

Magadha

Magadha formed one of the sixteen Mahājanapadas or kingdoms in ancient India. The core of the kingdom was the area of Bihar south of the Ganga; its first capital was Rajagriha then Pataliputra...

 king Nurruvan Kannar who is interpreted to as Satakarni

Vashishtiputra Satakarni

Vashishtiputra Sātakarni , was a Satavahana king in Central India, who ruled during the 2nd century century CE. He was the brother of Vasisthiputra Sri Pulamavi Vashishtiputra Sātakarni (r. 130-160 CE), was a Satavahana king in Central India, who ruled during the 2nd century century CE. He was the...

, which was a common among the Satavahana

Satavahana

The Sātavāhana Empire or Andhra Empire, was a royal Indian dynasty based from Dharanikota and Amaravati in Andhra Pradesh as well as Junnar and Prathisthan in Maharashtra. The territory of the empire covered much of India from 230 BCE onward...

 and Andhra dynasties as an additional proof for the synchronism.

Scholars Tieken and Swamy criticize this synchronism as of circular logic.