Except the longer epics Cilappatikaram and Manimekalai, which by common consent belong to the Sangam age, the poems have reached us in the forms of systematic anthologies.
It is from these colophons and rarely from the texts of the poems themselves, that we gather the names of many kings and chieftains and the poets patronised by them.
These poems suggest that Nalankilli continued to enjoy a vague hegemony among the other Tamil kings as did by Karikala Chola (Puranānūru – 31).
The same poet Kovur Kilar, proving that he was not a sycophant, exhorts his patron to sue for peace instead of continuing the siege of Urayur against the rival Chola Nedunkilli.
We perceive this from the melancholy tones of the poems by the poet Urayur Mudukannan Sattanar on Nalankilli (Puranānūru – 27, 28, 29).