Sattan

(7th c.) Tamil poet who was the author
of the Manimegalai, a text that
was clearly written as a sequel to the
earlier poem “The Jeweled Anklet”
(Shilappadigaram). Sattan’s story
focuses on a young woman named
Manimegalai, who was wooed by the
local prince but eventually became a
Buddhist nun. Although the story’s bias
clearly favors the Buddhists, the
Manimegalai has numerous debates
with people from competing religious
traditions, thus giving a rounded if
somewhat subjective picture of contemporary religious life. See also Tamil epics
and Tamil language.