His chronological estimate of 171 CE for Silappadikaram cannot be far from the real date of composition, states Alain Daniélou – a French Indologist who translated the Silappadikaram in 1965. Daniélou states that the epic – along with the other four Tamil epics – were all composed sometime between the last part of the Sangam and the subsequent centuries, that is "3rd to 7th-century".[37]