Marco Polo went from India to Sumatra where he reached in 1292 A.D. During his visit in the 13th century A.D. Buddhism was a flourishing religion in Nagapattinam in spite of Saivite and Vaisnavite upheavals that South India was then witnessing.
The golden age of Buddhism at Nagapattinam was however in the 8th-9th century A.D. when the Vaisnava Alvar Tirumangai of Tirumangai of Tiruvali-Tirunagai came upon the hagiolo gies of tamil vaisnavism records that tirumangai required funds for the renovation of the Ranganatha temple at Srirangam. He hit upon the idea of robbing the Buddhist Vihara at Nagapattinam of its Buddha image of solid gold. In this project, the information given by an old Vaisnava lady residing at Nagapattinam was very useful. It was to this effect: the sthapati who made this golden image and the vimana under which it is enshrined lives at present in dvipantara. This statement was enough to send Tirumanangai to svipantara where he had no great difficulty in identifying the house of the celebrated artist and architect and getting him by a ruse, to surrender the secret of the construction of the vimana, which enabled the Alvar to enter the temple stealthily and remove the golden image according to plan. No doubt,was the other dvipa across the sea to a person speaking from from India.
We are indebted to the Guruparamparai for telling us that the Alvar had to remove the idol stealthily from the chapel of the Buddhist vihara and also that there was a secret of construction of its Vimana, the knowledge of which enabled the Alvar to enter the temple. His stealthy entrance and his earlier voyage to dvipantara in spite of prohibition of sea voyage