HISTORIOGRAPHY, SOURCES AND METHOD
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HISTORIOGRAPHY, SOURCES AND METHOD
001
The writings of Rev. Re Caldwell, Wilson, Nelson end SeWGll
constitute the earliest historical notes on the Pandya country.
As far as the early Pandya history was concerned. these were mostly
compilations of local historical traditions and legendary accounts.
Actual researches on the Pandyas were begun only after the disco
very of the KaAukumalai inscription by T.A. Gopinatha Rao in 1894.
The great epigraphists like Venkayya, Harihara Aiyar, L.D.. SWami
kennu Pilla!, c.R. Krishnamacarlut K.v. Subrahmania Aiyar, H.Krishna
Sastri and others contributed to it through the discoveries of now '
epigraphs and their scholastic editions.· ~e enquiry of the epi
oraphlsts was confined to the identification ~f kings.. their reign ' ,,
' " ' " <·
periods, location of the places etc. K.V. Subrahmania Alyar was ' ' ..
the first to attempt a comprehensive history of the P~ndyas in 1917!
Next came the book-lets of Pandi t Harihara Aiyar in . Tamil~ Both
narrated the political history of the Psndyas. Nilakanta Sastri who
made a significant advance in the direction of interpretative histor-Y
brought out an able study of the political and socio-economic aspects
of the Pandya period in 19291 which remains the most authoritative
work to this day~ In 1956 Sadasiva Pa~4arattar pUblished his book
on the Pandyas in Tamil which marked no advance from the work
of Harihara Aiyar! A general history of the Pandya country,written
lo'Historioal Sketches of Ancient !?!khan (Madras, 1917) 2., QUoted in sastr1, K.A.N. The Pandyan Kingdom (London, 1929)
P• 1 n.I 3. supra
4. Pan~§r VaralafU (Annamalai University, 1956)
/
{)02
by s.A.o. Husain! appeared in 1962~ Inspite of the discoveries
of a few more inscriptions the work of Husain! did not raise any
new questions or off~r any new suggestions so as to improve upon
the thesis of sastri. The publication of the volume, XIV of the
South Indian Inseri:gtionf!l in 1962 made the major set of primary
source easily available to those ~ .. rho were interested in the Pandya
history! A work in Tamil, written by J.M. Somasundaram Pi1lai
came in 1968 adding to the existing number of Tamil text books on
the Pandyas~ Xn 1971•72 K.V. Raman gave his s. Su.brahmania Aiyar
endowment lectures reviewin.g the history of the Pa:ndyas in the
light of new epigraphs discovered since the work of Sastri~ His
comments on the history of the period under revieti' are marginal.
All the above works primarily provide knowledge about thG
political conditions and events of the Pan.dya country. Very few of
them discuss the socio-economic aspects and those carrying some ~is
cassions treat the political, social and economic aspects as inde
pendent facets. Inspite of this conventional method the work of
Sastri surpasses the works which preceded and succeed it with its
cogency of interpretations, Traditional historiography of South
India evinced little interest in the socio•econom~-c contexts of
history. K.M. Gupta's study of the land system is a compilation of
1. The Histoty of the Pandya Count£Y (Madras, 1962)
2. PandYar Perum&tci (Madras, 1968) • • 3. Some Asiictg of· Pandzan History in the Light of Recent
Discover es {Madras, 19'1-72)
003
literary and epigraphieal data with no attempt at historical expla•
nation of the problem~ A•App,aurai1s w~rk deals with the economic
conditions of the Cola perio~ '1'h.e unpublished MoLit ., thesis of
T~M~ Sreenivasan on the irrigation and water supply hardly deals with
the eonditions in the Pandya country: Because of the vastness of the
topic in time ·and space1 the study could.· not be deep and specific ..
Since the 1960•s the traditional historiography of south India
has been facing ·attacks at the root of its conct:Jpts and design,
through the writings of Burton Stein and his fellow researchers, who
aimed at its displacement by certain new historiographic notions,
They found the conventional research works as narrative compilations
bereft of conceptualisation and ideolooical presupposition; indulging
in self-contradictory generalisations and superficial descriptions •.
The ground for their historical explanations of south lndia was
prepared by a group of sociologists and anthropologists like e.G. Diehl, Louis Dumont, E. R. Leach and others who analysed the various
aspects of the socio-religious milieu of South India~ Me~ Marriott .. -...---
s.s. Cohn, J., Middleton. R. Cohen and others further enriched it
1 > ..
2 vols.
3. 0 Irrigation and Water Supply in South India; Up to 1300 A.D"
4. Diehl, c.a. Inatrument and Puryo~ea stgdie§ of Ri~R ana Rituals in South fndla (£und:, 9 61', DumOnt, L. Hlerardix end Marriage Alliance in §:S!yth Ir:§i§l Leach, E.;R. ed Aspects o£ Caste In SOuth india, Ce!lon and North-~st Pakistan (Cambridge~ 1960}. ·
00·~
through their conceptual models applicable in the historical con-.
text of south Asia in general and south India in particular! Among
the h1storian3 of the new school the most significant contribution
bas been made by Burton Stein, Noboru Karashitna, Clarence Maloney,
George L. Hart, George w. Spencer, Kenneth R. Hall_,. F.w. Clothey,
I<. Zvelebil, ~rjun Appadorai, c.A. Breckenridge, Brenda Bedk1 S.A.
Barnet, Nicholas Dirks, DaVid Ludden, Richa.t:d s. Kennedy, Dennis
HUdson, Priedbeln Hardy. Rev. Houtat and Leme~einier are soma of the
leading names in the ne~r historiography of. south India. Certain . '
volumes comprising the results of modern investigations into the
manifold aspects of South Indian hi.story have been brought out by ' • I
·eminent scholars in the field such as Feykellberg, R.G. Fox, J.F •
. Richards# John Parker, James SilverbGrg, A. Sjoberg, M. Schneider ' . .
and. Kathleen Gough, Burton Stain and so on: With this on rush of
writings on the history of South India, the eoncepts of traditional
history are undergoing the processes of dissolution. Some of the
005
notable contributions by these scholars 1n the field of historical
researches are•
( 1) Introduction of seientif!o end sopblst:icated methods for the
better tt!:ilisatJ.on ,of the souroa material (Eg. ·computerlsation of'
1nscr1Pti:onal t,erms and the statistieal analysis ·c,f their coP,teXts
~d oecW!'an~es) ,.
(2) ,Demonstration of the importance of the study of'systems and
strue~es of ·.the past societies, their ideas arid institutions,
. . ~ 3) PQJ?ularisatJ.on of interdi'scipl:.tna~y ·~preach; · at1d
(4) Application of nt.UneX'ous Anthropol~ieal and ·sociologieai · ·
models . as · coneeptual tools for histOrical explanation
Excepting a feW like Rev. Houtat on4 Lemercinier· ~o c~ine
tho concept of mode of production with Structural AnthropOlogy, all
tho above writers uso tho!r m::>dels as substitutes for Historical
Materialism. SO!'AE't of them like Kathleen Gough,. heve taken up the ' study o£ the •rnoa.e of production• itse.lf for an analysis of it. in
their , idealist.!c .perspeet.!w. She has identified the mode of produ
ction in the early medieval -social formation of the Tamil South~
Asiatic., However# some of the Anthropological and Sociological
modols introduced .by .these scholars in the field of historical stu•
dlea are really useful in unaerstanding- the nature of certain idea~
or institutions or the structure or composition of the past societies.
The • Centres and N~t--vorkc' model of s. s. Cohn and MeKing Marriot,
the 'Reeiproc:ity- Redistribution• model of Karl Polanyi, the •segmen
tary state 1 model of Southall etc are example$, to mention only a few.
006
But none of these models helps us u.nderstand a social formation
in ~ts ent1retf• The models describe the structures but do not
explain the mechanism of its transformation wh1eh is the funda•
mental part of a historical enquiry. So it may be pointed qut
here that the chief defect in the historiography of these scholars
is its inabilitY in raising fundamental questions of change 1n
history, whi'eh is beyond 1 ts, 'problematique.,• •
Karashima•s contribution· in association withY. Subbarayalu,
Sitharaman and P. Shanmugham* to the Scientific analysis of the
epigraphs, classification of their data and quantification of the
variables, is of extreme significance for the students of south
Indian history! His distribution chart and notes on the Pandyan
revenue terms occurring in the T!ruchchirappalli district and the
former Pudukkottai State, though of a later period, are of immediate
h$lp to the present study~· David Ludden's thesis on the Tirunel•
vely District, though it covers a wider span of time, contains
certain aspects of the economy and culture of the early Pand,yas at
its beginning~
1. Karashtme and Si.tararnan, a ... Revenue Tems in Cho;La Inscriptions", Journal o£ Asian and Africa s die (Tokyo) No.5 (1972) pp.B fft ------subbaraya u. Y. A stat!stieal Study of Personal Names in Tamil Inscriptions (Inter~ Reports, 1975-76) ~camtptational Analfsis.o£ Asian and African Languages (Noo1 and 3) ToJ~yo~ i97S-76 PP• ! ff.
2. tudies T W• 51. ff,.
3."The Political Economy of Tinnevelly District, 800-1891 .. (University of Pennsylvania, 1978).
007
AmOng the modern scho1Qrst the able researches of Y.Subbarayalu
on the political geography end the nature of state power, both fact
ually and conceptual-ly help the present st.udy.immensel~ W.s analy.
t:Jis of the territorial units of Pandi-Mandalam is directly related
to the politieo~economie aspects of the problem under study~
The. researches of or. p.. Champakalakshmi on the bon Age habi•
tats 1processes of early urbanisation, Jainism and the Bhakt.i movement
in south Xndia tremendously help the present study make sound gener•
alisations on the socio ... ec:onomic aspe~s! Dr.. . M.G.s,. Narayanan •s
reinterpretations of the institutional and organisational aspects
of the early medi~val south Ind~an sooif!ty, the temple centred. agra•
rian economy and the Bhakt1 ideology provide conceptual frame work
for t~e studyf
There are a few researchers of the younger generation capable
of 'nomothetic' enquiries into the socio-economic history of early
1 •. Pol1t1a§l Geograghx of the cgla countjfi (Madras,1973)~"state In Medieval sout Xndla - 60 •13Sou (P .D •. thesis, Madura! UniversitY• 1976)._ ·
2. "Some Reflections on Pan(limen4alam, c. 700•1300• J2.amil1oa, ·Vol. II Pt., t:t% pp, 27 ff., . · · . '
3. ge,ei~.. "Urban Processes in Early Medieval Tamil Nadu11,
· Indian. Histgn Coni;ess (J!!g) (Boah Ga. ya, 1981). "The Bhakti MOvement and · Rei!g ous persecution in Tamil NadU", ·l!!£ (Calicut, 1976) ... Kuran(J.i.Tirukka'tt~ampatlit An Ancient Jaina Monastery of Tamil Nadu" • in §:Ja!dies in Indian Eeig£aphx Vol •. II (Mysore, 1975) pp, 84 ff, .
4, Reinterpretations in South Indian Histo~, gebcit., Kesavan,v "Bhakti Movement in South India0 in Mal k 1 s. ~ ed.. In.dian MoTentsa §ome A§Bects of Dissent, Protest and Reform (s!Iria, 197 ) PP• 51 ff., and many other papers. .
008
medieval South Xndia,- v~ Kesavan to mention one among them., Hio
studies on th<!t ideas, organisations and institutions of the brahman
settlements 1 the templ.e base of the Bhakti movement and aspects of
the d1v1nisat.1on of roy&1ty help better understantling of. the socio
political a~cts of the problem under stud~
s g u B c JiLE!
Epigraphs constitute the major source material for the present
stu4y. But before examining them it is necessary to present here
the Archaeological~ Numismatic and Literary data used for the study
of the historical antecedents of the problem under review. They
are given here as. a continuous narrative of the classified data as
distinguished from the sources of the aetual period under study.
1. Brahman Settlemd'nts in KeraiA (Calieut, 1979) 1 "The Temple Base of the Bhaktl MOvement IHC (Waltair~ 1979); "Royalty and Div!nityt Legitimisation of Monarchical Power in south Xndia" IHC (Hyderabad1 1978). - .
009
,..--
'!'he most wide spread antiqUities of e single culture 1n the
region are of the Megalith1c/tron Age. Thougl\ excavated !ron Age
settlements are very few in peninsular Indla,Iron Age burial relics,
often in thin debr:1s of relatively uniform date~ are extensive!
Of the several hundreds of Iron .Age burial sites vet:Y few"we.re
eubj.ected to systematic EtXeavat!ons. 'l!irukkatnpul!yur and Al.agarai
in Tiruchch1rsppall1 disttic:tf r<orkai in Madura! distriet3 and
ldiehdhenallur in Tirunelvelly aistrict4 are the major excavated
sites in TaJn1+akem. None of these excavations was complete and at
least the one, i,e the pioneering operat1cm at Adiohchanallur was
unscientific too. Numerous are the sit,es whet~ trial diggings and
· minor eJq>lorat.ory ·works were conducted.
2. !~:0 ~ft!:a~~~~:~t;I~ ~t~za:a!f:~1:~~--~!m~~dLi~r!~3-64. 'rradition," Puragt.V1, No.a (:Delhi, 1975-76) p.1i2.
3. Q."£\, 1964·65• Also Champakalakshmi, R,., 2e,1eit, ,iM®• ..
4. ·neeails regarding the idichohanallur finds are given in Balakrishnan Nalr, The ~r~f~ of P£avidian Q£ig11(:'* A kipgui~tic Archa~ologisal Bl\~ }\nJC£9RoJPSJ1oa1 APRroac,.b, vMadras, 19 '1 f PP• 166 ffe
010
Excavations at Korkai show the most archaic strata which has
a carbon dating pushing its antiquity to 795 s.c.1 At Tirukkampuliyur;
A!agarai end Uraiyur, the debris show the antiquity of the 4 • 3
centuries B. c. 2 Kiveripa1:-~i~am, I<inehipuram 1 Arikatli4u1 sanur,
~nnattur, Amritamangalam,. Cengamidu~ Adichchanallur etc., provi~e
chrOnological sequences roughly from the 3rd c=entury B.c. to 2nd
century A.n. 3
1. Damiliea, Vol.I p IAR, 1964-65., In a sub~qUent report the date ascribed to period :z is further late, i.e first century a.c., to fourth century A.D. see IAR, 19.65 .... 60.
2. Period I of Tirukkampuliyur is e.S00-400 s.c. see IAR, 1961-62. samo is the case with Alagarai tQo. See IAR, 1963-647 1964-65 and 1965-66.
3. The sites at Kaveripa~ti~am are dated tentatively between first century s.c. and fifth century A.D. There is a radio carbon date showing third century a.c. as a. strange case. See IAR. 1962-63; 1963·64 and 1964-65. Also see Mahalingam T • V, Report OJ the Excavations in the :L9lfflr Kaveq Val lev, (Madras, 1970 Details on Kanchlpuram site have been given in 1!8, 1954~55, For a discussion on Arikameou see Wheeler R.~.M. "Ar1kaliie4u", Ancient India (A.!) No.2 (1946). sanur site is discussed in Banerjee N.R.and soundar Raja~n, K.v. "Sanur 1950 to 1952& A Megalithic site in District Chinglepet, A.I, No. 15, (1959) pp.4 fff! Kunnattur, Amritamangalam and Sengamedu are discussed in IAR, 1956-57 and 1957-59: 1954-SS; and 1961-62 respectively, idl'chchanallur is ascribed to a very early period i.e about 1000 B,C,, by some scholars. See Balakrishnan Nair, S?Re<::it." PP• 182 ff, 44n. Radio carbon dating of a sample at the site yielded 12th century A.D., whieb is also questionable, This is a problem site, S~ the earlier studies of Rea, A.,- " Adichchanallur Excavations" Ann 1 Re ort of the chaeolo :teal artment Southern Circ e,
, Me as and c9org ~SMC , 1902·03 pp. 1•14; and icchchnnaliu.r tAdlttanallur AMSMC ( 1903-04) pp., 18-22.
011
Iron objects Gf a wide variety dominate the excavated goods.
Different types of potteries of the Black and Red.ware tradition.
stand next. Russet Coated Painted tfare, Red slipped Wares,
Rouletted Wares, and Black Wares are other pottery types seGn in
certain sites! Beads of gold, silver, eepper, semi-precious
stones, ho.rn. blende; bone, glass, terracotta and so ont gold d1.adems
etc., are among the other artifacts collected from the sites~ Among
the iron ·Objects spears, swords, tanged daggers wedge s~aped blades,
barbed arrow-heads and horse-fittings are notable! S·ickle and hoes
could be collected from certain graves~· .A large number of knives,
big and. small of varied shapes, tripods, bell like objects, lamps
besides a few unidentifiable artifacts are th~re in the collection~
Bronze and copper objects are alsc. seen, thoVtgh not commonly.
Excavations at KOrkai, Kanch!puram, Arikadidn and Na~tamedu
have yielded some cultural relics of foreigners as well as native
1 .. Gururaja Rao, B.K. sm1 oit., pp 257 f£.
2. !e!S•• p.273. Punch marked coins and Roman coins.
3. Ibid.. pp 265 ff.
4. Sickles and socketed spades were there among the grave goods of Nilgiri'eircles'and''burrows~ congreve, H. "The Antiquities of the Neilgherry Hills including an Inquiry into the Descent of the Thautuvas or Todars•, Madras Journal of Language and Science Vol.14 (1847) pp.77. Adichchanallur finds include iron hoe blades. see Balakrishnan Nair, op.ait., pp.144, 147, 164, 168-170, 173 and 176.
s. GurUraja Rao, B.K. op.cit. PP• 265 ff.
012 goods as residues of ancient transmarine contacts~ From the 4th
to the 7th centuries of the Christian era archaeological materials
are quite limited. The remains of brick structures have been
unearthed in certain places which roughly belong to this period.
The remains of a Buddhist monastery at r<averipa1;~am are a notable
example whose structural relics must be of the early phase of the
period~ some of the Jain/Buddhist cavern sites in the region,
yielding lab! records of over a few centuries from the 3rd century
a.c •. to 7th- 8th cent.ury A.D. are the major $Xtant archaeological
sites? For the period from the 8th to the 10th centuries numerouc
temple sites with epigraphs are there, in addition to ttl$ damaged
bunds* sluices end tanks of the period.
Numismatic Material§
COins of the Roman emperors from Augustus of the first century
s.c., to Constantinus of the fourth century A.D., constitute the
chief num~smatic material for the· study of ancient Tem!:!.akam~ These
coins are mostly of gold and silver. But copper coins are also there
in the collection. Besides the collections by Elliot
1. XAR, 1964-65, 1954-SSt Wheeler, R.E.M. Ol?to&t., and the Excavation report on Nattamedu by K.v. Raman.
2. IAR, 1962•19631 PP• 2- 4
3. Annq~l Report on Epigraph!, 1905 and 1910
4. Elliot, w. coins 9£ Southern IndiD (~ner, 1886); sewell R. u Roman Coins found 1ft InCila 0, Journal of thg Rotll Asiatic Societz(JRAS), (1904) pp. 200 ff. Also his X::st of AnUsmitles, Vol•! PP• 214 ff; f4attingly, H. R(")matl coins, (Rev-. ed. London, 1960).
013
cllld Seott• tho places of T(')tldlnkam such. ao &yyal, Po~~iichi• Karur ,.
Vo~~elw:, It::aloyemuttur, and Madura:! have yielded hoardo of Roman
coins! flbo C!O.ins of syyal hoard ntostly belong to the potiod of
August.uo,. though o fmt are esCJ:'ibed to t.he pre-Atl9UBten pctio6.
also. Poot .AUgustan eo:1ntt at Eyyal uo of •ribedtm, Claadiu.s,
Nero, and 'h"ojen1l PoJ..+aob1 hoard. has the coins of Augustus and
Tit>erius. Coino ·Of Augustus, Dtur.lus, aerman!us, 'l'iberius, C$1igu1a
and Clcu.diue co:nstituto the Ve~~alur h.om:d,. ' Karw: hoatrd consists
of the eoino of Augustuo, Antonia, T1ber1u.s. Clau&us end Ccnstantinus.
tr.l tho Ktilayemuttut' hoard there ue the co!na of l.lorius,. TJ.bot:'.tuo.
Coligula, Claudius, Nero. Do.miticn, NerVa. Trajan, Hadrtan ana.
Commoc.Uus. Tho Madura! hoards contain the coins of Domitian,
'l'hootlosiuc, Etldociat Constnno and zeno. sc:mw of these coins aro
pros.orwa in to~. A fE!t1' of these aft pec"fo.tate«.-. probably to be
The Copper: coins at'S mainly of Hcnorius and . .Arem.U.U$# the
dh!ef collection of whieh is f~om the Va1gai bed in Madurat! All
'thttsa colno noed not he of genuine Roman ndnt btlt, probably local 3 1m1tationo.
1. DOtoils of places onft coins of i.mportence o~ ¢"fen in Ai7or~ I(. v. s. JF.s!e2!1!fl, I!PfteR gg no~;:g, Vel. I (MadrtU)•
. 191?) PP• 96-6 • Byyti .. bOard as been ·.$CUSSed in Gu~ P.L. 4Jlo. §f!BJ,z SQ&ns .. "-m.t l)SlllQ (~ivan~ 1965)pp. 65 ff.
2., Sewol~. R• gu ei;t.
s. Tufno11t R.n.c. m,n;n f; c;~n ~olJa~ .tn s~ 10<\t..il (Madras. 1839) pp.,r~f~ qu.otoa in ctmttopaatiyayn a.o. co'fr,ona .cumn,sx· sxet&!!l &n Sol!Gll !n§&q, (Nett D3lhi.1977) P• •
014
Apart fram the Roman coins we have a few hoards of punch marked
coins, the chronology of which is quite uncertain! But viewing them
vi§ A yis the punch marked coins elsewhere in lndia, its period
seems to, be more or less contemporaneous to the Roman coins or
slightly earlier. Probably Roman coins must bave replaced them.
, For the later period numismatic materials are qUi.te marginal.
The coins which were in circulation in the Pandya country' during the
8th to the 10th centuries seem to be mostly the old coins(palankacu)
Dini£a, Tu~aippop, Kr1shria•kaca, ltfokk&;q etc., figure in contem
porary epigraphs. Very few coins of the early Pandya period have
survived. The avanipasekharan-..go~alJi.ih a. copper coin and the SJi~
Varaguna a gold coin are the two examples which can be precisely
identified as ea.rly'Pandya~
Fox;eign Notiee;;t
The accounts ·left by the Greeeo-Roman geographers such as
Plin1yl the author of the P!ri~lus ~~ris ~trthraei and Ptolemy
constitute mainly the foreign notices on Tamil-akam~ Their allusions
are mostly confined to the transmarine trade centres• and ports.
1.
2. Hultzsch. ttsouth Indian Copper Coins• Indian t;tigya£[, XXX. PP• 323 ff. He had not identified the k ng. Jgw:nal, of the Numismatic Society of India (JNSI) Vol. XXXII. Pt. I pp 85-86.
015
Megasthanes alludes to the trade between Pi~aliputra and the
Pan<iya area which Kautilya also refers to~ Strabo has recorded
that he saw 120 ships sailing from Hormos to India. He refers
to have met an embassy probably of a Pandya king to emperor
Augustus. Apart from these casual observations there is no
direct reference to the trade centres or ports of South India, by
Megastbanes or strabo,.
Pliny :n~ntions • Modura' as the hinterland market centre and
• cottanars • and Nelcyndon • as the ports. The author of the
~e.r1plp£ speaks of 1Naura• , 1'YflMs• and 1Mus1ris' as the main
· ports of • Oerobottras' ,·. 'N~lcynda' 1 1 COJneri•, and Colchis' as
those· of the Pa,ndyan. 'Colchls1 was noted by him for its pearl
fisheries. He says that pearls we~:e worked by the captives• He
refers 'to • Argaru. ~s a hinterland market centre where pearls were
gathe:r.ed and the ootton fabrics ealletl • Argarit1c~ exported. •camara•
'Poduoa• .and •sopatma• are the other ports mentioned by him. To the
earlier list Ptolemy adda 1Khabe..t·is' and •Melange• on the east
cost. and t Korura 1 on. the l-leSt among the major ports of Tamilakam.
He also gives a big list of interior markets and a few seats of the . ruling lineages of the time~
1. !£thaAast£9 (Shams sastri, ed.) 3rd ed. (Mysore, 1924) p.a3.
016
Aromatics. pepper, ginger, cardamom, cloves and sueh spices
wild fauna goods including ivory, wild woods such as teak end
sandalr cotton fabrics; previous stonest pearls, gems and iron ar~
enumerated as the chief items of exports, in the fer~p~us~ A
Chinese record probably of the first century BeCo mentions the
import of pearls, precious stones, wild goods and cotton fabrics
from the Kanchi region!
The accounts of Pa•hsie.n end Hsuan-Tsang are not directly
useful t-...o tho hlstory of the Pa_ndya country. But whatever allusions
they mak~ are of great importance from the stanqpoint of factual
and chronological precision. 1-'he acetounts of the Arab travellers
of tha period are also not of immediate relevance to the p:obl em
under ~view. However, the observations of Abu. Zaid~ lbin Khurda
dbey and Zainuddin give a general idea about. the nature and extent
of contemporary foreign commerce~
kl~~arv souroe§t
The earliest reliable t•eference to the Pandya country
is in the !£tha6§stfs! lt alludes to P&n¢Grakayi~ak~ as a
variety of pearl and M&dh~f9~ as a variety of cott..on fabric.
1. Me Crindle• '?he <:!9l.!!!'Mtf£t!..,«:md ~av1Slft1on o~ the Eryt.hrgean ge:a (trans. London, 1879) pp 29 f • · ·
2. sastr1, K.A.:u. " The Beginnings of Intercourse Between India and Chin~ ... Indian Historical QUarterly (D,g) vol.14 (1938) p.3aG.
3. Sastri, K.A .. N. ~reign ,Notices of §.eu.l;b Ipd}§ (Madras, 1939) pp •. 119££.
4~ The chronology of Arthps§.~!:F...S is a problem. Thepar, R. Asolsa and th!' Decline of the MoJEzap (Bombay new edn.1973) pp 218 f£. see Shar.ma. R.s. ~spects o{_polit!cal Ideas and Institutions in AIJ_9ient Indi§• (Rev. ed.Delh1,1968) P• 20.
017
showing that both pearl fishing and cotton manufacturing were 1 prosperous in the Pandya country. The Ceylonese chronicles.
especially the s<qavamsa part of the Mahavamsa contains certain
detailed references to the royal personages. political events and
place names of the Pandya country!
The most significant $m0ng the literary sources is the
corpus of the ant.hological literature. lt is now well known that
this class of ancient '.l'amil literature is not contemporaneous to
•the academy of poets• (sangam) t1hich undertook the task of
redaction and clqssification of the corp~s in tpe present formp~ The time gap between the tv1o is of a few centuries .. The composition
of anthologies itself lasted for about five or six centuries. Their
redaction and subjection to certain thematic or stylistic grouping
in ~ later period has put them in a big, chronological mesh. Of the
extant corpus of anthologies the E.~t:utt.oka,! collection excluding
B§l!~tokai and .Par!pa~al is considered to be the most archaic,
belonging to about the 3rd century B.c., to the 3rd century A.D;
2~ The chronology of tJahavam§a is a bit uncertain. See dis• cussions of Hultzsch in J.,R,A,S, (1913) pp. 517 ££.
s. George Lo Hart IIIt " Related Cultural and Literary Elements in. Ancient Tamil and Indo-Aryantt (Ph.D. thes!s~ Harward University, 1969) p.2, quoted in his " Ancient Tamil Literature Its Scholarly Past and Future", in Stein B. ed• Essa~. on South India (New Delhi, 1976) p.41. Also Narayanan M~.s. Relnte£Pretations in South tndian Histg£1, (Tr!vandrum, 1977J PP• 83 ff.
018
The Pattapa~~u collection must be of a little later period. 1 The
Patinonkllkaaakku works, excepting icarakkivai and Mutumolikka
~ which appear to be later and the final version ot Tolkkappi
la.m are roughly of the 5th - 6th conturies A.D. 2 The t'tio epics
CilaEet1kiram. and M~imekhalai are still later, probably o! the
8th - 9th centuries.' ,..--
What ever be the drawbacks o:t the anthological
compositions based on oral poetry with stock expressions and ste
reotypes, their value as historical source can never bo exagger
ated.4 Their allusions to contemporary events and personages;
ideas, institutions and customs; social groups and relationships
holp make a configuration o:f the material matri:x: of early Tamil-. -akam.
1. Hart, G.L. op.cit.,p.41
2.. The chronology of the Kilk~kku works is discussed in Sivaraja Pilla!., K.N. !fie ronolop of the Earli Tamils (Madras, 1936).Seo the Appendix XV.pp.~5B for aleeussion on the date of Tolkkap;eizam. Also Dikshitar, V.R.R. Studies in Tamil Literaiure an! Histor;r (Madras, 1936) pp. 37f?. Valya~ri Pliial, s. History of Tamil Lar.llt!afte pd Literature (Madras, 1956)pp.18tf: illiiai, K.K. A· oclai iUs~ory of the Tamils (rpt. Madras, 1975)pp.12'11r.'
3. Narayanan, M.G.S. "Ku~avayirkkottam and Cilappatikaram" in his Cultural Symbiosis in Kerala (Trivand.rum. 1972) pp.17!t.
4. Kailasapathy, K. o;e.cit.,~ssim. Also Ma.rr, J.A. "The Eight Tamil Anthologies"; ~published Ph.D. thesis, University of London,. 1950) and Vaithia.nathan, s. "The Pattupattu :A Historical, Social and Linguistic Study",(Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of London, 1950). A rocent approach in the same linG is Dubianski, A.M. "A Mot!! of Messenger in the Mullai-lgJ?in, Journal of Tamil Studies (JTS) No.19 (1981 )pp. · • -
019
The works, Abidhamrnavatara an.d Vinayaviniecava in Pali
Language, by Buddha Datta of about the first quarter of the 5th
century A.D. give some useful information. Though their allusions
are not directly related to the Pandyas, they shed light on certain
aspects o~ contemporary religious and social history.
The Saivite and Vais.Qavite canonical literature constitutes
another set of literary source of great significance. The Tevaram
hymns of Appar, Jnanasambandhar and sundarar; Tiruvacakam and
Tirukkovaiyar of Ma~ikkavacakar: NalaYi£2 QiX[ggrabandharn are the
chief collections belonging to this class, of literature. The hymns
in t~ese collections are roughly of the period from the 7th to the
9th centuries of the christian era. They contain numerous refer
ences to contemporary h.istorical persons and events; occ.:lo-religious
ideas and institutions; and aspects of sectaz:-ianism. Per;iyapuransm - - '
of Cekki~ar though belongs to the 12th century is a ~1ork of tradi-
t.ional history pertaining to the life of the hymnists.
1'he Tiruvilaiyatal-euranam of Perumpa.r!=appuliyur l'~ambi, a • • L
compilation of numerous traditional and legendary accounts cent,9p:'1ng
arou~d Madura!, contain.s useful historical facts. Pandikkovai~ an
anonymous work l-thich is a collection of songs and quotations from
the commentary on the Akapporul of Iraiyanar, though probably a
later work, is a traditional account of Nedumaran•s politir.al ~loit&
1. See discussions on the problem of date in Zvelebil. K. "The Earliest Account of the Tamil Academies", Inde-Iranian yournaA, Vol.XV, No.2 (1973) pp.109 f£.
Mutto~;ixtrgm, a similar later composition is also noteworthy
for its allusions to an early period.
The literary sources are mostly either eulogies of some
kind or religious didactics. Their purpose was literary and
religious. Even the •pgr§nas' were meant for purposes other
than historical.
E~igraphical Material!
020
The Tamil brahmi labels incised on ro~beds, boulders etc.,
of the natural caverns of the rocky hillocks, mostly in the
surroundings bf Madura! constitute the earliest of the extant
epigraphical materials for the study~ OUt of the fifteen cavern
sites with labels belonging to the third to the first centuries
B.c.,. ten are on the routes from Madura! to its neighbouring
towns, with a concentrated distribution in the north•east. on the
routes to Tiruehchirappalli •. Marugalttalai nea.x:- Pa~aiyamkot;i;ai
on the Tambraparr}il Kunnakkut;i on the Tiruppattur•Karaikku~i
rou.te1 Sittannavasal on the Puduk'kc51;~ai•Tiruehchirappalli router
and Puqal1yur on the Tiruchehirappalli-Erode route; are the main
sites outside the Madura! district. The Madura! sites are Ana!-
mala! and Var!cciyur on the route to Melur; Karungalkku~i on
the route to TiruchchirappalliJ Id~va~avu on the Melw;•Tirqppa
ttur route, V!kkiramamangal.am on the route to S6!avendant
Muttuppai;.~., Kongarput.iyankulam and Tiruppa;ankun~am on the route
1. Mahalingam, T.c., Efi:lY south Ig<Jian Pal,~rap~rpt.Madras, 1974) pp.201 ff. Ma devan, I. Corpus o t e T 1 srahrni Inscriptions", Semina£ on Inscriptions(Madras,1966) pp.57-63.
021
to '1'1rwnangalom1 A}:agarmalai and Mangu+am on the A~akarkoil-Melur
route and Sidharmalai on the Melur-Tiruchch1rappa111 route.
The labels record mostly personal names of the donors of the
cavems or rock-beds, often indicating their occupational status.
In one of ~he Mangulam·labels the donor is a body of merchants,
(niksmatta;.) of Ve+-arai! The records of A!akarmalai refer to
a goldsmith (Egnkolayan) of Madura!, salt merchant (Uppu•Vil)ikgp)
sngar or toddy merchant (pjnita-vSl?ikan)., 1.r:on.mong~Jt(kp~t1;.vj~i'kap~
and cloth merchant ( argvai-viu;ikan) as donors~ One. of. the labels
of :Puga~ur cavern refers to a gold merchant (pon-v§Qikan)of l(clrur
as the founder of the cavern~ Certain labels have ref~rences to
place names. In a label of Sittannavasal the accountant (kavidi)
of, ~u~~r in Eomi•padg is mentioned as the donor~ One. of the
labels of Kongarpuliyankulam refers to Pakanur1 a village, which in ' . .
later records is Pakanur-ku;:am, a larger division~ . The Pandyan
Nedunje~iyan and the Ceran I:tamkatunko, the son of Perumka1;unko.
the son of Atan Cellirurnpo~ai, figure in the labels of Mangu~am and
Puga~ur respectively~
The chronology of the cave labels is fixed with the Arikamedu
graffiti of the first century A,D,, as the point of reference
1. Mahadevan, I, op.cit., No.6 2. Ibid., Nos. 11 51 8_, 9. & 14 3. Ibid~, No. 4. Ibid,~, No.
5 ." Ibid, , No,.
6. Ibid.a., Nos.
THESIS 333.3350954 G969 Th
Ill II 11111111111 Ill/ II Ill TH1728
022
and also by orthographie.faotors! The labels of all the above
cavern sites are assigned to the pre-Arikamedu period, roughly
the pt"eoeding three centuries before the Christian Era. There
are two cave labels - one at Mamandur on. the Arcot•«inehi route
and the other at Aracalur on the Erode-cotmbatore route contain
ing the name of a tsccan (mason or carpenter) and a o:m~1Yfi~~
}$1$an (lapidary) respectively• belonging to the early 4th century
A. I>: The most im~ortant record ascribable to the immediate post
Aracalur per.iod on palaeographical ground, !s that of Pu.lankllri• ..
i .. i 3 ehchi, near Ponnamaravat in Ra."11anathapuram d striC"'• There are
two inscriptions on the rock adjacently incise~ covering a space
o·f 15 x 2 metres~ Both the inscriptions are deciphered partly and
1. Mahadevan, I. "Tamil Brahmi Inscriptionsn, (Tamil Nadu State Department of Archaeology) (Madras, 1970) p.12
2. Mahadevan, I 11 Corpus ....... ~,!.~., No.71
3. Nags.swamy, R ... An Outstanding Epigraphical D:i,seovery in Tamil .Nadu*', 5th Ir1ternational Con e ence Seminar on Tami Studie& (.IOiTS) (M.a ura ~ 981 • He ascri es t e record to the thir century A.D. by taking the passage "KO centan KGrrarkku yat;.a~u nu;~uttorroii;-;=1rat:rt;u ••• u as referring the date 1n Sake era. Usually when Saka era is mentioned it is specified saka£§!Sn~U• There is no such specification here. So it appears referring to some local era. The orthographic features of the inscription show a tranGit..ional phase bet~een those of Aracalur and Xru~appa~~i·
4. Nagaswamy took ! t for one record. The studies in §!.S. by Y. Suhbarayalu and M.R. Raghava Varier have identiriaa the two inscriptions belonging to Centan and Cintan Xfi~;an respectively. Also my own personal observation.
023
their purport is to record sane land transaction involving ~rahf:!m
S,i§Ya§ end the foundation of a @valw.lam respectively. The first
one is quite important as it alludes to the various land rights
tt uses the term pirammati}, ~s the ' ' .. '
colophons of certain anthologias.do. The share holders of the
sirammat§XD are called kgtumpixar and their right as pirarnmat§za-, - '.
J.s1~_amai£ The right of the M£azyna1 holders is referred to as
!r.ir-an"'"ktlama!. The tillers are called Jsytik.al in the record. . . .. .. The
ti'arrior protectors of the locality (pit.ukappS£) an accountant a
(pe!J!mt~n!!i) and the village head man Osil§p) figure in it. - - .. other. record refers to certain namE·S of persons and ;>laces.
At Singempatti, a small rodk inscription is found in the char-
ters of the 7th century which registers the death of some 1 warrior.
The Malayatikkurichehi rodk inscription of Maran'Cendan and the
Va1ga1~bed inscription of Cendan Arikesari are the other Pandyan
inscrlptions of ~he 7t.h century~ From the 9th to the 10th century
there are numerocis epigraphs scattered all over the region• inclu
ding the several labels of Anaimala1 and Ayy&mpi!Jaiyam• They are
chiefly in three forms. (1) Stone records. (2) Copper Plates and
·(3) Coin legends.
1. ,SQUth Indian Inseriptiops (s.I.I) Vol. XIV, No.97
2. ARE, 358 of 1959-60 and 330 of 1961-62.
024
The stone records can be broadly classified as followss-
(1) The records registering the foundation or renovation of ins
titutions or establishments of religious tmportance or public
utility,
·(2) The records ~gistering endowments of livestock, gold, cash
or land to the institutions. groups or establishments of the
above z:tature1
( 3:) The l:'ecords registering transactions involving land and gold/
cash between private individuals and corporate bodies like
the pabha and U£ or between the corporate bodies and institu
tions· like the templet
(4) The records reg1stering the resolutions (kaiccmn or kaccam) by
the sabh§ or ur. or the governing bodies of the temples, on the
various problems of their respective spheres of conttol,
(S). The records registering the royal orders(srikar!yam or tiru ...
mukam), and
(6) The records registering the heroic death of warriors in royal
campaigns or local skirmishes.
, OUt of the extant 204 stone records belonging to the early
Pandya rulers about 17 are of the first category, 149 of the secondt
26 of the third, 2 each of the fourth and fifth~ and 4 of the last
type.. About four are unidentifiably damaged. There is overlapping
in the above categorisation,since certain records involve the chara
cteristics of more than one category. For example,the Tiruppuvanam
inscription of Rajasimhas 2nd year registers the foundation of a temple
025
and an endowment of livestock to it~ All the ~cords registering
transactions of land are in a way decisions of the · concerned
corporate bodies. They are endowment records too, since all the ' '
sales and purchases of land had been 'for instituting endowments. • ~ 1/' ~
The Ka}:ugiunalai reeord of. Pa.rantaka . Nedunjadaiyan's 23rd yeat'.
registers. the heroi_c:: death of two warriors in the AruViyur campaign
o£ the king and an endowment of land worth 20 kalan 1J1 of gold in ' -
their name .~tbe r.abhaiyat; of 'RWnmal)amangalam! The Edlrk6~1;ai inscription of Rajasimha's 16th year is another example of similar
type, whe·re the endowment is to a templeZ The Ambasamudram inscri
ption of Vira Pandya's 20th year registers a royal order regarding
the endownent of a land to the temple and its allocation by , the
te~le authorit!es1 There are one or two inscriptions which do
not strictly fall under any of the above categories. The boundary
stone inscription from Kulasekharanal.lur which demarcates the extent
of the brabffis§§za of Ma~arku~i, is an example~ This has been
considered under the fourth category as the boundary stone was 1nst•
alled in the presence o( the n§$$jr of the locality. The vanji-
nagaram oil press. (oekhg) inocription which mentions ~at the· press
1. Unpubliahed. inscription from the collecti.on of Vethaehalam,N.
2. 2LI,I, gp,ci~; No.31
3. ,Ibidu No, 65
4. Ibid,. No.95
s. ~.a.E,, 254 of 1977-78
was installed in the name of a warrior group, porkott-yirsE of 1 Nelvelur, is another example. This has been considered under
the first category, which comprises the foundation or renovation
of the temples, water-sheds, irrigation tanks, sluices, bunds
and water-troughs. The royal personages, chiefs .and other big
026
land holders figure in these records as the founders o.r renovators.
:tn the second category., along w1 th the above all kinds of people
such as the royal and local service personages, warriors, merchants,
the temple functionaries and so on figure as donors. The corpor
ations of the land holders and merchants figure in certain records
of this category as the recipients of gold in bullion and cash
from the temple on the basis cf permanent interest.. The records
dealing with the livestock endowments allude to the village warrior
leaders (~aa$a.ittalaiVaf.) mostly as recipients of the livestock
sha:-e, redistributed. by the temple •. The endowments were chiefly
for lighting perpetual lamps (1i;s-nontavi;~> or for maintaining
the daily rituals and offerings, in the temple. Some of the ,records
mention the endowments for garlands, ornaments,special ceremonies
and festivals. A few of them allude to the endowments for feeding
brahmana$; paying the temple functionaries etc. The third oategory
of records alludes mostly to the sale of a piece of land, often
waste, to a chief or at times even the king, by the corporate bodies,
especially the sabha; for an endowment. These records refer to the
1. Unpubli.shed inscription from the collection of Vethachalam, N.
027
practice of collecting a lump sum as capitalised tax dues(!£2!
vllai) along with the actual price (vilai-porgl.) t1hen a piece of
land was sold• The fourth type of records alludesto the full
quorum decisions by the corporate bodies, in matters of the admi
nistration of the temple affairs or village life. The famous
Manur inscription of Parantaka Nedunjadaiyan's 37th year registers
a kaiccam regarding the rules and qualifications for membership
1 . 1 , 1 n the sabha. of Manainilainallur. The Sinnamanur nscription of
srtmara Srivallabha's 46th year registers a kaccam restricting
that a particular variety of paddy alone should be cultivated in
the temple land situated near an irrigation channel called Sr!ka~~a
vey.Bkkal~ The record alludes to another ~!ccam regulating the
mode of operation of a sluice. The Perungulam inscription of
Rajas!mha 1 s 24th year registers a joint decision by the ca~~ppperu
makkal, akanalikaiy;;ir, patiyjr, Pancacarxar and uvaccakal of the .. _
temple of Tiruvalisvaram for giving two shares of land as gift to
certain Putanku~yan in recognition of his services in redeeming
certain lands of the temple and securing the remission of taxes
thereof~ The records classified above as tirumukmn (oral orders by
the king) are not comparable to royal edicts or proclamations.
They only allude to the royal order passed orally which forms the
basis of the details in the reoordo The Salaigramam inscription of
Rajasimha•s 3rd year alludes to a tirumukam given by srimara
Srivallabha, sorting out the irrigation tanks belonging to the
1. s.I.I., op,cit., No •. 37
2. Ibid., No. 78
3. Ibid.# No. 74
028
village and the temple. and according permission to the temple for
irrigating its lands from a near by tank~ The Ambasamudram record
of Vira Pandya's 20th year is based on an oral order of the king
issued in the 12th year of his reign, granting a village as devadana~
The last category of records .contain allusions to the loyalty of the
warriors to the king and their heroic adventures in the battle fi
elds.
The copper plates are royal charters of land grant~to the
brahmanas. There are siX copper plates belonging to the early
Pandya rulers. The plates area
(1) The Velvikkui;i gr:ant of Parantaka Nedunja4aiyan (e.'767-811.A.D)
to brahmana Kamakkani Narcinkan. the kilan of ICorkait
(2) The srivaramangalam grant of the same king to a scholarly
brahrnana belonging to the Bhirgava gotra and Asvalayana sutt:a1
( 3) The s.tnnamanur grant of probably the same king to obviously
some brahmana beneficiary whose details are missing along with
a few plates of the grantt
(4) The Da!avaypuram grant of Pa.rantaka viranaraya~a (c.S62-907
A.D.) to brahmana Kesava, son of Narayana and grand son of Maya
of Vanagotra and Baudhiyana ~lpa;
(5) The Sinn~anur grant of Rajasimha (c.907-931 A~D.) to brahmana
Parantakan grandson of Bhaskaran Cet~i of KOmara Kausika-gotra
and Agnivesya-kalpat and
(6) The Sivak§si grant of Vira Pandya (c.946-976 A.D) to brahmana
1. Epigraphia lndiC§ (E.I) XXVIII Pt0 II No.1'7 Ao
•
029
Vasudeva Pitambara Pa~ta of Ratidhara-g6tra and i~valayana-sutra.
The Ay plates are also generally accounted Pandya, since the
former ruling lineage had been a political subordinate of the latter.
The Ay plates belong to Karunanda~akkan (c.B57-B84 A.D.) and Vikra
maditya Varaguna (c.BB4-920 A.D.) who were the contemporaries of
Srimara Srivallabha and Varaguna and Parantaka vi.ra Naraya~a and
Rajasimha respectively. The plates area
(1) The Parthivapuram grant of Karunandatakkan to the Parthiva
sekharapuram temple• . r
(2) the Tirupparappu plates of Vikramaditya Varaguna registering
some land grants by certain private individuals to the Tiru
pparappu temple'
( 3) the Tirunandikkarai plates of the same 'king,. registering a
grant of land by the king to his wifef Murukan Cent!; and
(4) the Pal!yam plates of the king granting land to the Sudhist
monastery of Sr!mUlapata.
The copper plates recording land grants to brahmanas are
either ekaghoga charters or for the joint bhogft of a group of brah
manas. The Sinnamanur plates of Rajas~ha and the Sivakasi plates
of Vira Pandya were ~kabh6ga charters as specified in the record.
In the rest of the plates there are either allusions to the redistri
bution of the granted land among the members of a brahmana eomnuni ty
or specifications that they were meant for a group of brahmanaso
Various royal service personages, ehiefs.locsl land holding groups
and communities figure in the copper plates. All the copper plates are
030
of utmost help 1n reconstruct~ng one aspect or the other of the
structure of contemporary land rights. The initial section of the
copper plates is a poetic eulogy of the reigning king which gives
us cluea to contemporary kingship and other aspects of the polity.
There are only two coin-labels assignable to the early Pandya
rulers. One is a round coin made of copper recovered from Madura!
bearing an inscription, "Sri Avan!pasekaran golaka•, on the reverse.
The other is a gold coin, inscribed "Sri Varagup~", on its rever~e: These two coins belonged to the reigns of Srimara Srivallabha and
Varaguna respectively.
The epigraphs of the Pandya region are in vatteluttu script, - ~ -excepting the early cave labels which employ the 'l"ami1 bralJm&
charters. The language of the records is old Tamil. In the copper
plates and stone records the Sanskrit portions are written in
grantha cha~rs• As elsewhere 1n South India, the records
are dated in the regnal years of the reigning kings. A few
records allude to certain specific eras, enabling precise dating.
The Anaimalai in.seriptions of Parantaka Nedunja~aiyan are dated in
3871 Kelt year~ A Tiruppa~ankun~am record of the 6th year of the
king is dated in 3874 Keli~ The Ayyampa~aiyam inscription of
Varagunas 8th year is dated in 792 Saka era~ These two latter
records which yield 770 and 862 A.D. respectively as their dates
1. See n 22 above 2. S1 :t.I., oo.eit.., Nos. 1 & 2 3. E,I., XXXVI
4. 13s I:s I., smscit~, No.22
through the above eras# are the land. marks in the chronology of
the early Pandyas. Some of the records contain astronomical
details which at times yield reliable base for dating. The Tiru
ve~;ara1 inscription of Varaguna•s 13th year gives Vrischikat
Monday and Asvat.i as the astronomical details yielding 874 A.D.
Novembe~ 22nd# which is corroborated by the above record of Saka 1 era* showing 870 A.D. as the king's 8th year. The Ambasamudram
record of Vira Pandya t, s 20th year gives the astronomical details
such as a solar eclipse in the month of Mithuna, during the 12th
year·of the king, which yield 946 A.D. as his date of accession:
031
'l'he early Pandya stone epigraphs generally do not use the
aotual name of the reigning king, but only his cognomen. Maran
Sa~aiyan and sa~aiyamaran were the cognomens the Pandya kings
alternated as the Parakesari and Rajakesari by the eol,.as. However,
a few records are found with the king's real name or with his titles.
The Sittannavasal inscription uses the name srivalluvan and the
title Ava.nipasekharan., for the reigning ld.ng,obviously Srimara
Sri vallabha~ The E1=Ukkanku1;.i inscription of the king' s 18th year
mentions the cognomen, sa~iyamaran and the actual name, Srivallabhanf
The inscriptions from 'l'iruchchirappalli, Lalgudi, Ambasamudram,
1. Ibid., No. 12. -.·n rcu;!~U.
2. ~·· No. 95
s. Ibid., No.45
4. Ibid., No, 44
032
Tiruc:he~~ampalam. Tiruppattur, Tiruchchendur, T!rukkO~ikaval,
Ayyampa~aiyam, Tiruvisalur, Tiruchchat:-t:urai and Tiruviymur use the
name Varaguna to indicate the reigning king~ All the records o.f
Vira Pandya mention the king•s name prefixed bf Colanralsailslffin;ta. . . . The copper plates use the actual name often with several titles
and epithets.
The early Pandya records follow a peculiar mode of giving the
regnal years by spli'tt..ing them into the years opposite to certain
years. The cera inscriptions also follow the same method. probably
due to the Pandya influence. There are various speculations on the . 2
meaning and purpose behind the practice. But none of them is credited
with acceptability among the historians. However, there is little
doubt that the years opposite to certain years, put together, give
the actual regnal year. ;
The Sinnamanur plates of Rajasimha which
mention his regnal year as uirantavatin etir E.,{ttinankavatu" in the .. in the Sanskrit part justify
this belief. Xt appears that the splitting of the regnal years in
the records of the various kings was mostly between a constant and
the variables. This is particularly true in the case of the records
of Rajasimha whose regnal years are given invariably as some years
opposite to two. Almost every record of Varaguna is dated as 4
1. Ibid. t Nos. 10, 11# 12B~ 13,. 14, 15, 16A,. 21, 22. 24,. 28 & ARS, 605 of 1962·63. -
2. Gopinatha Rao, T.A. s2n Tamtl, Vol.IV p.114. Also Pillai, K.K. The Sucindrgm Temple Madras, 1953) p 443.
033
opposite to some years or days opposite to four. The records of
Miran Cendatl and Cendan Arikesari (7tth century A.D.) do not split
the regnal years. The records of Parantaka Neduri)a4aiyan show that
the practice had not become common during his period. None of the
extant records of Srimara srivallabha follows it. But from the time
of Varaguna onwards it appears to have become the usual practice.
Epigraphs constitute the primary source for the problem under
study. They are not real jottings 9~ history u~i,ke_ the Chinese
or the Western historical sources, The quantity· and quality
of their data are limited even for an. 'idiographic. enquiry into a
bare outline of political history, recounting royal wars and success
ions. It is all the more ltmited when they are to be used for the
reconstruction of social formations, ideas. institutions. groups and
relationships of the past. H~ver, a careful reading and evaluation
of them provide clues to the premises of contemporary society.
It is significant to consider some of the , external factors
reg~rding the epigraphs,. The purpose of the epigraphs was not
histories~ as far as the society of their t~es was concerned. The
foundation or renovation records proclaim the name and fame of the
benefactors. All endowment records do the same function. But as
endowments involved sometimes various conditions, agreements and
transactions, their records had a legal significance also as refer
ence documents. The constitutional and regulatory functions of the
resolutions by the corporate bodies are clear from their perpetuation
034
through documentation. Same is, the case with the records carrying
royal orders, The places of their existence are equally important
as their functional contexts. Most of the epigraphs are found
incised on the temple structures which are open and easily access
ible. The temple records in. the form of copper pla~es were kept in
the t~mple under the custody of the temple authorit~es. The copper
plates recording land grants to brahmanas were under the custody of
the beneficiaries. The old bunds, sluices and rock boulders are
other places where epigraphs are found. The records on bunds and
sluices publieise the names of their founders or ren.ovators and
document their legal authority over the i~igatio~ sources which hM
great economic significance. Inscriptions on rocks in the fields as
in the case of Pulanku~ichchi# are found dealing with some problem
of the fields or the foundation or renovation of some establishments
·near them. '!'he Ramanathapuram inscription on a ro~k in the village
is an example of a lithic record showing a pe~son•s kani right over ' -
certain plots of land.
'the usual practice adopted is treating the data from dive.rse records
as a single set of evidences. One has to be very cautious in making ge
neralisations on the basis of such materials which are mostly confined
to the premises of temple centred settlements and brahmanical villages.
The epigraphs hardly represent contemporary life in its entirety. They
provide only a profile of it. In the absence of other reliable
035
source materials the epigraphs are often over-weighed by the
his'tl\~!ans. N~lkanta Sastri aptly remarked, ''epigraphieal evi
dence, however~ is not alt.-rays as definite or as conclusive as 1
one would ,.dsh". All allusions in the epigraphs are not histo-
rical facts. They are not altogether fictitious either. One
thing is definite that their allusions by and large cannot be
without some relevance to contemporary life. Therefore, they
remain significant as invaluable pointers to the historical con
ditions of their times.
There are a few things to be stated regarding our method of
app~oach to.the source material for the study of ancient SOuth India.
Often t~e history of ancient South India is viewed 1n different
eul~Qral facets such as the *Megalithiq/tron Age'# the •sangam Age•
etc., on the basis of certain categories of sources labelled after them. The approach to these sources has always been predisposed
towards such unintelligible 'periodisations• and 'labellings•.
Instead of viewing them as segregated categories of sources for the
stud,y of isolated cultures, we have followed a method integrating
them to evolve from the total assemblage of their data an tdea about
1. Sastri, K.A.N. and Ramanna, H.s. Histprical Method in Relation to Indian History (Madras, 1956) p.67
036
the social formation of ancient South India• Usually, the corpus
of Sangam Literature .. is used for historical writing with little
thoughts on its uncertain chronology. The fact that each collect
ion includes productions of w~dely separated periods, is conven
iently forgotten when generalisations are made on the basis of an ' ' . .
{
allusion in one poem or the other. we have made use of this cate•
gory of source very cautiously with the help of all the available
analyses of the structure, composition and chronology of the pro
dUctions classed under it.
Regarding our approach to the epigraphieal source for the
actual period under study we have certain points to be noted. tie
have followed the method of the textual analysis of the epigraphs
which involved the following procedures•
(1) Reduction .of each epigraph into its component parts;
quantification of the constants among the components of the extant
epi9raphs and individual analysis of the variablest
(2) Study of the textual contents and eontexts of the epigra
phs: and
(3) Tabulation of the inscriptional terms and their eontexts;
qUantification of their occurences and analysis of variations in
their contexts in time and space.
The aim is to tap the source 10 the last detail for understan-
ding the nature of the socio-political formations and their
037
structural components of the given time and space. The method
has the adVant.age_ of rigour and clarity and helps us examiee facts
in their entirety. .
The basic conceptual tool used !n the study is of Historical
Materialism. . we have made use of certain other concepts and models
also for describing some aspects of the ideas and institutions of
the social formation. This does not mean that our method is of the
usual academic ecclecticlsm.. No 'model 'e is used as a substitute
for our basic · tool of analysis.-- All of them are used in their li•
mited contexts to offer descriptions of an external nature. Our
interest is in the actual processes of the socio-political forma
tions and the *prtme movers • 'behind their structural transformation,
for the study of which the fundamental tool of analysis is the con
cept of mode of production.
The gegJ;ona
A historical region is only a culturally identifiable terri
torial entity, a •naively given' area, as the social geographers
would call it! lt does not have any clearly delimited boundaries.
The Pa~dya country was a cultural sub-region of the Tamil macro
region with a dynastic base whose influence waned with increasing
distance from the core area. The peripheries of all contemporary
1. Schwartzberg, J. *'Prolegomena to the Study of South Asian Regions and Regionalism" quoted in Saben-aal, s. " Regions and their social structures", in Contributions to Indian Sociology (New Series, New Delhi, 1'971) No.V.pp 82 ££.
038
kingdoms tmt'-9 1n constant flwc and the degree of authority the
centre w1e141e.d there varied from king to king.. However, a tenta
tive idea of the extent of a kingdom can be formulated from the
distribution pattern of inscriptions of kings. In the light of the
distribution of the epigraphs and certain late literary allusions,
the Pandya kingdom seems to have been demarcated by the Vellar on
the north•oast1 the Milur-Tiruchehirappalli hills on the northJ the
VirUpak~hi pass on the north~1est; the Western ghats on the west;
the Indian ooean on •the south , and the Gulf of Manner on the east.
7t comprises the districts of Kanya~~r!, Tirunelve~y, Ramanatha
puram, Madura! and parts of Tiruchch!rappall! and. Tanj ore • The
Whole area is situated between 77 and 79 degrees longituae and 8 and
11 degrees latitude.
The J:"egion considered here is of diverse physica.l features. The
western fringes of the region are entirely covered by the hillocks
of the ,.restern ghats, with an increased protrusion into the Tirunel
vely, Ramanathapuram and Madura! districts. The ecological setting
of the region is diverse because of the differences in the altitudes,
distribution of rain fall , sources of drainage and soil conditions.
At the same tima similar geo..o.ecological setting is sean in the case
of certain localities sparsely distributed. in the region. The eco
logical situation of the region can be examined on ·the modern dis
trict wise. Kanyakumari district is the southern most part of the
Pand}~ country. It comprises the hilly red soil area(the Tova~a
039
taluk) with a high rain fall1 the alluvial palar basins and the
sandy aQa~tal tracts (the Agaetisvaram taluk) with a relatively.
less~r rainfall. In the Tirunelvely district also the high alti
tude.areas haves aomparatively.h!gher degr~ of rain fall. The
'l;'embt;apaz;-JJi 't1hich. is the major river in the district has· a very ,
rich alluvial valley evolved out of the processes of denudation
aed rudiments~ depos!tion1 through the travail of centuries. :The
river drains a large area t~roug~out its eourse of about 70 mile~.
This al.luvial ~rea was th~. ~re of the agrarian settlements in · t:he , '
Pandya qountz;y~ '!'he Ambasamuaram taluk has a large number of · st"':". ' . . . f ;· .
reamlets running down .from the vertical hills in the wes~,besides
the Gai;ana bran.eh of the ~amb~apat'J}!.- The Nanguneri taluk is dra-
.. 1ned by Anuma-nadl and Nambi•ar. The ~ramanai-ar is the major
water resource for the Tiruehchen,dur taluk. The Rmnanathapuram dis
trict is largely an area of red and black and mixed soil drained
mostly by rain-fed tanks. The western point of Srlvilliputhur i$ ·'
covered by the .vertical hills of the Western ghats, Where rain fall
is higher compa~d to the other parts of the district. The Vaippar
and Arjuna-~ with their tributaries drain a considerable part of
Sattur before they unite to fall into the sea. The Mudukulattur,
Ramanathapuram and Paramagu(li taluks are replete with rain-fed tanks
and the last two are further benefited by the Vaigai and the first
by Gun~ar. The tributaries of the GunQ.ar and other streamlets pro
vide enough water for the ArUppukko~~ai taluk, Here the moisture
retentive capacity of the soil is high, The Tiruppattur taluk is
040
partly drained by the two branches of the Virisu!i river. There
are also in the area many tanks fed by streams of rain. The
Madura! district is generally a dry zone. The KOdaikkanal taluk
is of the highest sl ti tude, packed by the ranges protruding from
the \'1estem ghats. The Periyaku.\am taluk is almost encircled by
tbe high ranges. The western borders of the Tirumangalsm talu~
and the southern borders of the Palani taluk are also packed by
the vertical hills as in the central ports of the Nilakk6~~a1
taluk. !he Melur Dind1gu1 bor~rs are also of the high ranges.
It is a primarily red soil area. The major river is Vaigai tmich
is not of much use from the irrigation point of view* Agriculture
1n this region mainly depends upon rain and rain-fed tanks., The
T!rumangalam taluk 1s partly drained by the Keman4ala-nad1 and
Gun~r. The Melur taluk hds a small river called Tiruma9imuttar
flowing to the east from its western border. The Dindigul taluk
is partly drained by the Ka4agan-!£, Sandanavarda-naai and few
streamlets. The Nallatangi river drains the central part of the
PaAan1 teluk.
'l'he region is thus a combination of the n¥:)untains and hill
1:-anges, plateaus, parched areas, alluvial plains, and the areas of
unconsolidated sediments. It is a combination of non-agrarian tra
cts and the areas of relatively good agricultural potential. The
latter playe4 the major role in shaping the history of the kingdom.
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