|
PANDYA
RULE
The Chola demoralisation
was the pandyas’ opportunity, and they were not slow
to avail themselves of it. From this time forth they occupied
the throne of Madura in a regular succession, and from astronomical
details appearing in inscriptions and supplied by the Government
Epigraphist, professor Kielhorn has fixed the dates of the
following of their rulers-the latter year in each case being,
not necessarily the last of the king’s reign, but the
latest date as yet discovered which contains admitting of
verification:-
1
Jatavarman Kulasekhara 1190-1214
2 Maravarman Sundara-pandya I 1216-35
3 Maravarman Sundara-pandya II 1238-51
4 Jatavarman Sundara-pandya I 1251-61
5 Vira-pandya 1252-67
6 Maravarmann Kulasekhara I 1268-1308
7 Jatavarman Sundara-pandya II 1275-99
8 Maravarman Kulasekhara II 1314-21
9 Maravarman Parakrama pandya 1334-52
10 Jatavarman parakrama pandya 1357-72
11 Jatilavarman Parakrama Pandya Arikesarideva 1422-61
12 Jatilavarman Parakrama pandya Kulasekhara 1479-99
13 Jatilavarman Srivallabha 1534-37
14 Maravarman Sundara-pandya III 1531-55
15 Jatilavarman Srivakabha Ativirarama 1562-67
Maravarman
Sundara-pandya1,1216-35
The
Second of these rulers, Maravarman Sundara-Pandya I, who came
to the throne in 1216, invaded the country of the old enemies
of his line and captured Tanjore and Uraiyur, a suburb of
Trichinopoly and a former Chola capital. He boasts that he
made himself master of the Chola realms and in the end graciously
returned them as a gift to their owner;1 and that this was
not altogether mere bombast is shown by the frequency of his
inscriptions in the Tanjore and Trichinopoly districts2 and
by the fact tht his coins bear the title ‘he who conquered
the Chola Country.
Arrival of the Hoysalas
But the collapse of the Cholas brought
the pandyas into touch with the Hoysalas, who about this time
established themselves near Srirangam in the Trichinopoly
district in a new town which the Hoysala king ‘had built
in order to amuse his mind in the Chola country. which he
had conquered by the power of his arm.’ As early as 1222
these Hoysalas were stated to be ‘marching against Ranga
(i.e., Srirangam) in the south,’ and to have ‘cleft
open the rock that was the pandya,’and their king assumed
the title of’ the establisher of the Chola kingdom.’
Whether he actually came into conflict with the pandyas it
is impossible to say; but the latter seem to have left the
Chola country, and do not appear to have again interfered
with it for some thirty years.
Jatavarman
Sundara Pandya1,1251-61
Of the third of the pandya kings
in the above list, Maravarman Sundara-pandya II (1238-51),
very little is known; but his successor, Jatavarman Sundara-pandya
I (1251-61), was a mighty conqueror. He invaded Ceylon, carried
off a great booty, including the celebrated tooth-relic, and
assumed in consequence the title of ‘a Second Rama in
plundering the island of Lanka;1’ he covered the Srirangam
temple with gold; came into confict with the rapidly growing
power of the Kakatiya kings of Warangal in Haidarabad; extended
his conquests as far as Nellore, where he had himself ‘anointed
as a hero;’ and defeated the Hoysala king Somesvara.
End
of the Hoysalas - and Chola power
The Hoysalas
had also been previously worsted about this time by the Cholas
under Rajendra-Chola III (1246 to about 1267), who assumed
the title of ‘the hostile rod of death to his uncle Somesvara,’
but they appear at Srirangam again in 1256, and their inscriptions
and those of the Pandyas overlap and alternate in the Trichinopoly
district in a puzzling manner until the end of the thirteenth
century. The inference is that they were not permanently weakened
by the blows dealt them by the Cholas and the pandyas, but
continued for some years as the effective rivals of the latter
in that part of the country.
Maravarman
Kulasekhara I,1268-308 and his successor
Nor, apparently,
were the Cholas at once reduced to an absolutely subordinate
position. Though the pandyas had penerated into their territory
as far as Nellore before 1261, Rajendra-Chola III seems to
have retained some form of independence till as late as 1267.
It was the last flicker of their dying power. After 1267 they
seem to have dropped out of the race; and that part of their
country which was not held by the Hoysalas was occupied by
the pandyas.
Splendour
of the pandya realm
Marco
Polo, and the Muhammadan, Chinese and Singhalese chronicles,
and also the other authorities on the state of the pandya
realm at the end of the thirteenth and the beginning of the
fourteenth centuries all agree in extolling its wealth and
magnificence. It stretched along the coast from Quilon to
Nellore; it was called (according to Marco Polo) ‘the
greater India;’ was the best of all the Indies and indeed
‘the finest and noblest province in the world;’
its rulers sent an embassy, which is described in the Chinese
annals, to the Mongol emperor Kublai Khan in 1286;were on
terms of friendliness with the Muhammadans who now begin to
interfere in the affairs of southern India; and employed Muhammadan
ministers—who, by the way, rose to great influence and
wealth. Their chief city was still Madura, but Marco polo
describes with admiration, as a place of great commercial
importance the town of Old kayal about a mile and ahalf from
the mouth of the Tambraparani and in the present Tinnevelly
district. This seems to have beenthe centre of a (for those
days) very large sea-borne trade which the pandya Kings actively
encouraged and which made them widely known. Marco polo says
that all the ships from the west touched at Kayal, and the
contemporary persian historian Wassaf states in a flowery
passage that all the products of India and China were constantly
arriving there, and that all the splendour of the west was
derived from the pandya realm ‘which is so situated as
to be the key of Hind’.
MUSALMAN
INVASION, 1310
Early in the fourteenth
century a dispute arose about the succession to the pandya
throne and one of the claimants appealed for help to the emperor
Alla-ud-din of Delhi. Perhaps in consequence, followed the
great invasion of the south of India by Malik Kafur, the famous
general of that monarch, which took place in 1310 and caused
the most momentous changes in the political configuration
of central and Southern India. Having swept away the power
of the rulers of the Deccan, Malik Kafur marched on triumphantly
into the Carnatic, Sacked Madura, and made his way, it is
said, as far as Rameswaram, where he founded a mosque.
Mr. Nelson gives a description,
founded on native manuscripts, of the excesses of his troops
in Madura town. Life and property were unsafe, trade and commerce
were paralysed, private liberty was so much at an end that
one Hindu dared not even converse with another in the street,
public worship was suppressed, and the great temple was almost
razed to the ground. Its outer wall, with its fourteen towers,
was pulled down; the streets and buildings which it protected
were destroyed; and nothing was left of it but the two shrines
of Sundaresvara and Minakshi and the buildings which immediately
surrounded them. Even these apparently owed their escape less
to any reverence for them in the victor’s breasts than
to the outbreak of private dissensions among these Vandals.
Malik Kafur returned almost
at once to his own country, but the pandyas seem to have been
prostrated by the invasion. Never again, indeed, did they
possess any considerable independent power; though their kings
continued to rule in a spasmodic fashion, with varying authority
and over dominions of varying size, for the next two and a
half centuries. It is eloquent evidence of the completeness
of their collapse that a king of the Cheras, a nation long
sunk out of all importance in Indian politics, was able to
march right across the peninsula, defeat their ruler, have
himself crowned at Madura, and make his way in 1313 to Conjeeveram,
Musalman
dynascy at Madura
This Chera occupation of the country
must, however, have been very transitory, for a Musalman dynasty
was very Shortly afterwards established at Madura which existed
for about the next 48 years and ruled that district (with
Trichinopoly and perhaps South Arcot) first as feudatories
of the Delhi emperor and subsequently as independent monarchs.
Mr. Nelson gives a traditional list of its kings, eight in
number.
VIJAYANAGAR
DOMINATION, 1365
It was overthrown about
1365 by the power of the new Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagar,
which had been founded at Hampe in the Bellary district in
1335 and for the next two centuries stemmed the tide of Muhammadan
invasion from the north. Kampana Udaiyar, a prince of this
line, drove the Musalmans out of Madura and set up there a
little dynasty of his own which was presumably and apparently
subordinate to the court of Vijayanagar.
Mr. Nelson’s authorities
give a vivid description of the instantaneous effect in Madura
of this victory:-‘within a few days the temples of Siva
and Vishnu had been everywhere re-opened;worship was performed
once more with extraordinary solemnity and fervour; and that
nothing might be wanting to restore confidence and energy
to all classes of men, the Brahmans contrived a great miracle
significant of the pleasure of the god and of his perpetual
regard for his faithful worshippers. Kampana was taken on
an appointed day to witness the re-opening of the great pagoda,
and on his entering and approaching the shrine for the purpose
of looking upon the face of the god, lo!and behold! everything
was in precisely the same condition as when the temple was
first shut up just forty-eight years previously. The lamp
that was lighted on that day was still burning; and the sandal-wood
powder, the garland of flowers and the ornaments usually placed
before the idol on the morning of a festival day were now
found to be exactly as it is usual to find them on the evening
of such a day’.
Its
effects
The list of the pandya kings already
given shows that not only during the Musalman occupation,
but also throughout the rule of Kampana Udiyar and his successors,
and even, see below, through the time of the later Nayakkan
dynasty and down to the overthrow of the Vijayanagar kingdom
in 1565, pandya chiefs remained always in authority in Madura.
Dr. caldwell considers that they probably at first assisted
the Vijayanagar forces to expel the Musalmans, and that thereafter
they continued in subordination to the power of Vijayanagar.
He says that—‘Throughout the greater number of the
reigns of these pandya kings of the later line (that is, those
who ruled after the expulsion of the Musalmans), the kings
of Vijayanagar appear to have exercised supreme authority,
but I think it may be assumed that they did not interferce
much in the internal affairs of the country, and that they
contented themselves with receiving tribute and occasionally
military help.
Kampana Udaiyar’s
dynasty only lasted (if we are to credit the vernacular manuscripts
on which Mr.Nelson has based his accout of them) down to about
1404, and thereafter the administraion of the country-subject,
no doubt, to the suzerainty of the kings of Vijayanagar—continued
for many years in the hands of a number of chieftains, of
whom the greater number bore Telugu names and titles (such
as Nayakkan) and were apparently the nominees of the suzerain.
The earliest Vijayanagar
inscription (other than those of kampana Udaiyar) as yet discovered
in the pandya country is one of the time of king Deva Raya
II of that line and is dated 1438-39. King Krishna Raya (1509-30),
the greatest of the dynasty, perhaps exercised a closer control
over this part of his possessions. Little of note appears,
however to have taken place there until the second quarter
of the sixteenth century.
king
Achyuta’s campaign, 1532
About 1532, however, strirring events
occurred. The King of Travancore became aggressive, overan
a large part of the pandya country, and defied the authority
of Viyanagar. To reduce him to submission, and also to defend
the pandya king from the encroachments of two Telugu chieftains
(perhaps local governors sent from Vijayanagar who had endeavourced
to assume inependence )Achyuta, king of Vijayanagar from 1530
to 1542 organised a great expendition into the extreme south
of India.
If we are to trust his
own inscriptions, he was eminently successful in the campaign.
He planted a pillar of victory in the Tambraparni river, exacted
tribute from the king of Travancore, suppressed the two troublesome
chiefains and married the daughter of the pandya king. Thenceforth
the pandya country was held more firmly and directly by the
representatives of the Vijayanagar empire. The native chronicles,
indeed, continue to confuse the authority of these suzerains,
their Telugu governors, and the pandya rulers, treating each
in turn as through they were supreme, but there is evidence
to show that between 1547 and 1558 the Madura country was
in fact ruled by one Vitthala Raja, who was a prince of the
Vijayanagar line and invaded Travancore a Second time in1543.
|
