South India and her Muhammadan Invaders c13.s1.107

c13.s1.107

38. Śarmali.—There are two passes, named by Amir Khusru through which the Muhammadan army had to march before it could come into the country of Vīra Pāṇḍya. Of the two, Tabar is almost certainly Toppūr, but Śārmali is not clear, if we should expect to find it in any locality before the army reached the Kaveri. There seems again to be a mixing up of accounts. If we could take this statement of Amir Khusru to be a general statement as to the character of the route, it would be correct as any army had to pass through the pass of Toppūr once, and, if they marched straight upon Madura or the Pāṇḍya country proper, they would have had to march through another pass, one side of which was constituted by Śirumalai and the other side by Aḷagarmalai on the road to Madura. This is the pass known in modern Indian history, as the Nattam pass.