South India and her Muhammadan Invaders c13.s1.49

c13.s1.49

There are two records found in the temple at Tiruppattūr, now in the Ramnad district, which belong to the forty-fourth and forty-sixth years of a Jaṭāvarman Tribhuvana Chakravartin Vīrā Pāṇḍya Dēva, which refer to these Muhammadan invasions also, and throw a certain amount of light upon the history of the period. The Jaṭāvarman Vīra Pāṇḍya of these records is undoubtedly the Vīra Pāṇḍya against whom Malik Kafur undertook his invasions of the south. The Śiva temple at Tiruppattūr is said in one of these records to have been in the ‘occupation of the encamped Muhammadans whose time it was’, and in consequence to have been ruined. In this condition a certain Viśaiyālaya Dēvar of Śūraikkuḍi, otherwise Araiyan Periyanāyaṇār reconsecrated the temple. Out of gratitude for this pious act of his, by which the people believed they were saved from some impending calamity, they assigned to him a specified quantity of corn from the harvest reaped by every individual each year, and conferred on him also certain privileges in the temple.¹ All this took place in the forty-fourth year of the Pāṇḍya referred to above. According to the calculations of the late Professor Kielhorn, confirmed by those of Mr. Swamikaṇṇu Piḷḷai, this Vīra Pāṇḍya ascended the throne in A.D. 1296-97 and the reconsecration of the Tiruppattūr temple must have taken place therefore in the year A.D. 1340, when apparently Vira Pāṇḍya was still alive, and his authority was recognized in this part of the country. The other record referring to this event is of a date two years later, that is A.D. 1342. It will be well to remember that the years A.D. 1340-42 were the years in which the Hoysala Vīra Ballāḷa III made a serious effort at hemming in the Muhammadans into Madura with a view ultimately to turn them out of the place. It is an inscription of A.D. 1340, as was pointed out already, that lays claim to his having erected a pillar of victory at ‘the root’ (Sētumūla) of Adam’s Bridge. It must also be noted that it is about the end of the year A.D. 1342 that he died as the result of a battle at Kaṇṇanūr. The Tiruppattūr records indicate that he was in the main so successful in the effort that even restoration work could be undertaken. The statement of Ibn Batuta that this Hindu ruler wanted to take the whole of Ma’bar is thus justified.