South India and her Muhammadan Invaders c9.s2.3

c9.s2.3

*The Śambuvarāyans.*—The region immediately adjoining, that is the district of North Arcot, was under a family of hereditary chiefs generally known by the class title Śambuvarāyan (Sans. Champa) rulers, who figure for the first time as powerful feudatories in the reigns of Rājādhirāja and Kulottunga III. They rise into importance and are found fighting sometimes on the side of their liege lords, the Cholas, and occasionally against them also. In the disturbed period extending from the end of the first quarter of the thirteenth century to the end of the Pāṇḍya ascendancy, they maintained the substance of real power though nominally subordinate to the Chola head-quarters, and later the Pāṇḍya. Except for figuring in the wars on the northern frontier, they do not appear to have played any very decisive part. They maintained their position intact along the Pālār. About the end of this period they rise into importance and we have inscriptions of Vīra Chola Śambuvarāyan, and Vīra Śambuvarāyan about the year A.D. 1314-15. In the period immediately following we find two rulers who assumed high titles indicating independence. Of these the first is Sakalaloka Chakravartin Veṇru Maṅkoṇḍa Śambuvarāyan, whose date of accession is A.D. 1322-23, followed by Sakalaloka Chakravartin Rājanārāyaṇa Śambuvarāyan, whose date of accession is A.D. 1337-8, and whose reign extended to A.D. 1356-57.¹ It was apparently this latter ruler that was overcome by prince Kumārakampana of Vijayanagar, who put an end to the independent power of the Śambuvarāyans in the North Arcot District with Virinchipuram and Kāñchī as their alternative capitals, and Paḍaivīḍu as their hill fortress. Along with these figure another class of minor chiefs who go by the designation Vāṇakkovaraiyar, the remnants perhaps of the Bāṇa dynasty.