History of the Pallavas of Kanchi c15.5

c15.5

² These are enumerated in the Mackenzie MSS. as well as the Chingleput District Manual App. H. p. 438 and in *The Tamils 1800 years ago* and are as follows :
(1) Puḻal-Koṭṭam, (2) Ikkāṭṭu-Koṭṭam, (3) Maṇavūr-Koṭṭam, (4) Śengāṭṭu-Koṭṭam, (5) Paiyūr-Koṭṭam, (6) Eyil-Koṭṭam of which the principal town was Kāñchīpuram, (7) Dāmal-Koṭṭam, (8) Urukkāṭṭu-Koṭṭam, (9) Kaḷattūr-Koṭṭam, (10) Sembūr-Koṭṭam, (11) Ambur-Koṭṭam, (12) Veṇkuṉṟakoṭṭam, (13) Palakuṉṟa-Koṭṭam, (14) Ilaṅgāṭṭu-Koṭṭam, (15) Kaliyūr-Koṭṭam, (16) Śengarai-Koṭṭam, (17) Paḍuvūrkoṭṭam, (18) Kadikūr-Koṭṭam, (19) Śendirukkai-Koṭṭam, (20) Kuṉṟavaṭṭana-Koṭṭam, (21) Vengaḍa-Koṭṭam, (22) Velūr-Koṭṭam, (23) Settūr-Koṭṭam and (24) Puliyūr-Koṭṭam. This division of Toṇḍamaṇḍalam, the *Tuṇḍaka Rāṣṭra* of the copper-plates, seems to have come into existence prior to the period of the Pallava kings known to us from epigraphy, probably in the period of Chōḻa viceroyalty of Toṇḍaman Iḷam-Tirayanat Kāñchi. Although these districts do not figure in the early copper-plates of the Pallavas they are rather frequent in the later stone inscriptions datable from the eighth and the ninth centuries. Puḻal-Koṭṭam with its subdivision figures in the Velurpalayam plates of the sixth year of Nandivarman III (*S.I.I.*, vol. ii, p. 509) while Kaḷattūr-Koṭṭam, Ikkāṭṭu-Koṭṭam, and Paḍuvūr-Koṭṭam are mentioned in inscriptions dated in the fourteenth year of Nandivarman III, and the eleventh and the twenty-sixth years of Nripatungavarman, (*Ep. Col.* 349 of 1911, and 460 of 1905). Eyil-Koṭṭam the division around Kāñchīpura also figures in the inscription dated in the fifteenth year of Nripatungavarman (Ep. Col. 461 of 1905). For the study of the ancient historical geography the references in the later Pallava inscriptions to these are very helpful. Some of the places such as Kaḷattūr, Dāmal, and Urukkāḍu which originally must have been important places after which the divisions were named have survived to the present day.