History of the Khaljis, A.D. 1290–1320 c12.17

c12.17

⁸ Robert Sewell in his article entitled "The chronology of the Pandya Monarchy" entertains doubt as to how more than one prince of equal authority ruled over one country. He says that there is no published inscription nor there is any indication in the writings of Amīr Khusrau and Vaṣṣāf that the kingdom was divided among a number of brothers. (*Ind. Ant. Vol. 44, 1915.*) What Sewell thinks is not incorrect, since the presence of more than one king in a kingdom sounds strange. It is, however, not improbable that two or three Pandya princes, who may have been brothers of the ruling king conquered the neighbouring countries (and inscriptions show that the Pandyas conquered much during the reign of Jat. Sundara I) and settled there as independent rulers. But, of course, they were in no way disobedient or refractory towards the chief king Jat. Sundara Pandya I. Alqal Qāshindi, the Arab geographer, quoting *Masālikul Absār* says that in Durasamand (Dwarsamudra) were "sultan Bilal Deo and five infidel kings." Thus the fact that a number of princes simultaneously ruled in the Deccan was widely known. Alqal Qāshindi p. 63.