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The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c31.s3: II. The Tamil Kingdoms

The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c31.s3

Language
English

II. The Tamil Kingdoms

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The Tamils have retained more tenaciously than any of their kindred the ancient traditions of the proto-Dravidian race. True, they have written no histories until modern times; but they have preserved a large number of ancient poems relating to the exploits and administration of kings and princes in an age far earlier than the oldest existing literature of their Dravidian neighbours.

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In the earliest time of which we have any record the *Tamiḷ-agam* or Tamil realm extended over the greater part of the modern Madras Presidency, its boundaries being on the north a line running approximately from Pulicat on the coast to Venkatagiri (Tirupati), on the east the Bay of Bengal, on the south Cape Comorin, and on the west the Arabian Sea as far north as the 'White Rock' near Badagara, to the south of Mahé. Malabar was included in it; the Malayālam language had not yet branched off as a separate tongue from the parent Tamil. It consisted of three kingdoms, those of the Pāṇḍyas, Chōḷas or Çōḷas, and Chēras or Kēralas. The Pāṇḍya kingdom comprised the greater part of the modern Madura and Tinnevelly Districts, and in the first century also Southern Travancore, and had its capital originally at Kolkai (on the Tāmbraparni river in Tinnevelly), and later at Madura. The Chōḷa region extended along the eastern coast, from the river Penner to the Vellār, and on the west reaching to about the borders of Coorg. Its capital was Uraiyūr (Old Trichinopoly), and it had a great port at Kāviri-paṭṭinam or Pugār, on the northern bank of the river Cauvery (Kāveri). Another of its chief towns was Kāñchī, now Conjeeveram. The Chēra or Kērala territory comprised Travancore, Cochin, and the Malabar District; the Koṅgu-deça (corresponding to the Coimbatore District and the southern part of Salem District), which at one time was separate from it, was afterwards annexed to it. Its capital was originally Vañji (now Tiru-karūr, on the Periyār river, near Cochin), and later Tiru-vañjikkalam (near the mouth of the Periyār). It had important trading centres on the western coast at Toṇḍi (on the Agalappulai, about five miles north of Quilāndi), Muchiri (near the mouth of the Periyār), Paḷaiyūr (near Chowghāt), and Vaikkarai (close to Kottayam).

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The races within these bounds were various. To the oldest stratum of pre-Dravidian blood probably belonged the savages termed by the ancient poets *Villavar* ('bowmen') and *Mīnavar* ('fishers'), of whom the former may possibly be identical with the modern Bhīls, while the latter may have descendants in the Mīnās. Another group is that termed by the poets *Nāgas*, a word which in Hindu literature commonly denotes a class of semi-divine beings, half men and half snakes, but is often applied by Tamil writers to a warlike race armed with bows and nooses and famous as freebooters. Several tribes mentioned in early literature are known with more or less certainty to have belonged to the Nāgas, among them being the Aruvāḷar (in the Aruvā-nāḍu and Aruvā-vaḍatalai around Conjeeveram), Eyinar, Maṟavar, Oḷiyar, and Paradavar (a fisher tribe). A race of uncertain affinity was that of the Āyar, who in many respects resembled the Abhīras of Northern India, and seem to have brought into the south the worship of the herdsman-god Kṛishṇa.

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The overlords of the Tamil-agam were the descendants of the proto-Dravidian invaders, the Tamils in the strict sense of the term. They with the races subject to them formed the three kingdoms of the Pāṇḍyas, Chōḷas, and Chēras, where the ruling element was the land-tilling class or Veḷḷālar, at the head of whom were the kings. The Pāṇḍya king claimed descent from a tribe styled Mār͟ar, which however had for many years another important representative in the princes bearing the title Palaiyan Mār͟an, ‘the Ancient Mār͟an,’ whose capital was Mōgūr, near the Pōdiya Hill, not far from Comorin. The Chōḷa kings were alleged to belong to the tribe of Tiraiyar or ‘Men of the Sea’; another Tiraiyan dynasty was reigning at Conjeeveram in the time of Karikāl Chōḷa. The Chēra kings in their turn were said to be of the Vānavar tribe. Lastly we may mention a tribe called Kōçar, who may possibly belong to the Tamil race. From the references of the poets to them it would seem that they once made an unsuccessful attack on Mōgūr, and found allies in the Vamba-Mōriyar or ‘Bastard Mauryas’ (possibly a branch of the Konkani Mauryas). At one time—possibly in the first century a.d.—they seem to have wielded considerable authority in the Pāṇḍyan regions and Koṅgu-dēça, and to have given some trouble to the Chōḷas.

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Even in the first century of the Christian era the south seems to have felt little influence from the Āryan culture of Northern India. Some Brāhman colonies had made their way into the south, and in a few cases Brāhmans had gained there a certain position in literature and religion; but on the whole they counted for little in the life of the people, especially as their teachings were counterbalanced by the influence of the powerful Buddhist and Jain churches, and Dravidian society was still free from the yoke of the Brāhman caste-system¹. Next to the *ar͟ivar* or sages, the highest place among the Tamils was held by the land-owning class, after whom ranked herdsmen, hunters, artisans, soldiers, and at the bottom of the social scale fishers and scavengers. Government was under the supreme control of the kings; but they were considerably influenced by the 'Five Great Assemblies,' bodies representative of five classes of society¹. Probably there was also some organisation of the provinces for local administration, as we find in historical times that each shire or *nāḍu* was divided into village communities and its representatives met in a shire-mote of several hundred men representing the families of the *nāḍu*, which possessed considerable power in the control of local affairs.

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¹ The tradition that the Brāhman sage Agastya led the first Āryan colony to the Pōdiya Hill and created Tamil literature probably arose in a later age, after Brāhman influences had gained the ascendant in the south, on the basis of the legends in the Sanskrit epics.

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¹ The actual constitution of these *Aim-berun-guḻu* is rather uncertain. They are said to have been composed of ministers, chaplains, generals, commissioners, and secret agents (e.g. by Aḍiyārkku-nallār on *Çilapp'-adhikāram*, v, 157; but see *ibid.* on iii, 126).

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Before the first century of the Christian era there are very few allusions in the literature and historical records of other nations that testify to the vigorous life of these southern kingdoms. Of the evidence of their commerce with the west we have already spoken (above, p. 594). Megasthenes, who visited the court of Chandragupta the Maurya towards the end of the 4th century b.c., has left on record some rumours concerning them, including a legend that Heracles (i.e. the god Çiva) put the south under the rule of his daughter 'Pandaia.' The Sanskrit epics mention them vaguely, as foreign lands outside their purview, though the legendary connexion of the Pāṇḍyan kings of Madura with the Pāṇḍava heroes of the Mahābhārata seems to have been acknowledged in the north as early as the second century b.c., if any reliance is to be placed on the scholion to Pāṇini iv, 1, 168. Açoka in his inscriptions speaks of them among the foreign nations who have accepted the teachings of Buddhism². Lastly, Strabo (xv, 4, 73) makes mention of an embassy sent to Augustus Caesar about the year 22 b.c. by a king 'Pandion,' possibly a Pāṇḍya of the Tamil country. Even in the next century the history of the Tamils is sadly obscure. Ancient Tamil poems and the commentaries upon them, supplemented by meagre notices in Pliny and other western writers, are almost the only sources of information, and their data are very uncertain. It seems however fairly probable that the course of events was as follows.

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² The references in the edition of Senart are as follows: Chēras, G. ii, xiii, K. ii, Kh. ii; Chōḻas, G. ii, J. ii, K. xiii, Kh. ii, xiii; Pāṇḍyas, G. ii, J. ii, K. xiii, Kh. ii, xiii. The Chōḻas also appear in the scholion on Pāṇini iv, 1, 175 (possibly dating from the second century b.c.).

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About the beginning of the Christian era the Chōḷa king was Peru-naṟ-kiḷḷi and the Chēra Neḍuñ-jēral-ādan. They went to war with one another, and both perished in the same battle. Peru-naṟ-kiḷḷi was succeeded by his son Iḷañ-jēṭ-cenni, the latter by his son Karikāl, a vigorous ruler under whom the Chōḷas became the leading power of the south. Karikāl at Veṇṇil (possibly the modern Koyilvenni, in Tanjore District) defeated an allied army of Chēras under Ādan I and Pāṇḍyas, and made a successful expedition to the north. At home he suppressed the turbulent Āyar, Aravāḷar, Kurumbar, and Oḷiyar, and made his capital at Kāviri-paṭṭinam or Pugār, which he secured against floods by raising the banks of the Cauvery and constructing canals.

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After his death the Chōḷa kingdom suffered grievously from rebellion within and attack from without. The course of events is obscure; apparently Neḍu-muḍu-kiḷḷi, who was reigning some time after him, gained a victory over the allied Chēras and Pāṇḍyas by the river Kāri, but later was reduced to sore straits by a flood which destroyed Kāviri-paṭṭinam and by an insurrection. He was however released from his difficulties by the aid of his kinsman the Chēra Çeṅ-guṭṭuvan, the son of Ādan II by a daughter of Karikāl, who defeated the rebellious Chōḷas at Nēri-vāyil and restored Neḍu-muḍu-kiḷḷi. By Çeṅ-guṭṭuvan the Chēra kingdom was raised to the hegemony of the south, and this position it maintained as long as he lived. The defeat of his successor Çēy (Yānai-kat-çēy) at Talaiy-ālaṅgānam by the Pāṇḍya king Neḍuñ-jeḷiyan II made the Pāṇḍyas the premier power until the rise of the Pallavas. Neḍuñ-jeḷiyan II was the son of Verri-vēr-çeḷiyan or Iḷañ-jeḷiyan, and grandson of Neḍuñ-jeḷiyan I, who is reputed to have defeated an Āryan army of unknown provenance.

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