Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c15.s1.t2.8

c15.s1.t2.8

The Pāṇḍya country corresponded to the Madurā, and Tinnevelly districts with perhaps the southern portions of Rāmnad and the Travancore Cochin state. It had its capitals at Kolkai and Madurā (*Dakshiṇa* Mathurā). The rivers Tāmraparṇî and Kṛitamālā or Vaigai flowed through it. Kātyāyana derives Pāṇḍya from Pāṇḍu. The Pāṇḍus are mentioned as the ruling race of Indraprastha in the *Mahābhārata* as well as in several *Jātakas*,¹ Ptolemy (cir. 150 A. D.) speaks of the country of the *Pandoouoi* in the Pañjāb. There can be no doubt that Pāṇḍu was the name of a real tribe or clan in northern India. Kātyāyana's statement regarding the connection of the Pāṇḍyas with the Pāṇḍus receives some support from the fact that the name of the Pāṇḍya capital (Madurā) was identical with the famous city of Mathurā in the Sūrasena country which, according to Epic tradition, was the seat of a family intimately associated by ties of friendship and marriage with the Pāṇḍus of Indraprastha. The connection between the Pāṇḍus, the Sūrasenas and the Pāṇḍyas seems to be alluded to in the confused stories narrated by Megasthenes regarding Herakles and Pandaia.²