The Pandyan Kingdom from the Earliest Times to the Sixteenth Century c12.42

c12.42

These Chola-Pāṇdya viceroys were subject to the Chola emperors and the control from the centre seems to have been both vigorous and regular. This is clear from the existence of inscriptions of the Chola emperors of the period in the Pāṇdya country by the side of the records of their viceroys. At the same time, the Pāṇdya kings of the old line seem to have survived in sufficient strength to give much trouble to their conquerors; and they seem to have made common cause with the rulers of Ceylon who had undergone a degradation similar to that of the Pāṇdya rulers in consequence of the Chola conquest of Ceylon. It is very remarkable that we hear of several princes of the Ceylonese and Pāṇdya royal families of this period bearing identical names; this shows the existence of rather close dynastic relations between the aggrieved families that made common cause against the Chola emperors; but it also adds considerably to the difficulty of giving a correct account of the intricate military and political transactions that are referred to alike in the Mahāvaṃśa and in the inscriptions of the imperial Cholas.¹ Our concern however is only with the Pāṇdyas and their relation to the Cholas and this in itself is a fairly simple story. The chief reason for the adoption, in the period, of a system of government by viceroys is perhaps found in this political alliance between the dispossessed families of the Pāṇdyas and the Ceylon kings; the wide extent of the Chola empire after the conquests of Rājēndra was no doubt a contributory factor.¹