The Pandyan Kingdom from the Earliest Times to the Sixteenth Century c12.47

c12.47

seized in a battle Vīra Kēraḷan whose ankle-rings were wide, and was pleased to get him trampled down by his furious elephant Attivāraṇa; and drove to the ancient Mullaiyūr Sundara Pāṇḍyan of endless great fame, who lost in a hot battle the royal white parasol, the bunches (of hairs) of the white yak, and the throne, and who ran away—his crown dropping down, (his) hair being dishevelled, and (his) feet getting tired.’ Nothing more is known of the three Pāṇḍyas mentioned here. Māṇābharaṇan and Vīra Kēraḷan appear to have occupied somewhat subordinate positions and Sundara Pāṇḍya seems to have been the chief of the trio. This is evident from the laudatory reference to Sundara and also from the fact that he escaped capital punishment. We read later on in the same inscription that Rājādhirāja invaded Ceylon and in this expedition he dethroned four rulers of the country. One of them was ‘Vikrama Pāṇḍyan, who, having lost the whole of the southern Tamil country which had previously belonged to him, had entered Īḷam (surrounded by) the seven oceans’. We do not know at present what this means exactly; but it illustrates the close connection, political and dynastic, between the Pāṇḍyas and the Ceylon kings in this period.