The Pandyan Kingdom from the Earliest Times to the Sixteenth Century c13.7

c13.7

Several inscriptions of Kulōttunga Chola I have been found in the Pāndya country. One has been discovered at Tinnevelly (145 of 1894) but the regnal year has been lost; and another (31 of 1896) at Kōttāru; several others are found on the site of ancient Korkai (157, 161 and 162-5 of 1903). An inscription of the fifth year of Kulōttunga² seems to record that an unnamed Pāndya king was decapitated by him. Another record of the fourteenth year³ repeats this fact and records a fresh conquest of the Pāndya with several details. It says: ‘Having resolved in (his) royal mind to conquer also the Pāndimandalam with great fame, (he) despatched his great army. . . . He completely destroyed the forest which the five Pancavas had entered as refuge, when they were routed, on a battle-field where (he) fought (with them), and fled cowering with fear. (He) subdued their country, drove them into hot jungles (in) hills where woodmen roamed about, and planted pillars of victory in every region. (He) was pleased to seize the pearl fisheries, the Podiyil (mountain) where the three kinds of Tamil (flourished), the (very) centre of the (mountain) Saiyam where furious rutting elephants were captured, and Kanni, and fixed the boundaries of the southern country . . . (He) was pleased to bestow on the chiefs of his army, who were mounted on horses, settlements on every road, including (that which passed) Kōṭṭāru, in order that the enemies might be scattered.' 'The defeat of the "five Pāṇḍyas" and the burning of Kōṭṭāru are referred to also in an inscription at Chidambaram and the *Kaliṅgattup-paraṇi*'—(Hultzsch).