The Pandyan Kingdom from the Earliest Times to the Sixteenth Century c14.26

c14.26

There is reason also to think that at this time the Pāndya, Chola and Hoysala families were connected by marriage alliances. A Chola princess is known to have been among the queens of Narasimha's father Ballāla II.¹ Rājendra III, the successor of Rāja Rāja, calls Sōmēśvara, the son of Narasimha, uncle (Māma).² Again, Māravarman Sundara Pāndya II (acc. 1238) refers also to Sōmēśvara as Māmadi, uncle or father-in-law, and it has been suggested that this relationship may be explained by supposing that Māravarman Sundara Pāndya I (acc. 1216) married a sister of Sōmēśvara,³ probably the one mentioned in some Pāṇḍya records of the age as Pammiyakkan. And, as we shall see, under Māravarman Sundara Pāṇḍya II, the Pāṇḍya and the Hoysala rulers were on very friendly terms. These facts go to show that by virtue of their power and their dynastic connections, the Hoysalas of this period were able and perhaps anxious in their own interest to regulate the affairs of the southern kingdoms, in particular the relations between the Pāṇḍyas and the Cholas. It appears likely, therefore, that the restitution of the Chola country (c. A.D. 1222) to its ruler by Māravarman Sundara Pāṇḍya I after the first conquest was not altogether unconnected with Narasimha’s march against Śrīrangam about the same time.