The Pandyan Kingdom from the Earliest Times to the Sixteenth Century c15.61

c15.61

The epigraphs of this reign contain more direct references to the personal qualities of the monarch than is common in mediæval Pāndya records. His love of splendour and display is seen in the *abhiṣēkas* (coronations) he held at Nellore and Śrīrangam and in the repeated tulābhāras on various occasions at Chidambaram and Śrīrangam.¹ Almost every verse in the Ranganātha inscription is calculated to impress this trait of the king on its readers, and he is repeatedly spoken of as ‘the Sun’ in expressions like Rājasūrya, Rāja-tapana, Kṣiti-pati Ravi, etc. Some of the inscriptions from Chidambaram bestow special praise on the king’s personal courage in battle and on his skill in capturing fortresses.² That he gloried in the extent of his empire may be inferred from his title Kanchīpura-Varadhīśvara in his Sanskrit introduction, corresponding to Kanchīpuram Kondan of some Tamil records (No. 64 of 1927). Sundara Pāndya was very proud of the golden roofs he had made for the gods at Chidambaram and Śrīrangam, and set up images called Kōyilponmēyndaperumāl in different parts of the realm in commemoration of the act and instituted special festivals to the images every month on the day of Mūla, the asterism of the king’s birth.³ After his extensive conquests he assumed the surname Ellāndalaiyānān (became lord of all), issued coins with that legend, and instituted in temples special festivals called after this name.⁴ The name Kōdandarāma does not seem to have been borne by this king, but by a later Sundara Pāṇḍya.¹