The Pandyan Kingdom from the Earliest Times to the Sixteenth Century c16.37

c16.37

Kulaśēkhara appears to have had the surname Bhuvanēkavīra which is found in at least one of his records, if not more.² There are references, in the records of Kulaśēkhara and his contemporary Vīra Pāndya, to a number of chieftains with names ending in Vānādirāyan or Mābēli Vānādirāyan. These are among the earliest references in Pāndya records to a race of feudatories who seem at first to have started as hereditary local officials in charge of the administration of portions of the kingdom. In later times, the Vānādirāyans in the Madura country took advantage of the growing weakness of the Pāndyan kings to declare their independence and restrict the actual rule of the later Pāndyas to the Tinnevelly district. It would appear that these local officials so long as they retained a subordinate character indicated their subjection by employing the names of princes of the ruling family as their aliases. The Śāmbuvarāyans who were Chola feudatories are known to have done so,³ and the names of the Mābēlivānādirāyans mentioned in the Pāndya records under reference are best explained on that supposition. On the other hand, the kings to whom those officials were subject used terms evincing a paternal interest in them like *Pillai*, *Makkaḷ* and so on. The records of Jaṭāvarman Sundara Pāṇdya make reference to a Pārākrama Pāṇdya Mābēli Vāṇadhirāya *alias* Pāvanangakāra called Makkaḷnāyaṉār; and a Vikrama Pāṇdya Mahābali Vāṇarāya Nāyaṉār may also be taken to be of the same period. An inscription of Jaṭāvarman Vīra Pāṇdya mentions a Piḷḷai Kulaśēkhara Mābēli Vāṇarāyaṉ who may be the same as Piḷḷai Mābelivāṇarāyar who was in charge of Kōnāḍu (part of the Pudukottah state) under Māravarman Kulaśēkhara. We also learn that Kēraḷaśiṅga Vaḷanāḍu (part of the modern district of Ramnad) was under an officer Vāṇadarāyar from the time of Jaṭāvarman Sundara Pāṇdya to at least the twenty-fourth year of Kulaśēkhara. The part played by these Bāṇarāya chiefs in the history of the Pāṇdyan kingdom from this time is easy enough to understand in its general outline; but there are several obscure details that await further study and elucidation.¹