The Pandyan Kingdom from the Earliest Times to the Sixteenth Century c19.25.3

c19.25.3

A curious inscription from the Chingleput district contains a strange narrative of an organized attempt at brigandage and terrorism on the part of some unlawful persons of Ūttipākkam and the manner in which the offenders were dealt with.¹ Five Brahmins whose names are recorded, and some Veḷḷāḷas ‘gave up the duties legitimate to their caste, and following the profession of the lower classes, wore weapons, murdered Brahmins, cut off (their) ears, insulted the Brahmin ladies, committed robbery, destroyed cattle and sold them’. On a former occasion complaints had been made against these very men to the ruling authorities and they had been beaten and fined, without being actually imprisoned. But they behaved no better afterwards and the inhabitants of the neighbourhood again complained of their misdeeds to prince Poṭṭappiyārāyar, the ruler of the division, who sent a contingent of Malayāḷi soldiers to apprehend the criminals; two of the Brahmins in the gang, Ātkoṇḍavilli and Pāmbaṇaiyān, were captured and imprisoned, but not before some of the soldiers lost their lives in the conflict with them, and others were stabbed, shot with arrows, or deprived of their weapons by the bandits.