The Pandyan Kingdom from the Earliest Times to the Sixteenth Century c19.51

c19.51

The effects of the Muhammadan invasion early in the fourteenth century and the part played by Vijayanagar in the reaction against Islam are graphically mentioned in a temple record (No. 64 of 1916) in the thirty-first year of a certain Māravarman Vīra Pāṇḍya which says: ‘The times were Tulukkan times; the *dēvadāna* lands of the gods were taxed with *kuḍimai*; the temple worship, however, had to be conducted without any reduction; the *uḷavu* or cultivation of the temple lands were (*sic.*) done by turns by the tenants of the village; at this juncture Kampaṇa Uḍaiyār came (on his southern campaign), destroyed the Tulukkan, established orderly government throughout the country and appointed many chiefs (*nāyakkanmār*) for inspection and supervision in order that the worship in all temples might be revived regularly as of old.’ It is further stated that some of the dancing girls of the temple (*dēvaraḍiyār*) died, some became very poor, and many were ready to migrate to other distant places. For the preservation of the original status of the temple, some of its land which was enjoyed as *kāṇiyātchi* by a certain Narasinga Dēvar was now sold to another person, the former having died without leaving an heir, for the maintenance of ten dancing girls including provision for ‘food, betel-leaf, cloth and houses in the street Pavanangakārantiruvīdi.’¹