The Pandyan Kingdom from the Earliest Times to the Sixteenth Century c19.58

c19.58

A record (No. 429 of 1917) of Māravarman Sundara Pāṇḍya is said to contain a reference to an assembly of 512 but nothing more is known of it now and the text is not yet available. Records of different kings from several villages in the Tinnevelly district seem to contain references to certain military institutions, the nature of which is by no means quite clear. Records from Kiḷappāvūr call them Munai-edirmōgar and Tennavanāpattudavigaḷ; their leaders are described as *daṇḍa-nāya-kam-śeyvār*. Inscriptions from other places contain references to Paḍaikkāṇvar and ‘ in some cases the big community of military classes (*perumbaḍayōm*) with their ten commands are (*sic*) mentioned and are stated to have belonged to the *tantra* or *mahātantra*.’¹ Here again the texts of the records are not before us and we have to depend on summaries in the epigraphical reports.