The Pandyan Kingdom from the Earliest Times to the Sixteenth Century c20.19

c20.19

Kampana’s conquest of Madura is partly described in the final fragments of *Madhurāvijayam* and attested by inscriptions and chronicles. His conquest of the kingdom of Rājagambhīra¹ is mentioned in an inscription of A.D. 1365, and a record in the thirty-first year of a certain Māravarman Vīra Pāndya from the Ramnad district (No. 64 of 1916) refers to the southern campaign of Kampana Udaiyār, and his destruction of the Tulukkan, followed by the establishment of orderly government throughout the country and the appointment of many chiefs (*Nāyakkanmār*) for the inspection and supervision of temples.² The date of this record is now generally taken to correspond to A.D. 1364. Three inscriptions at Tiruppullāni (Ramnad) are undoubtedly records of this Kampana and are dated in A.D. 1371 and 1374.³ On the other hand, the evidence of the coinage of the Sultans of Madura shows that their rule was continued in some manner till A.D. 1377-8.⁴ It seems a legitimate inference to make that, though the back of the Muhammadan power in the south had been broken by A.D. 1364 or even a little earlier, the last Sultans maintained a feeble struggle against the growing power of Vijayanagar till A.D. 1377-1378.⁵