The Pandyan Kingdom from the Earliest Times to the Sixteenth Century c20.3

c20.3

JAṬĀVARMAN VĪRA PĀNDYA continued to rule for several years after the first Muhammadan invasion of the Pāndya country and, as has been seen, late records of his reign of about A.D. 1340 show evidence of the recovery of the land from the ravages of the invaders. It is, however, difficult to trace in any detail the course of events in the Pāndyan kingdom in the fourteenth century. The chronicles relating to the period narrate wild and fanciful stories which have sometimes been accepted as history, but are by no means reconcilable with the evidence furnished by the epigraphs. The general outline of the story is clear. The establishment of the Muhammadan power in Madura about A.D. 1330 must have deprived the Pāndyan rulers, Jaṭāvarman Vīra Pāndya and his co-regents of their hold on their capital. The evidence from epigraphs, however, shows clearly that even the loss of Madura did not mean the immediate disappearance of the power of the Pāndyas from the districts of Madura, Ramnad and Tanjore. Till about the middle of the century or even a little later, the Pāndyan rulers appear to have held sway over parts of these districts.