The Pandyan Kingdom from the Earliest Times to the Sixteenth Century c20.4

c20.4

It is not within the scope of this work to describe in any detail the story of the Sultanate of Madura and the barbarous misdeeds that disgraced the short period of its precarious existence. The subjects of the Sultans seem never to have reconciled themselves to the rule of the Turuṣkas (Tuḷukkar) as they were called, and the Hindu rulers of the neighbouring kingdoms, especially the Hoysalas of Dvārasamudra, made repeated efforts to suppress the Sultanate. It is not possible to say what part the Pāndya rulers played in these early struggles with the newly established power of the Sultans, but it is perhaps of some significance that the reconsecration of the Śiva temple at Tirupputtūr about A.D. 1340 coincides, in point of time, with the last great struggle of Vīra Ballāla III against the Sultans which ended so disastrously for the Hoysala two years later in the battle of Kaṇṇanūr.¹ It seems probable that the Pāndya rulers were carrying on the resistance against the Sultans in the Madura country, while the Hoysala ruler attacked Kaṇṇanūr-Koppam which commanded the road to Madura and was held by the Madura Sultans.