The Pandyan Kingdom from the Earliest Times to the Sixteenth Century c6.s2: Origin and Significance of the Name
The Pāṇḍyan Kingdom from the Earliest Times to the Sixteenth Century c6.s2
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Origin and Significance of the Name
c6.s2.1
In fact the origin of the Pāṇḍyas is, like all such questions of origin, involved in much obscurity. This line of kings is given in the legends two different origins which are not easy to reconcile. The story of the three brothers of Koṟkai¹ is of the Romulus pattern and perhaps indigenous. The connection with the Pāṇḍavas² and the moon is the result of another and a more ambitious type of legend which threw the more humble story into the shade in historical times. And it may be noted here that the *Tiruvilaiyāḍal* of Nambi mentions the lunar origin of the Pāṇḍyas only in the course of a restoration after a deluge (No. 47); and in this it is followed by the later versions which, of course, contain more embellished accounts (No. 49 in Nelson). None of the legends can be taken as proof, as has sometimes been done,³ that the Pāṇḍyas ruled from other centres like Koṟkai, Maṇalūr or Kalyāṇapura, before they made Madura their capital, as the very first king in all the lists of kings that have been handed down to us is said to have founded Madura.
c6.s2.2
¹ Caldwell, *Tinnevelly*, p. 12.
c6.s2.3
² Story of Arjuna's marriage; the names, கவரியர், பஞ்சவர்.
c6.s2.4
³ Smith, *Early History*, fourth edition, p. 468; *I. A.* xlii, p. 66.
c6.s2.5
There is no reason for thinking that the conquering expeditions of the Mauryan Emperors in the south reached the Pāṇḍya country as has been suggested.⁴ The earliest indubitable reference to the Pāṇḍyan kingdom is still that in the Asoka edicts. Recently,⁵ the existence of rock-cut beds and Brāhmi inscriptions in natural caverns in several places in the Madura and Tinnevelly Districts has been brought to light. ‘None of these inscriptions have so far disclosed any king's name. But they show that the possession of an alphabetical system was one of the factors in the civilization of the Pāndyan kingdom in the second and third centuries B.C.’, if not earlier. These monuments go also to show the presence very early in the south of strong Buddhist and Jaina influences. They seem to confirm the impression derived from a careful study of the Tamil classics that while Buddhism came in earlier, Jainism was perhaps the more persistent in its influence on Tamil literature. Mr. Krishna Sastri has observed that ‘it is strange how these sects did not exercise any influence with their patrons in the matter of their being provided with comfortable rock-cut cells, during their retirement to the hills in the rainy season, as their compatriots of the north did. Perhaps, the South Indian kings of those times were inclined more towards Brahmanical institutions than Buddhist or Jaina.’
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⁴ See Dr. S. K. Aiyangār, *Beginnings*, pp. 81 ff. and *Q. J. M. S.*, vol. xvi, p. 304 and the references given there.
c6.s2.7
⁵ See *A. R. E.*, 1907 onwards and *A. S. I.*, 1909-10, p. 125 and *A. R. E.*, 1909, p. 71 for the quotations which follow. Also K. V. Subramania Aiyar in the *I. A.*, vol. xl, pp. 209 ff.