The Pandyan Kingdom from the Earliest Times to the Sixteenth Century c6.s3.1

c6.s3.1

The earliest historical kings of the Pāndya country are those mentioned in the early Tamil works that have come down to us in the form of the collections known as the *Sangam* works. It has been sometimes doubted if the *Silappadikāram* and the *Manimēkalai* belong to this group and the whole question of the age and historicity of the Sangam has given rise to controversies which do not seem to be justified on a calm review of the various lines of evidence available. It is unfortunate that the earliest account we have of this matter is enveloped in legends. This account occurs in the introduction to the commentary on the *Iraiyanār Ahapporuḷ* which refers to the three Śangams which lasted altogether 9,990 years and counted 8,598 poets including a few Gods of the Śaivite persuasion as their members and 197 Pāndyan kings as their patrons. The commentary that follows professes to be handed down through generations as Nakkīrar made it, but quotes profusely from Śangam works in their present form and refers to events that cannot by any means be placed earlier than the latter half of the seventh century A.D. Nothing can be made of this account.¹ We have only to dismiss it with the remark that we have here the same tendencies at work which made a number of Buddhas and Jinas out of one historic prototype and spread them over ages and aeons. Some of the names of the Pāndyan kings and the poets mentioned in this account are found in epigraphs and other authentic records; such names are Kadungōn, Ugrapperuvaludi and others; this only shows that some facts have got mixed up with many fictions in this story and no conclusions of value can be based on these references. But the existence of an association of poets, modelled on the Buddhist Sangha, for the promotion of Tamil literature can be easily understood if it is referred to an age when Buddhist influence was rather strong in South India.