The Pandyan Kingdom from the Earliest Times to the Sixteenth Century c7.5
The Pāṇḍyan Kingdom from the Earliest Times to the Sixteenth Century c7.5
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c7.5.1
The king referred to as Neḍiyōn or Vaḍimbalamba Niṇravan is an almost mythical figure whose achievements find a place in the ‘Sacred Sports’ of Madura,¹ and also among the traditional achievements of the Pāndyan kings mentioned in general terms in the Vēḷvikkuḍi and Śinnamanūr plates. Mudukuḍumi Peruvaḷudi is a more tangible figure who is praised by three poets in five short poems.² One of them (*Puram* 12) refers to his foreign conquests as the basis of his liberality, and another by the same poet (*Puram* 15) contains a shocking description of the way he treated conquered territory ploughing it with white-mouthed asses and refers to the many big sacrifices he performed in his day. Another poem (*Puram* 6) contains a blessing coupled with extravagant hero-worship which claims all India as the territory ruled by this king. The king who ruled in Madura at the time of the story of the *Śilappadikāram* was a Neḍuñjeḷiyan distinguished by the epithet Ariyappaḍaikaḍanda¹ for reasons that cannot now be traced. He is said to have died of a broken heart when the innocence of Kōvalan was proved to him by Kaṇṇaki beyond all possibility of doubt. There is a short poem (*Puṟam* 183) ascribed to him which puts learning above birth and caste.
c7.5.2
His viceroy at Koṟkai and perhaps his son and successor was another Śeḷiyan, called Veṟri Vēṟ-ceḷiyan or Iḷanjeḷiyan, who wreaked terrible vengeance on the goldsmiths by sacrificing a thousand of them in one day to appease the great goddess who had been Kaṇṇaki.² This occurrence which seems to be historical in substance must be ascribed to about the time of Gajabāhu I of Ceylon, somewhere in the second century A.D. It seems probable that the only other figure that stands out boldly from the rest, the victor of Talaiyālaṅgānam,³ was later than the rulers mentioned in the *Śilappadikāram*. He came to the throne as a youth and early in his reign proved more than equal to a hostile combination of his two neighbouring monarchs aided by five minor chiefs. The decisive engagement took place at Talaiyālaṅgānam which has been, with great plausibility, identified with a village of almost the same name, Talai-Ālam-Kāḍu, eight miles north-west of Tiruvālūr, in the Tanjore District.¹ There exists a simple poem of great force and beauty (*Puram* 72) in which the young king swears an oath of heroism and victory in the ensuing fight which he appears to have amply fulfilled.
c7.5.3
It seems that his enemies took the offensive, greatly underrating the strength of the youthful ruler and hoping for an easy partition of his territory among themselves.² Neḍuñjeḷiyan had to begin his fights almost at the gates of Madura (*Aham* 116) and pursue his foes up to the scene of the decisive engagement in the Tanjore District. It must have been in this campaign that Māndaram Chēral Irumporai, the son of the Chera King of the Elephant-look must have been captured alive, as is seen from *Puram* 17, in literal fulfilment of Neḍuñjeḷiyan's vow referred to above (*Puram* 72). After thus surmounting his initial difficulties in the defensive war that was forced on him by his jealous and aggressive neighbours, Neḍuñjeḷiyan appears to have taken the offensive in his turn and won substantial successes against his foes. Two separate campaigns seem to be mentioned, one against the Kongu chief, an Adigan, the chief event of the war being an engagement in a place somewhere near Uṟaiyūr;³ and another against the Nīdūr chieftain Evvi which resulted in the annexation to the Pāndyan kingdom of the Miḷalaikkūṟram and the Muttūṟrukkūṟram, apparently territories in the modern district of Tanjore.⁴ That this king was a follower of Brahminical Hinduism is clear from the reference to a vedic sacrifice performed by him with the assistance of Brahmins learned in the Vedas.
c7.5.4
Himself evidently a poet of no small merit, this king appears to have been also a great patron of the poets and is celebrated in the songs of many of them including Māṅguḍi Marudan, Nakkīrar and his father, Paraṇar and Kallāḍanār.