The Pandyan Kingdom from the Earliest Times to the Sixteenth Century c7.5.2

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.