The Pandyan Kingdom from the Earliest Times to the Sixteenth Century c9.10

c9.10

² See verse 603 in the life of Gnānasambanda in the Periyapurānam and note that the Aihole inscription of Pulakesin (verse 30 quoted by Dubreuil, The Pallavas, p. 37) connects the Cholas with Kāvēri even in this age. Mr. Venkayya says also: 'With the powerful Pallavas on the north and the strong Pāndyas in the south, the Cholas, who were hemmed in between the two, had evidently to be satisfied with a comparatively insignificant position. . . . The Chola capital was probably Uraiyūr during all this period and the tract of country subject to them must have been very small. The intermarriages with the dominant Pāndyas make it likely that the Cholas occasionally made common cause with them against the Pallavas who must have been looked upon as intruders.' (A.S.I., 1905-6, p. 178.) There is thus no reason to accept the conclusion sometimes drawn from Yuan Chwang's itinerary that the Cholas were confined in this period to Cuddapah and Kurnool. Contra, K. V. S. Aiyar, Ancient Dekhan, pp. 112-3.