The Pandyan Kingdom from the Earliest Times to the Sixteenth Century c9.4

c9.4

sources relating to the age. This king is called Arikēsari Māravarman in the Veḷvikkuḍi and smaller Śinnamanūr plates and Arikēsari Parāṅkuśa in the larger Śinnamanūr grant. By the system of chronology we have adopted, this king must have come to the throne some time after the middle of the seventh century (670-710) A.D. In this reign began the great contest with the Pallavas who were rising to power, contemporaneously with the Pāṇḍyas, in the northern part of the Tamil land. The Veḷvikkuḍi grant says of him that he won a victory at Pāḷi, that he conquered the vast forces of Vilvēli in the battle of Nelvēli, and this statement is confirmed by the larger Sinnamanūr plates which say of him ‘வில்லவரும் நெல்வேலி உம்விரி பொழிற்ச்ங்கரமங் கைப் பல்லவரும் பிங்கண்ட பராங்குசன்.’ It is not now easy to identify these battlefields and no attempt can therefore be made to trace in any detail the campaigns so briefly recorded in the plates. It is extremely difficult to accept the suggestion that Nelvēli stands for the modern town of Tirunelvēli.¹ There are other achievements attributed to this king. He ruined the Paravas who did not submit to him and destroyed the people of the fertile Kuruṇāḍu (குருநாடு). He won a great battle at Śennilam and defeated on several occasions the Kēraḷa king and captured him alive with his near relations and his forces, and lastly he performed several times the hiraṇyagarbha and the tulābhāra. All these statements leave on us the