The Pandyan Kingdom from the Earliest Times to the Sixteenth Century c9.8

c9.8

There is good reason for identifying this Arikēsari Parāṅkuśa Māravarman with the celebrated Kūn Pāṇḍya of legend, and the contemporary of the Śaiva saint Tirugnānasambandar. This saint is known to have been the contemporary of another saint Śiruṭṭoṇḍar and to have converted to Śaivism the Pāndyan king who was thence regarded as a saint himself. This king is called Ninraśīrnedumāran; and Sundaramūrti in his catalogue of Śaiva saints ascribes to him the battle of Nelvēli. The age of Śiruttondar was the time of the destruction of Vātāpi, the Chālukya capital, A.D. 642. These indications derived from the stories handed down in the Periyapurānam seem to confirm the system of chronology we have adopted for the Pāndyas of this period.¹ It may be noted in passing that there is nothing improbable in the story that the Pāndyan queen of this period was a Chola princess. The Cholas are not prominently mentioned anywhere in the records of this age, but they appear to have continued in obscurity somewhere in their original territory on the banks of the Kāvēri and it is likely they sought or were forced into matrimonial connections with the rising house of the Pāndyas.² Finally, we may say that there seems to be no ground for accepting the identification of this king with the hero celebrated in the stanzas of the commentary to the Iraiyanār Ahapporul.