A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c12.36

c12.36

In later times Karikāla became the centre of many legends found in the Śilappadikāram and in inscriptions and literary works of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. They attribute to him the conquest of the whole of India up to the Himālayas and the construction with the aid of his feudatories of the flood-banks of the Kaveri. The famous scholar Naccinārkkiniyar probably follows a correct tradition when he says that Karikāla married a vēḷir girl from Nāngūr, a place celebrated in the hymns of Tirumangai Āḷvār for the heroism of its warriors. More open to suspicion is the story in the Śilappadikāram about a supposed daughter of Karikāla’s, named Ādi Mandi, and her husband, a Chera prince called Āṭṭan Atti. Earlier poems which mention their names and some of the incidents attest only the relation between Ādi Mandi and Atti, but not that between her and Karikāla, nor the Chera descent of Atti. Both husband and wife were, according to the early testimony, professional dancers—āṭṭan means dancer.