A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c12.43

c12.43

A thorough change in the political map of South India and the definite close of an epoch seem to be clearly implied in the Śirupāṇ-ārruppaḍai by Nattanṭanār, one of the Paṭṭupāṭṭu (‘Ten Idylls’). The poem has Nalliyakkōḍan for its hero and he may be taken to stand right at the end of the Śaṅgam age. He ruled a territory which included Gidangil, a village near Tindivanam, Eyirpaṭṭanam—modern Markanam, and Āmūr and Vēlūr, all places in the South Arcot district. We may assign to him a date about A.D. 275, and in his day the poet says that charity had dried up in the capitals of the three Tamil kingdoms, and all ancient patrons of learning and the arts were no more! There may well be some exaggeration here; but clearly Vanji, Uraiyūr and Madura must have passed the meridian of their prosperity and entered on a period of decline.