The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c23.59

c23.59

The Dravidian peoples of the extreme south, below the fourteenth degree of latitude, being protected by their remoteness, had mostly escaped annexation to the northern empire. In Asoka's time their territories formed four independent kingdoms, the Chola, Pāndya, Keralaputra, and Satiyaputra. The capital of the Chola kingdom was Uraiyūr, or Old Trichinopoly, and that of the Pāndya realm was Korkai in the Tinnevelly District. The Keralaputra or Madura state comprised the Malabar coast south of the Tuluva country, and probably also the inland districts usually assigned to the Chera kingdom. The name Chera is a variant form of Kerala. The Satiyaputra country may be identified with the Satyamangalam subdivision of the Coimbatore District and some adjoining territory.¹ With all these kingdoms Asoka was on such friendly terms that he was at liberty to send his missionaries to preach to the people, and even to found monasteries in several places. One such institution was established by his younger brother Mahendra in the Tanjore District, probably then included in the Chola kingdom, where its ruins were still visible nine hundred years later.¹