Tribes in Ancient India c49.5

c49.5

The three Tamil kingdoms, viz. Cōḷa, Chera and Pāṇḍya, are vaguely mentioned in the Sanskrit Epics and Purāṇas. Thus in the Purāṇas, as Sir R. G. Bhandarkar points out,³ the term Dakṣiṇāpatha or Dakṣiṇa is used to denote the whole peninsula to the south of the Narmadā. The Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa (Chap. 57, 45) reads Kevalas. The Vāyupurāṇa (XLV, 124) and the Matsyapurāṇa (CXIII, 46) as well as the Bhīṣmaparvan of the Mahābhārata (IX, 352 and 365) give the correct reading Kerala. According to the Mahābhārata,⁴ the Keralas seem to have been a forest tribe. In historical times they are associated with the Cōḷas and Pāṇḍyas. This is upheld by Harivaṃśa as well (XXXII, 1836). The Mārkaṇḍeya, Vāyu and Matsya Purāṇas mention the Cōḷas, Pāṇḍyas and Keralas among the peoples of the Dakṣiṇāpatha. In the Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa,⁵ the reading of the second line, as R. G. Bhandarkar says, is wrong. He gives his reading as follows: ‘Pāṇḍyāś ca Keralāścaiva Coḷāḥ Kulyās tathaiva ca’. In the Rāmāyaṇa,⁶ we read that Sugrīva, the monkey-king, is described as sending his followers to the different quarters in search of Rāma's wife, Sītā, and Rāvaṇa, her ravisher. The monkey-soldiers are directed to go to the countries of the Andhras (Telugu people), the Pāṇḍyas, the Cōḷas and the Keralas, in the south, and are told that they will there see the gate of the city of the Pāṇḍyas adorned with gold and jewels. In the *Mahābhārata*¹ Sahadeva in his career of conquest is represented to have subdued the Pāṇḍyas, Drāviḍas, Udras, Keralas and Andhras. Patañjali in his *Mahābhāṣya*² Kerala (or Malabar) is mentioned. The same work mentions Māhiṣmatī, Vaidarbha and Kāñcīpura (Conjeeveram).³ In the second and thirteenth rock edicts of Aśoka, the outlying provinces of the Cōḷas, Pāṇḍyas, Satiyaputras, Ketalaputras (Chera or Kerala), and the Andhras and Pulindas are mentioned.