The Mauryan Polity c6.s1.t4: The evidence of Tamil Literature

The Mauryan Polity c6.s1.t4

Language: English

The evidence of Tamil Literature

c6.s1.t4.1

The fourth and last is the evidence to be found on this point in early Tamil literature. There are four clear references to the Southern invasion of the Mauryas, three in the *Ahanānūru* and one in the *Puranānūru*. The following is the literal translation of the passages in question:

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1. “The rock of the sky-kissing high mountain which the Moriyar had cut down for the free passage of their golden chariot-wheels.”²

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² Viṇporu neḍuvarai iyaltēr mōriyar Poṇpuṇai tikiri tiritarak kuṟaitta arai . . . —*Aham*, 69, by Paraṅkorṟaṉār.

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2. “If he should hear of our unbearable anguish and grief here he would not, even for the sake of the immense riches of the Nandas, tarry there amidst the mountain rocks which the new Moriyar had cut down for the smooth passage of their well-adorned chariot-wheels when they came down upon the south with an army of horses and elephants because the king of Mohūr had refused to submit when the Kośar with chariots, swift-flying like the winds, routed the enemies’ forces on the field of battle with their drums vociferously sounding on the high hoary Podiyil hill.”³ 3. "The sky-kissing snow-capped mountain-rock which the Moriyar had cut down for the free passage of their golden chariot-wheels when they swept down on the south with the Vaḍukar marching before, strong with the strength of their mighty swift-flying arrows."¹

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³ Nāmpaṭar kūṟum-aruṭuyar kēṭpin Naṉdaṉ veṟukkai eaitiṉum maṟṟavaṭ-

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4. "The mountain-rock which the Moriyar with the sky-touching umbrella and the bannered chariot had cut down for the easy passage of their chariot-wheels."²

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That there was an invasion of, or expedition against, the South by the Moriyar is perfectly clear from these extracts; but there is some difference of opinion as to who could be the Moriyar referred to in the above passages. Some hold³ that the reference is undoubtedly to the army of the Mauryan King Candragupta or his son and successor Bindusāra, while others

c6.s1.t4.8

ṭaṅalar vāḷi tōḷi vel koṭit-
tuṇaik ālanna punaitērk kōcar
toṇmū dālat tarumpaṇaip podiyil
innicai muracaṅ kaṭippikut tiraṅgat-
temmuṇai citaitta ñāṉṟai mōhūr
paṇiyā maiyiṟ pakaitalai vanta
mākēḷu tāṉai vamba mōriyar
punaitēr ṉēmi uruḷiya kuṟaitta
vilaṅguveḷ ḷaruviya aṟaivāi
—*Aham*, 251, by Māmūlaṉār.

c6.s1.t4.9

¹ muraṇmiku vaḍukar muṉṉuṟa mōriyar
teṉṟicai mātiram muṉṉiya varaviṟku
viṇṉuṟa vōṅgiya paniyiruṅ kuṉṟat-
toṇkadirt tikiri uruḷiya kuṟaitta
aṟai.
—*Aham*, 281, by Māmūlaṉār.

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¹ *Beginnings of South Indian History*, Ch. II, pp. 81-103 *Proceedings of Second Oriental Conference* (Cal.), p. 319ff K. A. Nilakanta Sastri in Q.J.M.S., Vol. XVI p. 305. Somasundara Deśikar, I.H.Q., Vol. IV p. 135ff.

c6.s1.t4.11

² viṇporu neḍuṅkuḍaik-koṭittēr mōriyar
tiṅkatirt tikiri tiritarak kuṟaitta, aṟai.
—*Puram*, 175, by Aṭṭiraiyaṉār.

c6.s1.t4.12

think¹ that the *Moriyar* here mentioned are only the Mauryas of Koṅkān who came into prominence some time in the fifth century A.D. But the weight of evidence both direct and circumstantial, seems to incline strongly in favour of the former view.

c6.s1.t4.13

¹ *History of the Tamils*, pp. 521-6; Paṇḍit Rāghava Aiyangar, *Cēran-Seṅguṭṭuvan* (First ed.), 1915, p. 165 ff. The Paṇḍit has omitted this portion in the second edition of his work,

c6.s1.t4.14

In these passages then there is a clear reference to a mighty invasion to the South Indian Kingdoms by the northern *Moriyar* in the course of which they had to hew down a mountain that stood in their way and carve a passage for their war-chariots. This grand exploit of theirs is mentioned and commemorated in all the four extracts quoted above. The other facts connected with this invasion mentioned in them are, that the invaders were celebrated chariot-warriors, that their chariots were adorned with victorious banners, that their umbrella, one of the insignia of sovereignty, was as lofty as the sky, that this expedition was undertaken to put down the Mohūr king who had refused to submit to the Kośar who had on a former occasion defeated in a pitched battle all the hostile forces of the South arrayed against them, and that the Vaḍukar served in this expedition as their vanguard. What is of more interest is that in one of them (the second extract above) the invaders are designated as the *new Moriyar*.

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These several incidents unmistakably indicate that the invasion was by the mighty army of a victorious emperor for the purpose of bringing down a recalcitrant ruler of a South Indian principality who alone had refused submission when all others had been vanquished and overthrown by the Kośar fighting evidently under the banner of the Imperial Mauryas. Who these Kośar¹ and Vaḍukar were who formed part of the imperial forces? Were they allies or mercenaries? It is difficult to ascertain beyond doubt. But the allusion in one and the same passage not only to the fabulous wealth of the Nanda—undoubtedly a king of the great Nanda line—but also to the *Moriyar* invasion² by the author Māmūlaṇār, bears the weight of the evidence that these facts were connected by some association of ideas in the mind of the author. Now what other connection could there be except that the Mauryas were the immediate successors to the throne and empire, and inheritors of the power and wealth of the Nandas? That this Nanda to whose vast hoard of wealth Māmūlaṇār here makes such pointed reference is the imperial Magadha Nanda, is clear from another poem of his where also the wealth of Nanda is eulogistically mentioned:

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¹ I have submitted a paper on the *Kośar*, Their place in South Indian History, to the All-India Oriental Conference, Patna, 1930.

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² *Aham*, 251.

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palpukaḷ niṟainda velpōr Nandar
śirmiku pāṭalik kuḷiik-kaṅgai
nirmutaṟ karanda nidiyan koḷḷō.
—*Aham*, 265, Māmūlaṇār.

c6.s1.t4.19

"Is it the wealth hoarded by the Nandas and kept in their capital Pāṭali (modern Patna) but swept away and submerged later on by the floods of the Ganges?"

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Paṇḍit M. Rāghava Aiyangar agrees with this interpretation. To me this passage is significant in more than one respect. This literary reference to the floods of the Ganges, a fact supported by archæological evidence³ is further corroborated by an independent testimony. Haraprasād Śāstri writes: "Buddha-ghoṣa says in his commentary that Buddha predicted the destruction of Pāṭaliputra by fire, flood and feud. So it seems that before his time, *i.e.*, in the third and fourth centuries there were destructive fires, destructive inundations and internal strifes which is very possible in periods of anarchy."¹ In summarising briefly the synthesis published in the Annual Reports of the Archæological Survey, Bengal Circle, D. B. Spooner remarks thus: "The fact that we observe a belt of virgin soil some eight feet thick distributed evenly over the floor appears to me susceptible of only one explanation, namely, that the building was flooded while it stood intact. It was at all events buried to this depth, or its *disjecta membra* must certainly have lain upon the floor. Whether this burial was due to flood or to some other cause, is not a question of much archæological interest, but I assume it was by flood, because the soil is Ganges silt and virgin.

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³ Vide *An. Rep.*, 1912-13, pp. 55-61; 1913-14, pp. 45-74; 1914-15, pp. 45-46.

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¹ J.B.O.R.S., Vol. VI, p. 32.

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"A flood of this sort is evidenced by another ancient monument not far from here. When General Cunningham dug down around the Aśoka column which still stands at Bakhra in Muzaffarpur he found that five feet of the buried shaft was covered by a virgin silt which he attributed himself to flood, and his statement has not been challenged so far as I am aware. But if there was in early times a flood like this at Bakhra, what was there to prevent its sweeping over Patna, too? I know of no high land between the sites.

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"But flood or no flood, it is at all events certain that the Mauryan building was buried with eight feet of earth over its floor before the fire occurred which finally destroyed it.

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"That fire was the medium of this final catastrophe, all evidences indicate infallibly. The thick carpet of black ash and charcoal which lay like a pall over the whole site below the bottoms of the Gupta walls, is proof of this fact obvious enough for any child to read, and it is equally obvious that these ashes cannot be due to any burning of the Gupta structures. Otherwise how could they lie so uniformly underneath the lowest foundations of these buildings? If, however, they cannot be of Gupta date, or rather if they cannot appertain to the Gupta stratum, they must, by the simple law of alternative, appertain to the only other level of occupation traceable at this site, namely the Mauryan stratum."¹

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¹ Annual Report 1913-14, p. 47.

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There can then be no doubt that the Nandas mentioned by Māmūlaṇār could be none other than the famous line of the Nanda kings who reigned at Pāṭali or Pāṭaliputra and that the *Moriyar* or the new Moriyar as they are called were the armies of the Mauryan King Candragupta who succeeded to the throne of the Nandas or some one of his lineal successors. From the evident gusto with which Māmūlaṇār in more than one place refers to the magnificent wealth of the Nandas and the martial enterprise of the Mauryas where the subject of the poems does not call for it, it is safe to surmise that these incidents should have been of no distant occurrence, and therefore fresh in the memory of the poet. Now if we could from other sources of information ascertain even approximately the time of Māmūlaṇār it would certainly set this question at rest, but unfortunately the materials are too meagre to arrive at any definite conclusion.¹

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¹ This fact of the flood of the Ganges sweeping over Patna is of considerable importance to a student of South Indian history. For it has been mentioned by the Tamil poet Māmūlaṇār. From Cunningham's statement the flood must have occurred after Aśoka's time, and from Spooner's examination of the subject, the fire must have broken out at least before the epoch of the Guptas. This may then give clue to fixing the date of this poet roughly. He may be said to have flourished between 230 B.C. and 300 A.D. But his reference to the Vemba Mauryas and his silence regarding the fire incident may induce us to assign him to the last period of the Mauryan epoch or perhaps not far from it. See also author's Studies in Tamil Literature and History, (1930), pp. 133-134.

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The next point to examine is the result of this invasion. The result was indeed far-reaching. The Mauryan empire expanded a good deal southward. The territory up to the frontiers of the chief Tamil kingdom came direct under the Mauryan sway, at least during the reign of Bindusāra, if not earlier. This is evident from the Aśokan Pillars and Rocks at the main road leading to the South (perhaps the Dakṣiṇapatha of Sanskrit literature) as well as at Gooty and Kaliṅga. Another result but more important than this was the alliance between the Empire and the Tamil states in the South. According to the maṇḍala theory of the Kauṭalīya the neighbouring state is supposed to be a potential enemy, if not a natural enemy. The time of Aśoka must have been the heyday of the teachings of the Arthaśāstra. For literary tradition whether Brahmanical, Buddhist, or Jaina makes Kauṭalya-Cāṇakya as the minister of Candragupta, and Bindusāra.² Be that as it may, the influence of the Arthaśāstra must have been great and profound. In spite of this we find that in practice the neighbours were allies of the empire, the representatives of the latter opening hospitals for man and beast even in those territories. This indirectly demonstrates that these small states acknowledged in a way the superiority, if not the suzerainty, of the Mauryan emperor. The invasion opened further the possibility of a strong Tamil king overreaching his enemies in the far north. Three centuries later we hear of Ceraṇ Śeṅguṭṭuvaṉ carrying his arms as far as the Ganges and returning victoriously. In much later times another Tamil king Rājendra led his army to the north fired by ambition to be the paramount master of all earth. It equally opened possibilities for a strong North Indian ruler to spread his sway over the distant south. We know from history Malik Kāfūr’s invasion of Peninsular India and his march through the Tamil kingdom as far south as Rāmeśwaram.¹ Not only, was therefore, the dakṣiṇapatha a commercial route for easy and frequent intercourse as suggested by the Arthaśāstra, but also a military route by which armies of the South and the North passed to and fro. It formed the great highway for Aśoka to broadcast his imperial policy. Its importance even in much later times as in the days of the East India Company can be seen by a reference to F. H. Scott’s military routes in his *Routes in the Peninsula of India.*²

Linked texts (3)

Kauṭilīya Arthaśāstra — Kauṭilya, Sanskrit
Puṟanāṉūṟu — Kapilar & Auvaiyār (Caṅkam), Tamil
Pariśiṣṭaparvan — Hemacandra, Sanskrit