Chandragupta Maurya and His Times c5.91

c5.91

Tamil Tradition. Further, the Maurya invasion of the South is also recorded in Tamil tradition. There are four references to it in Tamil works, three in *Ahanānūru* and the fourth in *Puranānūru*. These speak of the *Moriyas* cutting their way through the rocks with their chariots, "their army of horses and elephants", to subdue the king of Mohūr who had refused to submit. In this expedition, they were helped by their local allies, the *Kośar*, who "routed the enemies' forces on the field of battle" and the *Vaḍukar* fighting with "their swift-flying arrows". Some think that the *Moriyas* of these passages may refer to the latter day Mauryas of Koṅkān who emerge in history in the fifth century A.D., but there is in one passage a reference to "the untold wealth of the Nandas," showing by its context that it is the imperial Mauryas, the successors of the Nandas, who are thought of in these Tamil works. We have already cited the reference made by *Māmulanār*, a Śaṅgam poet, to the hoarded wealth of the Nandas "swept away and submerged later on by the floods of the Ganges". Thus Tamil tradition is quite familiar with the Nandas and the imperial Mauryas coming after them [S. K. Aiyangar, *Beginnings of South Indian History*, pp. 69, 81, 103; V. R. Ramachandra Dikshitar, *Mauryan Polity*, pp. 58 ff.].