Studies in Cola History and Administration c7.126

c7.126

The word Vaḍavar (northerners) (in l. 276 of the *Paṭṭiṉappālai*) is said* by Mr. Srinivasa Aiyangar to refer to the Pallava kings of Kāñcī. This is really begging the question, and if this vague reference to northerners is all the evidence that can be cited in support of Karikāla’s conquest of Kāñcī, we may be excused for not accepting it as an established fact. We require more tangible evidence than this before being called upon to surrender the view, in our opinion the correct view, that the Pallavas of South Indian epigraphy find no place in the early Tamil Śaṅgam literature. Whether the Tiraiyar of this literature may be connected with the Pallavas of epigraphy, as has sometimes been supposed, is another question which is not germane to this discussion and need not be pursued here; particularly because Mr. Srinivasa Aiyangar is clear that they had nothing to do with one another.* It is significant, however, that the Tiraiyar do not figure in the list of Karikāla’s subjects in the Paṭṭiṉappālai, a fact which, if considered together with the evidence on Toṇḍaimāṉ Iḷandiraiyan’s rule at Kāñcī, raises a strong presumption that Kāñcī was independent of the Cōḷas in Karikāla’s time; and our point is that the mere mention of Vaḍavar in the list of Cōḷa feudatories cannot, by itself, upset this presumption. Then, Mr. Srinivasa Aiyangar proceeds: “He (Karikāla) pushed beyond and brought under his sway the Poduva chieftains, who ruled over the Cuddapah and Kurnool districts. The word Poduvar means herdsman chiefs and must refer to the rulers of the pastoral tribes that inhabited the Mullai region north of the Marudam† lands belonging to the Pallavas. The herdsmen brought under Karikāla’s sway were Kurumbas, like those who inhabit these districts even to-day, and weave the famous kambalis of that region.” He also quotes Aham 141: