Studies in Cola History and Administration c7.131

c7.131

tend (flocks) on the hill-tops." The questions that arise for consideration here are: Who were the Poduvar? What region did they inhabit? Were they identical with the Kurumbar, and does the *Ahanānūru* mention Karikāla's protection of the Kurumbar? The Poduvar are placed in the *Paṭṭiṉappālai* list obviously in the Southern region together with the Pāṇḍya and the Iruṅgōvēḷ, and appears to refer to the Āy chieftains of the Tinnevelly district. There is no evidence, apart from the surmises about *mullai* and *marudam*, not of any considerable value either in themselves or in their present context, in favour of locating the Poduvar in the Cuddapah and Kurnool districts. And it is very unlikely that the Poduvar were the same as the Kurumbar. But what is more to the point, the discovery of a reference to the Kurumbar caste in the lines quoted from the *Aham* is due entirely to a mistake.* The passage really means nothing more than: "The famous Karikāla, the Cōḷa (king) victorious in fight, who fixed up the *śelkuḍi* (families about to move out or families in need of relief)." It is very doubtful if '*kurumparai payiṟṟum*' properly qualifies *śelkuḍi* as it really completes an earlier clause in the poem. Perhaps the occurrence of the words *kurumparai* with the hard final *ṟai* has led to the thought of the Kurumbar ending in the liquid consonant *r*. We thus see that the evidence cited in support of Karikāla's conquest of Kāñcī and the districts of Cuddapah and Kurnool is altogether valueless.