Search e-Library

Pandya : In Saṇgam lexicon the word Pāndyā means old country in contrast with Cholā meaning new country, Cherā meaning hill country & Pallava meaning branch in Sanskrit. The Cherā, Cholā & Pāndyā are the traditional Tamil siblings & together with the Pallavas are the major rulers of ancient Tamilakkam. Among the mentions in the Mahābhārata are: “Pāndyā, who dwells on the coast-land near the sea, came accompanied by troops of various kinds to Yudhishthira, the king of kings.” (5:19); “Steeds that were all of the hue of the Atruśa flower bore a hundred & forty thousand Mahārathīs accompanying Sarangadhwaja, the king of the Pāṇdyās.” (7.23); “Malayadhwaja (son of the first Pāndyan king Kulasekharan) pierced the son of Drōṇa with a barbed arrow. Then Drona’s son struck Pāndyā with some fierce arrows, capable of penetrating into the very vitals & resembling flames of fire.” (8:20). Malayadhwaja & his queen Kanchanamala had one daughter Meenakshi who succeeded her father & reigned successfully. The Madurai Meenakshi Amman temple was built after her. The city of Madurai was built around this temple. The first Pāndyan king mentioned in the Saṇgam works recovered so far is Nedunj Cheliyan I, who ruled from the coastal town of Korkai, at the mouth of river Tamraparni. Nedunj Cheliyan I invaded the kingdom of Kudal (later renamed Madurai), which was under the rule of an independent chieftain, Akutai. He was succeeded by his son Pudappandiyan, who expanded the kingdom by conquering Ollaiyur (near present Pudukottai). Nedunj Cheliyan I & Pudappandiyan were both poets who contributed to the Purananuru collection. Pudappandiyan was succeeded by Nedunj Cheliyan II who was succeeded by Mudukudumi Peruvaludhi who performed the Ashwamedha yajña. The next king, Nedunj Cheliyan III, is considered the greatest of all Early Pāndyan kings. Notable among his successors were Musiri Mutriya Cheliyan in whose court that flourished the great Tiruvalluvar. ― The Early Pāndyan kingdom extended between the Southern Vellaru River on the north & Cape Comorin on the south & the Coromandel Coast on the east to the Achchankovil Pass leading to Travancore on the west. It was well known for pearl fishery, with had extensive commercial relations with overseas countries which were carried on through its ports, Korkai, & later on, Kayal. Some of the exports were pearls, spices, ivory & shells, while the imports included horses, gold, glass & wine. Whether independent or tributary, seventeen Pāndyan kings are said to have ruled the country from 1100 to 1567, the most powerful of whom was Jatāvarman Sundara who reigned from 1251 to 1271 & held sway over the whole of the eastern coast from Nellore to Cape Comorin. In 1310 the Pāndyā kingdom was over-run by jihadis under Malik Kāfur, the general of Alā-ud-din Khalji. In 1378, it was absorbed into the Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagaram. In the Early Pāndyan, the head of the Government was the king, a hereditary monarch. His power was restricted by the Aimberunguzhu or the Five Great Assemblies, which consisted of the representatives of the people, priests, physicians, astrologers & the ministers. There was another assembly of officials that served the king called the Enberaayam which some scholars believe consisted of the important persons of the capital city, the leaders of the elephant corps & of the cavalry. The principal officers of State were the high priest, the chief astrologer, the ministers & the commanders of the army. The king divided his territory into a number of administrative units or principalities, each called a Kootram. A Kootram was further divided into provinces called Mandalam, which in turn was divided into many sub-provinces called Nādus, with each Nadu consisting of many villages. A locality inside a town or village was called Ur & each neighbourhood inside an Ur was called a Cheri. While the king ruled over his entire territory from the capital, he often placed one or more Kootram under the near-sovereign government of some senior member of the royal family or a feudatory. The village was the most fundamental unit of administration under the Pāṇdyās. The affairs of a village were the responsibility of its elders, who supervised the judicial, administrative & financial functions. Justice was administered free of charge, by special officers appointed as judges & magistrates, but the king was supreme & the final arbiter in all civil & criminal cases. Mortgage, lease, trust property, loans, breach of contract were some common sources of civil litigation, while criminal offences included theft, adultery, forgery & treason. The punishments were very severe & hence crimes were rare: one caught in the act of burglary, adultery or spying was given the death penalty & one giving false testimony would have his tongue cut off. The king was the chief commander of the army & usually led his army in the battlefield. The military was said to be fourfold: the infantry, the cavalry, the elephantry & the chariotry. A wide variety of war weapons filled the military arsenal including shields, swords, spears, tridents, maces, bows & arrows. Land tax, paid in cash or kind, & income tax, equal to one-sixth of an individual’s income, were the major types of taxes collected. Other sources of revenue include tributes paid by feudal subordinates; war booty presents by loyal & visiting subjects, treasure-troves, cess & forced gifts. The items incurring expenditure for the king included the military, gifts to poets & temples, maintenance of educational & health services, building infrastructure such as roads & irrigation & the palace household expenses. The Tamil society during the Early Pāndyan age had several class distinctions among the people, which were different from the Brāhmaṇical classification of Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, & Shudras. Women were exposed to education; a fact testified by the presence of many women poets in the Saṇgam works. They include Avvaiyār, Mudatamakkanniar, Kākkaippaadiniyār, Nāchchellayār, Nāgaiyār, Nanmullaiyār, Ponmudiyār, Ilaveyiniyār, & Nappasaliyār. A variety of clothing was used by people during this age, including those made of cotton & silk. People living in hilly & deserted areas wore dresses made of foliage & flowers. Sheaths of grassy weeds, Korai, were used for making dress by the hill & forest area people. Skins of animals & barks of trees were also used. Men of the poorer classes wore only one piece of cloth around the waist. Women covered their upper body with a kind of dress called, kachchu. Among the higher classes, men wore two pieces: one around the waist & the other, the upper cloth, thrown over the shoulders. Women of sophisticated society wore half sarees, made of the finest cotton & silk fabrics, with embroidery. Both men & women sported long tresses of hair. The diet was plain, rice being the staple cereal, with millet, milk, butter & honey being in common use. Meat eating was common - people ate flesh of rams, deer, hare, fowl, porcupines, pigs & boar, fresh & dried fish. The kind of housing was determined by the type of geography of the land & the economic status of the occupants. The rich built their houses with tiled roofs & walls made of burnt bricks & mud, while the poor built their huts with mud & thatched it with grass, coconut leaves or Palmyra palm leaves. Both in the huts & houses, the flooring was smeared with cow dung. The affluent had houses with porticoes, many storeys, open terraces & furnished their houses well. The inner walls of their houses were decorated with flowers & paintings, with cottages to protect them from the wind. Cots were in common use – the rich had luxurious beds decked with swan’s feathers & flowers, while the common people had beds woven with the straw of maize & the poorest people used beds made of grass or hay.