Political History Of Ancient India

SR No.: 032292
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Hemchandra Raychaudhari
Publisher: University of Calcutta
Publication Year: 1950
Total Pages: 714
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 17 MB

Page 357

328 POLITICAL HISTORY OF ANCIENT INDIA
True to his principle Aśoka made no attempt to annex the frontier (Prachmta, amta, samanta, sāmīpa), kingdoms, viz., Chola, Pandya, Satiyaputra, Keralaputra. Tambapamni (Ceylon) and the realm of Antiyako Yonarāja, who is usually identified with Antiochos II Theos, King of Syria and Western Asia. On the contrary, he maintained friendly relations with them.
The Chola country was drained by the river Kaveri and comprised the districts of Trichinopoly and Tanjore. We learn from a South Indian inscription' that Hara, i.e., the god Śiva, asked Gunabhara (Mahendravarman I, Pallava), "How could I, standing in a temple on earth, view the great power of the Cholas or the river Kaveri ?" When Pulakesin II Chalukya strove to conquer the Cholas "the Kaveri had her current obstructed by the causeway formed by his elephants." The Chola capital was Uraiyur (Sanskrit Uragapura) or Old Trichinopoly. 2 The principal port was at Kaviripattinam or Pugar on the northern bank of the Kaveri. S
The Pandya country corresponded to the Madura, and Tinnevally districts with perhaps the southern portions of Ramnad and the Travancore state. It had its capitals at Kolkai and Madura (Dakshina Mathura). The rivers Tamraparni and Kritamālā or Vaigai flowed through it. Katyayana derives Pandya from Pandu. The Pandus are
1 Hultzsch, SII, Vol. I, p. 34.
2 Aelian, however, has the following reference to the realm of Soras (Chola ?) and its chief city: "There is a city which a man of royal extraction called Soras governed at the time when Eukratides governed the Bactrians, and the name of that city is Perimuda (city of Perumal ?). It is inhabited by a race of fisheaters who go off with nets and catch oysters." For Uragapura in Cholika Vishaya, see Ep. Ind., X. 103.
3 For the early history of the Chola Kingdom and other Tamil states see CHI., Vol. I, Ch. 24; Smith, EHI., Ch. XVI; Kanakasabhai Pillay, Tamils Eighteen Hundred Years Ago; Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Beginnings of South Indian History and Ancient India; K. A. Nilakanta Sastri, The Pandyan Kingdom, The Colas, etc.