Epigraphia Indica Vol 24

SR No.: 032578
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Hirananda Shastri
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India
Publication Year: 1937
Total Pages: 472
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 22 MB

Page 196

No. 22.) TINNEVELLY INSCRIPTION OF MARAVARMAN SUNDARA-PANDYA II. 161
Måpavarman Sundara-Pāņdya II and the other was the queen of the Chola king Rājarāja III. The following table shows the dynastic connection of the three families - Pandya.
Hoyxaļa.
Chola. Narasimha II.
Kulöttunga 1II. Mär. Sundara-Pāndya's
father. m. Daughter. Vīra-Sõmėsvara. Daughter m. Rājarāja III. Māravarman Sundara-Pandya II.
Rājēndra-Chõla III. Besides the above dynastic connection, the titles assumed by the Hoysala kings Narasimha II and Vira-Somēsvara and those claimed by the Pallava Peruñjinga bring out the exact position of the various powers of South India at the time of which we are speaking. It has been noted already that Narasimha II styled himself the establisher of the Chola' soon after A.D. 1222 which shows that the political relationship between him and Rājarāja III was one of cordiality. Another of his titles was "the uprooter of the Makara kingdom '.1 The late Prof. Hultzsch was of opinion that this kingdom must be somewhere in the Coimbatore or Salem District. If it could be the same as Magadai, we are to understand that the Hoysala, who sided with the Chola, was hostile to the king or chieftain of Magadai. Since we know from numerous inscriptions that the chieftains of Magadai called themselves Bānas (Vänan in Tamil) and since it was to a Bāņa that Sundara-Pandya I gave the conquered territory of the Cholas in the first instance, it is but natural that the ally of the Pāņdya must figure as an enemy of Narasimha II. Among other enemies of Narasimha II figuring in inscriptions of A.D. 1222-24, is the Kādava by which is no doubt meant the Pallava Peruñjinga, who in several records is said to be of the Kathaka or Kadava family. It goes without saying that the enemies of Narasimha and the Chðlas were the friends and allies of the Pandya Māravarman Sundara-Pandya I. It is quite in consonance with this, and expressive also of the attitude of the Pallava Peruñjinga, that he styled himself Karnata-bhupa-mana-mardin, Pandya-mandala-sthapana-sutradhāra and 'the rut elephant to the forest, viz., the Chola': From all that has been said above, it will be clear that the chief powers of South India were divided into two parties one of which counted in its ranks the Chola and Hoysala kings with their generals and chiefs supporting the members of the line of Kulasēkhara-Pāņdya, and the other had in its file the members of the line of Parăkrama-Pandya and Māravarman Sundara-Pāņdya I, supported by Pallava and Bāņa chiefs of the mainland and the Sinhalese forces which last, as will be shortly shown, had come to stay in South India till the final issues of the civil war which brought them there, were settled. Though we do not hear much of this Sinhalese army after Kulottunga had succeeded in putting down Vira-Pandya and his son, and though it is expressly stated in the historical introduction of Kulõttunga's records that the Sinhalese soldiers had been driven into the sea with their noses cut off there is clear evidence to show in the Tiruvēndipuram inscription of A.D. 1232-3 that among the forces of the Pandyan ally, the Pallava Peruñjinga, there were four Sinhalese generals of Parakrumabahu whom the generals of the Hoysaļa Narasimha II put to death. After the rise of Māravarman Sundara-Pāņdya I, the Pandyan civil war, though it still lingered, was turned into one chiefly between the Pandyas and the Chõlas aided by their respective allies. The principal aim of Narasimha II in establishing a capital in the Tamil country just on the border of the Pandya
Kielhorn's Southern List, No. 434. Above, Vol. VII, pp. 163-4.
. 8. 1. I., Vol. IV, No. 1342-B. . Above, Vol. VII, pp. 167 f.