De l'Egypte, p. 31.)
Abulfeda distinctly names Cape Comorin as the point where Malabar ended
and Ma'bar began, and other authority to be quoted presently informs us
that it extended to Nilawar, i.e. Nellore.
There are difficulties as to the particular locality of the port or city
which Polo visited in the territory of the Prince whom he calls Sondar
Bandi Davar; and there are like doubts as to the identification, from the
dark and scanty Tamul records, of the Prince himself, and the family to
which he belonged; though he is mentioned by more than one foreign writer
besides Polo.
Thus Wassaf: "Ma'bar extends in length from Kaulam to Nilawar, nearly 300
parasangs along the sea-coast; and in the language of that country the
king is called Devar, which signifies, 'the Lord of Empire.' The
curiosities of Chin and Machin, and the beautiful products of Hind and
Sind, laden on large ships which they call Junks, sailing like mountains
with the wings of the wind on the surface of the water, are always
arriving there. The wealth of the Isles of the Persian Gulf in particular,
and in part the beauty and adornment of other countries, from 'Irak and
Khurasan as far as Rum and Europe, are derived from Ma'bar, which is so
situated as to be the key of Hind.
"A few years since the DEVAR was SUNDAR PANDI, who had three brothers,
each of whom established himself in independence in some different
country. The eminent prince, the Margrave (Marzban) of Hind, Taki-uddin
Abdu-r Rahman, a son of Muhammad-ut-Tibi, whose virtues and
accomplishments have for a long time been the theme of praise and
admiration among the chief inhabitants of that beautiful country, was the
Devar's deputy, minister, and adviser, and was a man of sound judgment.
Fattan, Malifattan, and Kail[2] were made over to his possession.... In
the months of the year 692 H. (A.D. 1293) the above-mentioned Devar, the
ruler of Ma'bar, died and left behind him much wealth and treasure. It is
related by Malik-ul-Islam Jamaluddin, that out of that treasure 7000 oxen
laden with precious stones and pure gold and silver fell to the share of
the brother who succeeded him. Malik-i 'Azam Taki-uddin continued prime
minister as before, and in fact ruler of that kingdom, and his glory and
magnificence were raised a thousand times higher."[3]
Seventeen years later (1310) Wassaf introduces another king of Ma'bar
called Kalesa Devar, who had ruled for forty years in prosperity, and
had accumulated in the treasury of Shahr-Mandi (i.e., as Dr. Caldwell
informs me MADURA, entitled by the Mahomedan invaders Shahr-Pandi, and
still occasionally mispronounced Shahr-Mandi) 1200 crores (!) in gold.
He had two sons, SUNDAR BANDI by a lawful wife, and Pirabandi (Vira
Pandi?) illegitimate. He designated the latter as his successor. Sundar
Bandi, enraged at this, slew his father and took forcible possession of
Shahr-Mandi and its treasures. Pirabandi succeeded in driving him out;
Sundar Bandi went to Alauddin, Sultan of Delhi, and sought help. The
Sultan eventually sent his general Hazardinari (alias Malik Kafur) to
conquer Ma'bar.
In the third volume of Elliot we find some of the same main facts, with
some differences and greater detail, as recounted by Amir Khusru. Bir
Pandiya and Sundara Pandiya are the Rais of Ma'bar, and are at war with
one another, when the army of Alauddin, after reducing Bilal Deo of Dwara
Samudra, descends upon Ma'bar in the beginning of 1311 (p. 87 seqq.).
We see here two rulers in Ma'bar, within less than twenty years, bearing
the name of Sundara Pandi. And, strange to say, more than a century
before, during the continental wars of Parakrama Bahu I., the most martial
of Singhalese kings (A.D. 1153-1186), we find another Kulasaikera (=
Kalesa of Wassaf), King of Madura, with another Vira Pandi for son,
and another Sundara Pandi Raja, figuring in the history of the
Pandionis Regio. But let no one rashly imagine that there is a confusion
in the chronology here. The Hindu Chronology of the continental states is
dark and confused enough, but not that of Ceylon, which in this, as in
sundry other respects, comes under Indo-Chinese rather than Indian
analogies. (See Turnour's Ceylonese Epitome, pp. 41-43; and J.A.S.B.
XLI. Pt. I. p. 197 seqq.)
In a note with which Dr. Caldwell favoured me some time before the first
publication of this work, he considers that the Sundar Bandi of Polo and
the Persian Historians is undoubtedly to be identified with that Sundara
Pandi Devar, who is in the Tamul Catalogues the last king of the ancient
Pandya line, and who was (says Dr. Caldwell,) "succeeded by Mahomedans, by
a new line of Pandyas, by the Nayak Kings, by the Nabobs of Arcot, and
finally by the English. He became for a time a Jaina, but was reconverted
to the worship of Siva, when his name was changed from Kun or Kubja,
'Crook-backed,' to Sundara, 'Beautiful,' in accordance with a change
which then took place, the Saivas say, in his personal appearance.
Probably his name, from the beginning, was Sundara.... In the inscriptions
belonging to the period of his reign he is invariably represented, not as
a joint king or viceroy, but as an absolute monarch ruling over an
extensive tract of country, including the Chola country or Tanjore, and
Conjeveram, and as the only possessor for the time being of the title
Pandi Devar. It is clear from the agreement of Rashiduddin with Marco
Polo that Sundara Pandi's power was shared in some way with his brothers,
but it seems certain also from the inscription that there was a sense in
which he alone was king."
I do not give the whole of Dr. Caldwell's remarks on this subject,
because, the 3rd volume of Elliot not being then published, he had not
before him the whole of the information from the Mussulman historians,
which shows so clearly that two princes bearing the name of Sundara
Pandi are mentioned by them, and because I cannot see my way to adopt his
view, great as is the weight due to his opinion on any such question.
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