Extraordinary Darkness Hangs Over The Chronology Of The South Indian
Kingdoms, As We May Judge From The Fact That Dr.
Caldwell would have thus
placed at the end of the 13th century, on the evidence of Polo and
Rashiduddin, the
Reign of the last of the genuine Pandya kings, whom other
calculations place earlier even by centuries. Thus, to omit views more
extravagant, Mr. Nelson, the learned official historian of Madura,
supposes it on the whole most probable that Kun Pandya alias Sundara,
reigned in the latter half of the 11th century. "The Sri Tala Book, which
appears to have been written about 60 years ago, and was probably compiled
from brief Tamil chronicles then in existence, states that the Pandya race
became extinct upon the death of Kun Pandya; and the children of
concubines and of younger brothers who (had) lived in former ages, fought
against one another, split up the country into factions, and got
themselves crowned, and ruled one in one place, another in another. But
none of these families succeeded in getting possession of Madura, the
capital, which consequently fell into decay. And further on it tells us,
rather inconsistently, that up to A.D. 1324 the kings 'who ruled the
Madura country, were part of the time Pandyas, at other times
foreigners.'" And a variety of traditions referred to by Mr. Nelson
appears to interpose such a period of unsettlement and shifting and
divided sovereignty, extending over a considerable time, between the end
of the genuine Pandya Dynasty and the Mahomedan invasion; whilst lists of
numerous princes who reigned in this period have been handed down. Now we
have just seen that the Mahomedan invasion took place in 1311, and we must
throw aside the traditions and the lists altogether if we suppose that the
Sundara Pandi of 1292 was the last prince of the Old Line. Indeed, though
the indication is faint, the manner in which Wassaf speaks of Polo's
Sundara and his brothers as having established themselves in different
territories, and as in constant war with each other, is suggestive of the
state of unsettlement which the Sri Tala and the traditions describe.
There is a difficulty in co-ordinating these four or five brothers at
constant war, whom Polo found in possession of different provinces of
Ma'bar about 1290, with the Devar Kalesa, of whom Wassaf speaks as slain
in 1310 after a prosperous reign of forty years. Possibly the brothers
were adventurers who had divided the coast districts, whilst Kalesa still
reigned with a more legitimate claim at Shahr-Mandi or Madura. And it is
worthy of notice that the Ceylon Annals call the Pandi king whose army
carried off the sacred tooth in 1303 Kulasaikera, a name which we may
easily believe to represent Wassaf's Kalesa. (Nelson's Madura, 55, 67,
71-74; Turnour's Epitome, p. 47.)
As regards the position of the port of Ma'bar visited, but not named, by
Marco Polo, and at or near which his Sundara Pandi seems to have resided,
I am inclined to look for it rather in Tanjore than on the Gulf of Manar,
south of the Rameshwaram shallows. The difficulties in this view are the
indication of its being "60 miles west of Ceylon," and the special mention
of the Pearl Fishery in connection with it. We cannot, however, lay much
stress upon Polo's orientation. When his general direction is from east to
west, every new place reached is for him west of that last visited;
whilst the Kaveri Delta is as near the north point of Ceylon as Ramnad is
to Aripo. The pearl difficulty may be solved by the probability that the
dominion of Sonder Bandi extended to the coast of the Gulf of Manar.
On the other hand Polo, below (ch. xx.), calls the province of Sundara
Pandi Soli, which we can scarcely doubt to be Chola or Soladesam,
i.e. Tanjore. He calls it also "the best and noblest Province of India,"
a description which even with his limited knowledge of India he would
scarcely apply to the coast of Ramnad, but which might be justifiably
applied to the well-watered plains of Tanjore, even when as yet Arthur
Cotton was not. Let it be noticed too that Polo in speaking (ch. xix.) of
Mutfili (or Telingana) specifies its distance from Ma'bar as if he had
made the run by sea from one to the other; but afterwards when he proceeds
to speak of Cail, which stands on the Gulf of Manar, he does not specify
its position or distance in regard to Sundara Pandi's territory; an
omission which he would not have been likely to make had both lain on
the Gulf of Manar.
Abulfeda tells us that the capital of the Prince of Ma'bar, who was the
great horse-importer, was called Biyardawal,[4] a name which now
appears in the extracts from Amir Khusru (Elliot, III. 90-91) as
Birdhul, the capital of Bir Pandi mentioned above, whilst Madura was the
residence of his brother, the later Sundara Pandi. And from the
indications in those extracts it can be gathered, I think, that Birdhul
was not far from the Kaveri (called Kanobari), not far from the sea, and
five or six days' march from Madura. These indications point to Tanjore,
Kombakonam, or some other city in or near the Kaveri Delta.[5] I should
suppose that this Birdhul was the capital of Polo's Sundara Pandi, and
that the port visited was Kaveripattanam. This was a great sea-port at one
of the mouths of the Kaveri, which is said to have been destroyed by an
inundation about the year 1300. According to Mr. Burnell it was the
"Pattanam 'par excellence' of the Coromandel Coast, and the great port
of the Chola kingdom."[6]
[Illustration: Chinese Pagoda (so called) at Negapatam. (From a sketch
taken in 1846 by Sir Walter Elliot.)]
Some corroboration of the supposition that the Tanjore ports were those
frequented by Chinese trade may be found in the fact that a remarkable
Pagoda of uncemented brickwork, about a mile to the north-west of
Negapatam, popularly bears (or bore) the name of the Chinese Pagoda.
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