The Travels Of Marco Polo - Volume 2 Of 2 By Marco Polo And Rustichello Of Pisa











































 -  It is clear from the agreement of Rashiduddin with Marco
Polo that Sundara Pandi's power was shared in some way - Page 334
The Travels Of Marco Polo - Volume 2 Of 2 By Marco Polo And Rustichello Of Pisa - Page 334 of 701 - First - Home

Enter page number    Previous Next

Number of Words to Display Per Page: 250 500 1000

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.

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.

Enter page number   Previous Next
Page 334 of 701
Words from 173628 to 174154 of 370046


Previous 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 Next

More links: First 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
 110 120 130 140 150 160 170 180 190 200
 210 220 230 240 250 260 270 280 290 300
 310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390 400
 410 420 430 440 450 460 470 480 490 500
 510 520 530 540 550 560 570 580 590 600
 610 620 630 640 650 660 670 680 690 700
 Last

Display Words Per Page: 250 500 1000

 
Africa (29)
Asia (27)
Europe (59)
North America (58)
Oceania (24)
South America (8)
 

List of Travel Books RSS Feeds

Africa Travel Books RSS Feed

Asia Travel Books RSS Feed

Europe Travel Books RSS Feed

North America Travel Books RSS Feed

Oceania Travel Books RSS Feed

South America Travel Books RSS Feed

Copyright © 2005 - 2022 Travel Books Online