NO. 61. — 1908.] TAMIL VEL ALAS. 



17 



Chalukkya rulers had come from this country, they were 

 known as " Velpula Arasar," i.e., kings of Velpulam, to the 

 ancient Tamils. 



It is now obvious why the Yadavas who settled in Tamila- 

 kam in very ancient times, and the Hoysala Yadavas of 

 Dwarasamudra who arrived comparatively in recent times, 

 were known as Vels and Velalas, respectively, to the older 

 inhabitants of Dravida. The reason is that they were inhabi- 

 tants of Velpulam 1 prior to their settlement in the south. 



Not only are the kings of the Chalukkyas defined, as 

 elsewhere mentioned, as " Velpula Arasar," in the Tamil 

 lexicons, but the name Vel also is expressly stated to have 

 belonged to them, as will appear from the following passage 

 in " Pinkalandai " : — i 



"Vel means either the slayer of Taraka, 2 the king of the 

 Chalukkyas, or the god of love." 



It seems a legitimate conclusion, therefore, that it is 

 because the Chalukkyas entered the Tamil country from Vel- 

 pulam that they were called Vels. But we possess evidence to 

 prove that they too were, like the Velir of Tamilakam, an 

 offshoot of the illustrious race of Yadavas. It is a historical 



persecuted by their enemies that the very name ' Pallava ' became a 

 synonym for ' the mean.' He also refers to the Chalukkya kings. 

 From these references we can infer that the lexicon was written after 

 the overthrow of the ' Pallavas,' and after the establishment of the 

 Western Chalukkya kingdom about the 8th century a.d." — Vide his 

 Report on Manuscripts, No. 2, p. 119. 



The lower limit for the period of Pingalandai may, I think, be 

 fixed with tolerable certainty. The Tamil grammar " Nannul," written 

 by Pavanandimunivar under the patronage of a king named " Siya- 

 gangan," refers to Pingalam. If this " Siyagangan " may be supposed 

 to be the same as the " Siyagangan " of the South Indian inscriptions, 

 who was a contemporary of the Chola king Kulotunga III. (1178 a.d. 

 to 1211 A.D.), the third quarter of the 12th century is the latest possible 

 date that can be assigned to the lexicon in question. — Vide Epigraphi- 

 cal Reports, Government of Madras, Nos. 833, 834, Public, dated 

 August 22, 1900.— V. J. T. 



1 It is most interesting to note here that the ' ' Mahavansa," the Sinha- 

 lese chronicle, states that Vijaya, the first Sinhalese king, and his 

 comrades, were natives of Lada, or Southern Gujerat, and that they 

 intermarried with the Tamils of the Pandiyan country. — V. J. T. 



2 Kartikeya, or Skanda. — V. J. T. 



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