WITH MANALURU NEAR MADURA. 



317 



We thus see, if the legend just narrated rests on any 

 authority, that Manipura or Manaluru through its king, who 

 was a son of daughter of Sukra, is connected with Sukra- 

 carya, — the presumed author of the Sukranlti, and the 

 expounder of the fabrication of gunpowder and the construc- 

 tion and handling of guns, — is the same Manipura, of which 

 we have read in the Mahabharata, that it was provided with 

 firearms and guns against the attack of its enemies. If Mani- 

 pura is the place which corresponds to the site of Manipura 

 (Manaluru) near Madura, a great many otherwise inexplicable 

 contradictions are easily solved. 



The affection with which the Pandavas are remembered in 

 India, and especially in the South, seems to me not only due 

 to the interest which the story of their sufferings, their 

 bravery, and final victory excited everywhere, but also to some 

 cause by which their memory was effectually kept alive. 



There are no monuments of great antiquity in Southern 

 India, especially on the Eastern Coast, with which legendary 

 lore does not somehow connect the name of the Pandavas. 

 Thus we observe that their name is associated with the rock- 

 cut caves in Mamandur near Conjeveram, and the same 

 occurs in many other places, perhaps also at the rock temples 

 of Kalugumalai. 



The famous Seven Pagodas near Madras, whose carvings 

 are celebrated all over India, do not form an exception to 

 this rule. The monoliths representing rathas (cars) or shrines 

 named after Dharmaraja, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and 

 Sahadeva, and even to Draupadi, are among the most ancient 

 of the carvings. Arjuna especially is a favorite ; there are two 

 rathas named after him, though one of them contains now an 

 image of Granesa, and the most splendid carving, of which 

 there exist also two copies, though one is in an incomplete state, 

 is called Arjuna's penance. We must not forget that Arjuna 

 is the presumed ancestor of the Pandyas* 



