1837.] 



Historical Sketch of the Kingdom of Pandya. 



177 



dionis, of which Madura was then and ever afterwards the capital, 

 appears to have comprehended the greater part of the southern por- 

 tion of the Coromandel coast, and to have extended across the pe- 

 ninsula to Canara and Malabar, and southward to the sea. It was 

 subsequently confined to narrower limits by the independence of 

 Malabar and the rise of the state of Chera to the west, by the growth 

 of the principality of Ramnad to the south, and the aggrandisement 

 of the Chola sovereignty to the east, till it sank, in modem times, into 

 the petty government of the Nayaks of Madura. At various periods 

 of its history it may be presumed, the following definitions of its limits 

 have been laid down by native authorities. One account places Rame- 

 swara on the east, Kanya Kumari on the south, Satyamangalam on the 

 west, and the river*Palar on the north. Another, which seems the 

 more accurate, makes the Valar river the northern boundary, and 

 Paruvali the western ; but agrees with the preceding in carrying the 

 Pandya territory to the sea, both to the south and east, including, con- 

 sequently, the present Ramnad, and part of Tinivelly. 



The Coromandel provinces on the eastern peninsula, from the 

 Godaveri to Cape Comorin, are described in all the traditionary ac- 

 counts of this part of India, as one vast tract of forest to which 

 the name Dandaka, or Dandakaranya was applied, It was in these 

 thickets that Rama and Sita resided during their exile, that he com- 

 menced his warfare against the Rakshasas, or savages and fiends, who 

 divided with hermits and sages the possession of the wilderness, and 

 that Sita was carried off in resentment of Rama's successful attacks 

 upon the wild tenants of these shades. After the subjugation of the 

 savage inhabitants of Dandakaranya and the conquest of Lanka, vari- 

 ous individuals from the north, it is said, attracted southwards by the 

 performance of pilgrimage to the scenes of Rama's triumphs, were 

 tempted, by the unoccupied state of the country, to settle themselves 

 and their families upon the undisputed territory. They accordingly 

 cleared and cultivated different tracts, and thus laid the foundation of 

 future principalities. To such circumstances the Pandya kingdom owed 

 its rise. An adventurer, named Pandya, of the Velalar, or agricultural 

 tribe, first established himself in that portion of the south to which his 



authorities, and which there is no reason to call in question, arose out of the ambitious 

 extension of the territories of the Pandya prince: two occurrences of this nature are 

 noticed, one the 18th year after the death of Julius Caesar, w T hich reached Augustus at 

 Tarracona; the other six years afterwards, when that prince was at Samos. Et quidem 

 duplex erat ilia ad Augustura legatio, cujus utriusque tempus habemus exploratum ; prior 

 hello Cantabrico quam Tarracone Augustus acccpif, teste Orosio (vi. 21). Secundam 

 deinde legationem anno Varr. 7o-A,- assiguat Dio (1. liv.), quo tempore Sarai hyemavit 

 Augustus. Hos vidit, ni fallor, legates, Nicolaus Damascenus, Antiochuc Samum, ut 

 videtur, p.etentes, teste Strabone (1. xv, p. 7l9). Dodwell, do /Etate et Auctore Peripli 

 Maris Erythiei, 105. 



