1/8 



Historical Sketch of the Kingdom of Pandya. 



[July 



name was afterwards assigned.* This happened, according to the au- 

 thority follow ed, in the last yuga, or age, in which seventy-two princes 

 are enumerated as ruling over the kingdom. Other accounts, however, 

 do not name the founder of the monarchy, hut pass over some indefi- 

 nite interval to the reign of Sampanna Pandya, whose son, Kiila Sek- 

 'hara is, in all the lists, specified as the first king of Madura, from his 

 being regarded traditionally as the founder of that city. It is from this 

 prince that seventy-two kings are enumerated ir the list above referred 

 to.f Another list,} said to be taken from the Madura Purdna, but, if 

 so, not very accurately compiled, reckons seventy-five princes from 

 Soma Sundara, the third of the preceding list, to Kuna Pandya, who 

 appears to be its seventy-third. Another list limits the number of 

 kings from Kula Sek'hara to Kuna Pandya to thirty, § whilst it is stat- 

 ed generally, in a different authority, that the whole number of Pandya 

 kings w ho preceded Kuna Pandya, amounted to three hundred and fif- 

 ty-seven :\\ it is evident, therefore, that beyond mere names, and those, 

 perhaps, more fanciful than historical, we are not likely to derive much 

 satisfactory information from these conflicting statements. It may, 

 indeed, be observed of such lists, 51 and they are numerous, that they 

 bear their own refutation when they assert very high antiquity. The 

 names are from the first Sanskrit; but, according to the most able 

 scholars in the languages of the Dekhin, there was a period which pre- 

 ceded the infusion of Sanskrit** into the dialects of the south, and the 

 princes of those periods were, of course, not designated by exotic ap- 

 pellations. Either, therefore, the first names of the lists are modern 

 fabrications, or the lists ascend to a comparatively recent date. There 

 can be no doubt, that in examining local lists of Hindu kings in the 

 peninsula, both sources of error, or misrepresentation, are to be taken 

 into account. 



The objection advanced against these lists applies equally to all the 



* No notice of any of the kingdoms of the south could consistently occur in the Rama- 

 yana. Manu speaks of the Draviras as degraded Kshetriyas, but makes no mention of 

 Cholas or Pandyas. Both Chola and Pandya are respectively mentioned in the Mahab- 

 harata, but their origin is not there described. The Harivansa and Agni Purana, make 

 Pandya, Chola, Kerala, and Kola, great-grandsons of Dushyanta, of the line of Puru, and 

 founders of the regai dynasties named after them. The descendants of Dushyanta, how- 

 ever, as specified in the Vishnu Purana, do not include these personages, and their inser- 

 tion seems to have been the work of the more recent authorities. The Harivansa, with, 

 no little inconsistency, places the Pandyas and Cholas amongst the Kshetriya tribes de- 

 graded by Sagara. The Padma Purana has a similar addition to the list of those tribes in 

 the Ramayana. 



t List of authorities, No. 1. % List, No. 3. \ List, No. 2. 



|| Raja. Cheriti. List, No. 5. 



TT Besides those comprised in the Mackenzie Collection, Buchanan has published seve- 

 ral. (Travels in Mysore). .Some of his and those of this collection are the same, having 

 been procured at the same places. 



** Ellj* and Camfbell. Introduction to Cami-ekh.'* Telugu Grammar. 



\ 



