182 Historical Sketch of the Kingdom of Pandya. 



[July 



shi herself became incarnate as the daughter and the successor of 

 this prince. 



Mumulai Tadataki, the new queen of Madura, was a warlike prin- 

 cess. She subdued, it is said, the whole of the peninsula, and carried 

 her arms over northern Hindustan to the Kailasa mountains. Here her 

 victorious career terminated in an event more glorious than her pre- 

 ceding triumphs. She was opposed by no less a person than the god 

 Siva, by whom she was defeated and taken a prisoner. It was now her 

 turn to vanquish : the god became enamoured of her charms and allow- 

 ed her to return in liberty to Madura, whither he followed her and ob- 

 tained her hand.* Having assumed a human form of great beauty, the 

 god was known by the title Sundara (the handsome) Pandyan ; and 

 although it does not appear how he attained the privilege of giving a 

 cognomen to the emblem of himself, worshipped in Madura, yet the 

 Miila Linga is most commonly known by the name of Sundareswara, 

 the god of Sundara, which it shares with that of Choka Nayaka. 



That this tradition is not wholly without foundation is established 

 by several circumstances, if we look to its implied rather than to its 

 literal import. It is not improbable that the worship of Siva was 

 introduced into the peninsula from northern Hindustan some few cen- 

 turies before the Christian era, and that, in the reign of one of the 

 early princes of Madura, it was established in that city. The tradition 

 which peoples the peninsula from the north of India, and the existence 

 of the Saiva faith there, coeval with the era of Christianity, are fully in 

 harmony with the account given of Sundara Pandyan. In further 

 confirmation of the native country whence the Tamil faith was derived, 

 it may be observed that Sanskrit, which, in Dravira Desa, as in every 

 other Hindu country, is the language of religion, is always called by 

 Tamil writers Vadd. Mozhi,t the northern speech, and, finally, the 

 learned writer from whom the remark is taken, observes, that the 

 literature and religion of the Brahmans were brought by them into the 

 peninsula from northern Hindustan."): Whether this occurred at so 

 early a period as the one now under discussion may be doubted, al- 

 though some of the circumstances we have adverted to are in favour of 

 the supposition. That there are, on the other hand, reasonable bounds 

 to its antiquity cannot be disputed; for, besides the inference deriva- 

 ble from the traditions relative to the colonisation of the peninsula, we 



* The legend relates, that the princess was born with three breasts ; the centre one was 

 to disappear when she met with a suitable spouse, and, accordingly, vanished upon her 

 encountering Sundaieswara. Images of the goddess, with three breasts, are still seen 

 amongst the sculptures at Madura. 



•r Ellis's Dissertation on Malayalam, p. 3, note. 



% Ibid, p, 26. 



