1837.] 



Historical Sketch of the Kingdom of Pandya. 



183 



have the testimony of Menu,* that the Draviras were classed with the 

 impure, or outcast tribes, when those institutes were compiled ; and, 

 even in the Mahabharat, the people of the southern countries appear 

 to be considered as scarcely Hindus. 



Sundara and Minakshi, after a reign of some thousands of years, 

 resumed their celestial characters, and returned to heaven. They were 

 succeeded by their son, Wugra Pandyan, who, as the offspring of Siva 

 and Devi, was, of course, an incarnation of Eartikeya. Eastward of 

 Madura is the mountain Tiruparumkunru,f whence fell a stream, 

 named Sarovara Vaikal. Agreeably to the system of local adaptation 

 which seems to have especially prevailed in the Dekhin, and which 

 transferred the names of sacred places in the north of India to others in 

 the south, this mountain became another Kailasa, and the stream, ano- 

 ther Ganges. The scene and chief actors being thus identified, we are 

 not to be surprised that the birth of Wugra should have been here at- 

 tended with the circumstances narrated by the Puianas of the birth of 

 Skanda, or Eartikeya, and that this site acquired the honours of a 

 Tin' ha, or place of pilgrimage, under the presidence of Subrahmanya,}: 

 another name of Rartekeya, who was, from a remote date, a favourite 

 deity with the nations of the peninsula. 



Wugra Pandyan, being of such exalted origin, was engaged in con- 

 flicts proportioned to his rank, and, after subduing the kings of 

 earth, waged war against the king of heaven. Indra, being discomfited 

 by him, was compelled to grant the showers which he had forborne to 

 shed upon the Pandya kingdom. Wugra was married to Kantimati, 

 the daughter of the Chola king, and by her he had Yira Pandyan, who 

 succeeded him.^j 



* Book x. 5. 



i The most famous place under this appellation, Subrahmanya Kshetram, or Tirt'ha, 

 is in the province of Canara. A hill to the south of Madura, denominated, from ideas 

 connected with this superstition, Skanda Malai, the Mount of Skanda, another name of 

 Kartikeya, or Subrahmanya, has suffered a very curious change, Skanda Malai being con- 

 verted into Sicander Malai, the hill of Secander, or Alexander. Les naturels croient que 

 le medecin ordinaire d' Alexander le Grand y a ete enterre. Langles, ii, 11. A native 

 account says it is the tomb of Alexander himself ; an idea, no doubt, introduced by the 

 Mohammadan Fakirs, of whom many reside on this hill, and attach a profitable sanctity 

 to the small tomb, once a temple of Skanda, now the shrine of Secander, To the Hindus 

 it is equally sacred, as it is said to contain in one of its caves an image of Skanda, which 

 they go to worship. 



i This appears, however, from some accounts, to be the same as Skanda Malai (MS. 

 No, 80), which is three or four miles south-east of Madura. 



11 One account, the Raja Cheritra, vol. vi., makes great confusion with this prince and 

 his predecessors. It calls him Alaka, and makes him the father of Minakshi, married to 

 Chokanath, and of Alyarasani, married to Arjuna, At the same time he is described a» 

 the son of Malaya Dhwaja, and grandson of Sundara, an order of descent very different 

 from all the other authorities. 



