198 Historical Sketch of the Kingdom of Pandya. [July 



Chandra Kula Dwipa.* He was succeeded by fourteen princes, in the 

 reign of the last of whom the province of Madura was first assailed by 

 the Musalman arms; an occurrence which enables us to form some es- 

 timate of the dates of preceding transactions. 



The first Mohammedan invasion of the Dekhin occurred in the reign 

 of Alla-ad-din in 1293. The first army that crossed the Krishnaf was 

 led by Kafur, or Malek Naib, in 1310-11 ; and, as he carried his con- 

 quests to Rameswar, the work cited may possibly refer to this incursi- 

 on. According to another authority, the event was dated in 1325, 

 which is sufficiently near, unless, which is not improbable, the allusion 

 blends the first and second invasion together, in which last Mujahid 

 Shah, J in 1374, overran the countries between Vijayanagar and Cape 

 Comorin, and advanced to Rameswar. In either case we have a pe- 

 riod of less than three centuries assigned to fifteen princes, which 

 would leave no very disproportionate average for their reigns, except 

 that, as the whole season was one of tumult and disorder, and as the 

 rulers were usurpers and intruders, they must claim considerably less 

 than the average duration which might be assigned them in tranquil 

 times, and under long prescriptive sway. 



Any deduction to be made from the average duration of the reigns in 

 question, may partly be filled up by the period of anarchy which suc- 

 ceeded the destruction of Madura. How long this continued does not 

 appear; nor, indeed, can its existence to the full extent of the authority 

 here followed be admitted. The sovereign of Madura, deposed by the 

 Chola prince, was subsequently restored by him ; and in the inscrip- 

 tions of the Belala race, in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, it is 

 said, they made the kings of Madura their tributaries. § It is probable, 

 therefore, that legitimate princes of the ancient house continued to sit 

 on the throne of Madura, some time after the capture or conflagration 

 of their capital, till, weakened by foreign aggression and domestic dis- 

 obedience, they finally yielded to the enterprise of an adventurer, and 

 the establishment of a new dynasty. || 



* List, No, 1, series 3. 



+ Scott's History of the Dekhin, Introduction, p. xiii, X Ibid. vol. i. p. 42, 



\ As late as the reign of Vira Narasimha (1149 to 1172). 



II Toward the end of the thirteenth century, Marco Polo calls the king of that part of 

 the peninsula opposite to Ceylon, and the site of the pearl fishery, lender Bandi. II 

 (Re) principale che e capo della provincia si chiama Sender Bandi, nel suo regno si pes- 

 cano le perle. Marsden conjectures Chandra Bandi may be understood to signify the 

 " slave or servant of the moon," 627, note 1257 ; but the Madura records furnish us with 

 a much more obvious derivation. The king Sender Bandi may possibly be the Chandra 

 Pandi, or Pandya of the text. If this is not thought satisfactory, it may be a slight cor- 

 ruption of the hereditary title of the prince of Marwar, in whose boundaries the pearl 

 fishery lies, and who has been for a long period past entitled the Setu Pati, or Lord of the 

 Bridge ; the ridge of rocks between Rameswar and Manor, 



