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Pandyan kingdom
The Pandyan kingdom was an ancient state at the tip of South India, founded around the 6th century BCE. It was part of the Dravidian cultural area, which also comprised other kingdoms such as that of the Pallava, the Chera, the Chola, the Chalukya and the Vijayanagara.
The Pandyans controlled the present districts of Madurai and Tirunelveli and part of southern present day Kerala. Madurai was founded by the first Pandyan king Kulasekara.
The Pandyas excelled in both trade and learning. They controlled the important pearl fisheries along the south Indian coast, between Sri Lanka and the mainland, which produced the finest pearls known in the ancient world.
They had trading contacts with Ptolemaic Egypt and, through Egypt, with Rome by the first century CE, and with China by the 3rd century at the latest. The 1st century Greek historian Nicolaus of Damascus met at Damascus the embassy sent by an Indian king "named Pandion or, according to others, Porus" to Caesar Augustus around 13 CE.
The Pandyas were powerful in their own right, though they were subjugated at various periods by the other two Tamil kingdoms, the Pallavas and Cholas.
The Pandyas had important maritime trade via Dhanushkodi, the sea shore of Ramapanathapuram (the southern border of India and the coast of the Indian Ocean), and the city of Poompuhar was noted for trade with China, Maldives, Malaysia, and so on. There are some lineage of the Pandyan kingdom in the southern coastal areas of Tamilnadu, and the Paravas are believed to be one among the lineage. [1]. The traditional ship building, navigation knowledge, pearl fishery, fishing and salt-making knowledge of paravas were the ample proof for their claims. The community had their own local kingly Pattankatiyar for each of their sea ports of Pandiyan Kingdom and they all spread into 22 fishing hamlets: Rajackal Mangalam, Kovalam, Kanyakumari, kumariMuttam, Perumanal, Idinthakarai, Kuthenkuly, Uvari, Periathalai, Pudukarai, Manapad, Alanthalai, Thiruchendur, Virapandianpatnam, Thalambuli, Punnaikayal, Palayakayal, Tuticorin, Vaippar, Chethupar, Vembar and Mookur in the pearl fishery coast of Gulf of Mannar and adjacent Comerin coast. Maravar who were frontline defenders, Kallars who were fight initiators by ancient Tamil war protocol, Agamudiayar who were police force and internal administrators, Servai who were government servants, Vellalla Mudalis who were the administrators, Vellalla Pillai, who were the accountants, Pandaram who were cashiers, Paraiahs who were the musicians, Valluvan who were the astrologers are the Pandian castes still surviving in the Pandian districts.
After being overshadowed by the Pallavas and Cholas for centuries, Pandyan glory was briefly revived by the much celebrated Jatavarman Sundara Pandyan in 1251. But on the death of Maravarman Kulasekaran I in 1308, his sons Sundara Pandya and Vira Pandya fought each other for the throne, but in vain. Soon Madurai fell into the hands of Muslim rulers.
Other related archives6th century BCE, Chalukya, Chera, China, Chola, Cholas, Dhanushkodi, Dravidian, Jatavarman Sundara Pandyan, Kerala, Madurai, Malaysia, Maldives, Nicolaus of Damascus, Pallava, Pallavas, Paravas, Ptolemaic Egypt, Rome, South India, Tirunelveli, Tuticorin, Vijayanagara
 Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Pandyan kingdom", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki |
