manya[1] according to the poet Nakkirar. This hill is south-west of modern Madura but directly west of the ruins now known as old Madura; east of the capital was another hill, where there was a temple dedicated to Vishnu. On the latter hill were three sacred springs, to bathe in which was believed to he an act of great merit by the votaries of Vishnu.[2] On the way from Madura to Uraiyur (now a suburb of Trichinopoly) were the Sirumalai hills which were covered with groves Of mango and jack trees, arecanut and cocoanut palms, and where onion, saffron, raggy, millet, hill rice, edible roots, plantain and sugarcane were cultivated extensively.[3]
Of the boundaries of Pandinadu, or of the exact extent and position of the other twelve Nadus comprised in Tamilakam, there is no record in ancient Tamil poems. The accounts given by commentators are also conflicting.[4] In the absence of any connected account of the ancient geography of the country by Tamil authors, I have had to make my own researches with the help of the information available in the Periplus and in the works of Pliny and Ptolemy.
There were four Nâdus or provinces bordering on the Arabian Sea, in the following order, from North to South: Pooli,
- ↑ Thiru-murukattup-padai, 71-77.
- ↑ Chilappathikaram, xi. 91-103.
- ↑ Ibid., xi. 80-85.
- ↑ Guuasâgara in his commentary to the Yâpparunkalam of Amrithasâgara, eighth sutram of the third part Olipiyal, gives the limits of Chen-Tamil-nadu or the province where pure Tamil was spoken “as north of the Vaigai river, south of the Marutha river, east of Karuvur and west of Maruvur.” This would include approximately, the northern half of the modern district of Madura and the Tanjore and Trichinopoly districts. It would exclude Madura, the capital of the Pandya. The commentator Chenâvaraiyar and after him, Nachchinâr-kkiniyar accepted this definition of Chen-Tamil-nadu, and they mention the names of the surrounding Nadus in the following order from the South-east to the North-east of Chen Tamil Nadu :—Ponkar, Oli, Then-pandi, Kuddam, Kudam, Pauri, Karka, Cheetham, Pooli, Malayamanadu, Aruva and Aruva vada thalai. Gunasgara gave the same list with this difference that instead of Ponkar and Oli, he had Ven and Punal Nâdus. Sankara-namach-chivayar rejected with very good reason, this definition of Chen Tamil Nadu, in his commentary to Pavananti’a Nannul, Chollathikaram, Peyariyal, sutrams 14 and 16. He was of opinion that Chen Tamil Nadu ought to have included Pandi Nadn and excluded the Chola country or Punal Nadu.
