No Aryan – Dravidian divide. It was one Aryavartha (22)
The composition of the population in
The Cheran influence spread from eastern sea (
to the sea in the west (
Podigai ranges in the west of
were part of Cheran kingdom. (1)
What later became the Pandyan land belonged to the Cherans
at the time of Mahabharatha war.
The Pandyans were in the south of this Cheran land.
Their occupation was in the now sub-merged
Their land once extended till the equator and was dotted with hill ranges.
According to Nakeerar this land with Then-Madurai as Capital
was brimming with literary activities for 444o years.
A deluge brought an end to this era
which saw the Pandyans shifting northward,
which was in the Now sub-merged land only.
The Pandyan king, Ugra Kumara Pandyan
was ruling the kingdom at the time of this first deluge.
He stopped the surging seas by shooting a spear at the sea
gifted by Lord Soma sundara.
As a result the sea stopped at the place where he was standing
And this got him the title as “Kadal vadimblam nindra Pandyan”
(the sea washing his feet) (2)
The Kumari river was lost in this deluge
and this king was said to have dug the Pahruli river.(3)
From the information that Adiyaarkku nallaar gives
that the distance between PahruLi and Kumari was 1000 miles (700 kavathams)
one can imagine the extent of Pandyan kingdom before the first deluge.
The Pandyans ruled from Kavaatapuram on the banks of Pahruli
for 3700 years.
This was the situation in Tamilnadu when Kaliyuga started.
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The start of Kali yuga was beset with some important events.
The Mahabharatha war got over by then.
and a deluge engulfed Dwaraka.
Mausala parvam of Mahabharatha describes
the sub-mergence of Dwaraka that was witnessed by Arjuna and Vrishnis.
The people vacated Dwaraka, before the sub-mergence.
The wives of
the land of 5 rivers and also towards
This is recorded in Mahabharatha.
The timing was sometime in 3000 BC,
and to be precise on the basis of astrological dating
it was around 3201 BC.
This time of the start of Kaliyuga can be corroborated from many works.
A continuous up-date of the time from Kaliyuga is happening in our society.
The sankalpa mantras keep a record of it.
The famous astrologer –astronomers such as Bhaskara, Varahamihira etc
had followed the age-old practice of noting the time period in their works
and their works also corroborate well with the time mentioned above.
The information that must be noted from these is that
the deluge happened at Dwaraka nearly 4700 years ago
and that the inhabitants of Dwaraka had left to safer destinations.
Mahabharatha tells about the migration to North.
It is also probable that many could have chosen to remain in the safer locations
east of Dwaraka.
But a group of people had left for Tamil nadu is what is known from Tamil texts.
Sage Agasthya, who had been a pioneer in enriching Tamil language
and whose grammer book, Agasthyam (Ahgattheyam)
had been the rule book for more than 10,000 years spanning to 2 Sangam periods,
reached Dwaraka after the deluge.
He took with him people from 3 different segments of the society
and led them to Tamil lands where he had them settled in different locations.
In his commentary on the prefatory sutra to Thol Kappiyam,
the Grammer rule book of the 2nd and 3rd Sangam,
Nacchinaarkkiniyar describes
the tradition related to the migration of Yadava race to Tamil lands.
In the commentary on Paayiram of Thol kaapiyam, Nacchinaarkkiniyar says,
“Agatthiyanaar ..Thuvaraa-pathi pOndu,
nilam kadantha nedu-mudi aNNal vazhi-k-kaN arasar padhiNmaraiyum,
padhiNeNkudi VeLiruttaraiyum,
AruvaaLaraiyum kondu pOndu,
kaadu kedutthui naadaakki..”
(Agasthya went to Dwarkapathi and brought back with him
18 kings of the lineage of
18 families of Velirs and AruvaaLars and
had them settled in the lands by clearing the forest tracts)
The same information is told by Nacchinaarkiniyar in his commentary
for the 32 nd sutra of AgatthiNai-iyal,
“Malaya Madhavan nilam kadantha nedumudi Annalaluzhai
nara-pathiyaarudan kONarntha
padhiNeN vagai kudi-p-pirandha VeLirkkum..”
(the kings born in the family of
VeLirs born in 18 families (kudi) were brought)
Thus the beginning of Kali yuga saw a change
in the composition of population
in Tamil lands.
This period saw the entry of new settlers from Dwaraka.
No verse is available to us as to what happened in the immediate wake
of these migrations.
This may be because even the south was in the grip of cataclysms at that time.
The available verses speak about the glory of the kings before this time
and well after wards to this time.
It seems the third deluge happened in the South
at the time of deluge at Dwaraka.
It is suggested that marine archaeologists initiate explorations
in the south of Kanyakumari
to explore the sunken
Fisher-folks venturing into the waters off Kanyakumari
have tales to tell about their nets getting caught in strange objects.
A thorough search is needed and it must be analyzed
whether this is the same period when Dwaraka also was submerged.
Because the textual interpretations say so.
was present at the sangam at Kavaata puram.
Some incidents seemed to have happened on his visit to the Pandyan kingdom.
One was his marriage with Nappinai (UpakEsi) (browse my blogs to get details on this)
Another was a fight with a Pandyan king which is reported in Mahabharatha.
From Mahabharatha we come to know of a Pandyan Prince, Sarangadhwaja
who joined the army headed by Dhristadyumna's son, Kshatradharman
in Mahabharatha war.
Mahabharatha says,
“The mighty Sarangadhwaja, endued with wealth of energy, the king of the Pandyas,
on steeds of the hue of the moon's rays and decked with armour
set with stones of lapis lazuli, advanced upon Drona,
stretching his excellent bow.
His country having been invaded and his kinsmen having fled,
his father had been slain by
Obtaining weapons then from Bhishma and Drona, Rama and Kripa,
prince Sarangadhwaja became, in weapons,
the equal of Rukmi and Karna and Arjuna and Achyuta.
He then desired to destroy the city of
Wise friends, however, from desire of doing him good,
counselled him against that course.
Giving up all thoughts of revenge, he is now ruling his own dominions.
Steeds that were all of the hue of the Atrusa flower
bore a hundred and forty thousand principle car-warriors
that followed that Sarangadhwaja, the king of the Pandyas." (4)
So the interaction between Tamils and the Pandavas, Vrishnis
and others of the north had been there
by the time of deluge at Dwaraka.
Since it is reported (by Adiyaarkku Nallar) that Kavaatapuram,
where the sangam assemblage was held
was sub-merged,
we can assume that the sub-mergence did not happen until
or as long as
And since a Pandyan king had participated in the Mahabharatha war,
and food had been supplied by the Cheran king for the war,
we can safely assume,
that the deluge did not happen until the Mahabharatha war was over.
It must have happened after that only.
From the verses in Silappadhikaram,
kalithogai (5)
and PurannaUru (6)
we come to know that during this 3rd deluge,
the Pandyan king made a valiant effort
to safeguard as many of his subjects as possible
and find a new home for them in the Cheran and Choaln territories after defeating them.
This is how the Pandyans came to occupy Podhigai regions and Madurai.
The memory of the deluge enshrined in the verses is moving
and the efforts of the Pandyan king to establish a kingdom of his own
and for his subjects had been a tale of pride and valour
that was not forgotten by his subjects
(as shown by the verses in Kalitthogai).
The interesting point to mention here is
that these people (from whose viewpoint the kalitthogai is written)
and the people from Dwaraka
shared a common background –
they were cow-herds!
The aayars of the Pandyan land and
the yadavas of the Dwaraka
merged well in the new set-up.
But other immigrants from Dwaraka had a different experience.
(to be continued)
Reference :-
(1) PuranaanUru -2 on Udhiyan Cheralaadhan who supplied food to armies of
both the sides in Kurukshethra war.
(2) ThiruviLaiyaadal puranam –(21-6), Silappadhikaaram (11-17-12), Villi Bharatham (13th day war -18), Madurai-k-kanchi -61, Nala VeNbha – swayamwara khandam- 137)
(3)“ PuranaanUru – Moolamum Uraiyum” by Dr U.Ve Swaminatha Iyer page 78
(4) Mahabharatha 7-23 -Dronabhisheka parvam
(5) Kali-th-thogai 104
(6) PuranaanUru 58
