________________
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. XXV.
other Vellāru which formed the southern boundary of the country. Students unacquainted with the ancient Indian morality of warfare, which in most cases left the territories unaffected by the results of war, might think that the boundaries given above only represent what they were at the time when the author of the Solamandalasatakam and Kambar flourished, and as such, cannot be taken as true for earlier times. This notion is not correct. One can indeed see positive proof afforded by the statements of the two authorities, who were removed from each other in point of time and yet described in identical terms the boundaries, thus showing that the limits given were those in the past ages, not of their own. Annexation of territories did occur but they were rare. Whether rare or frequent, it must be further noted that such instances did not affect the geography of the place; and this will be made clear as we proceed. Another fact that is likely to mislead the student is the ancient practice of naming conquered territories after the names or surnames of the victor. It might be said that the fresh names given to places did not wipe out the older ones but were added on to them as later surnames to indicate, by the mere mention of the name with its surname, to whom or to which country the places originally belonged and who acquired it or re-named it in later times. Thus, in the double names such as Kong-ana Virasola-mandalam, Ganga-mandalam-āna Nigarilisõla-mandalam, Tondai-nad-āņa Jayangondasõla-mandalam, Rājaräja-Pandinādu, etc., one is clearly enabled to know what the ancient name of the district or province was in spite of its passing into other hands in later days. Here it might be added that it is the original name that survives in each case at the present day and not the later ones. For example, though the Pallavas ceased to be a ruling power after the Chõļa Aditya I conquered their country in the 9th century A.D. and Rājarāja I gave that country the new name Jayangondasola-maņdalam, it is the ancient name Tondai-nādu or Tondaimandalam that persists. Similarly, in the case of the Pāņdya country, which was first conquered by Parāntaka I in the 10th century A.D. and was re-named Rājarāja-Pāņdinādu in the 11th century, the name Pāņdi-nādu or Pāņdi-mandalam exists even today. The conquerors themselves carefully minded preserving the original names. Thus in the stamp of double names impressed on the places in inscriptions, there is sure indication as to what ancient dominion the places at first belonged.
Vellāru being the southern limit of the ancient Chöļa dominions, the territory lying to the south of it must have belonged to any other kingdom than Sõņādu or Sola-mandalam. That it was actually so is proved both by inscriptions and by the Tamil literature as will be seen in the sequel. Now we shall take up that portion of the Arantāngi Taluk which lies to the south of the Vellāru river, and therefore clearly outside the Chola dominion, and see to what country it belonged. Roughly, this tract is something like a triangle with one of its points turned southwards ending in Tiruppunavāśal and having its base in the north running from west to east along the course of the river Velļāļu as it flows into the sea just at the north of Maņamēlkuļi and east of Tandalai. Out of this triangle, a portion on the north-western side falls in the Pudukkottai State. It will be observed that the line 79° 5' cuts this triangle almost into two halves, one in the east and the other in the west. The portion on the eastern side forms the seaboard and extends from the mouth of the Vellāru in the north to the mouth of the Pāmbāru in the south. The western portion adjoins the Pudukkottai State and the Rämnad and Sivaganga Zamindaries and in this region the river Pämbāru is seen to mark the western boundary of a portion of the southern part of the modern Arantangi Taluk. Almost the whole of this tract of land was included in Milalaikūrram. This Milalai-kūrram is a natural division, an island formed by the rivers Vellāru and Pāmbāsu and the sea. Over it there reigned in early times a chieftain named Vēl-Evvi, of ancient
