________________
No. 11.)
TIRUPPUVANAM PLATES OF JATAVARMAN KULASEKHARA I.
stock, and famous for the munificence of gifts which he made. He was the immediate ancestor or a near relation of Vēl. Pāri who, like him, had earned a similar renown which made the Saiva saint Sundara mūrti Näyanār celebrate him in one of the Tēvāram hymns. Vēl-Evvi is said to have been defeated by the Pāņdya king Talaiyalangāṇattu-seruvenra-Neduñjeliyan. Vēl. Påri's liberality was such that he is said to have presented away all the 300 villages over which he was lord.“ If there is truth in these statements, the family of Evvi and Pari should have ceased to exist as a ruling power in or immediately after the time of the Pandya Neduñjeliyan and the tract of country formerly subject to them, of which the principal one was Milalai-kūrram, should have passed into the hands of the Pāņdyas and included in their dominion, i.e., Pāņdimaņdalam. It is quite in agreement with this that the inscriptions refer to Milalai-kurram as a district of the Pandya country. This ancient district of Pāndimandalam had three divisions named after the directions in which they lay, viz., Kil-kūrru, the eastern division which adjoined the sea, Mēlkūrru. the western division which included in it the villages adjoining the river Pambaşu, and Naduvir-kürru, which lay between these two. There are enough geographical references to the various divisions of this ancient district and the villages situated in them; but they lie scattered and unrecognised in the vast number of South Indian epigraphs. A mere collection of the references found in lithic records of past ages, arranged and classified under the three divisions named above, followed by the identification of the places mentioned therein and spotting them in a map is sure to remove much of our ignorance and misconception relating to this district and prove to be of value in locating easily fresh places that future discoveries might bring to light. The popular idea that all places included in the modern District of Tanjore must have belonged to the Choļas or, in other words, that the Tanjore District represents the ancient Chõļa dominion is wrong and must account for the misconception that Milalai-kūrram with its sister district of Muttūrrukurram should have been in the possession of the ancient Cholas and included in their dominion. From what has been said above, it will be clear that excepting perhaps a small portion to the north of the Veļāru river, the rest of the Arantangi Taluk lay outside the Chola dominion and that this tract was first subject to the rule of Vēl-Evvi and subsequently passed into the hands of the Pāņdyas and was ever afterwards geographically included in Pāņdimandalam and formed a major portion of two of the divisions of the ancient district of Milalai-kūrram. The following is almost an exhaustive list of the villages in Milalai-kūrram found in the inscriptions of the South Indian epigraphical collection. They are noted under the respective divisions to which they belonged and in such an order as would admit of easy identification.
1" Ombav-igai ma-vel-Evvi" and "Ton-mudir Vefir "are the expressions used in describing him in Puyam 24. * Verse 2 of Sundaramürtti-Nāyaṇār's hymn on Tiruppugalor.
• Puram 24. The words used are “Mifalaiyodu.... Muttúru tanda korra-nil-kudai-kkodi-uer. chCheliyan." Puram 110. The relevant portion runs thus -
Kadand-adu-täņai mūvirun-kūdiy. udanrapirāyiņum Parambu kolark-arida Munnur-urttē tan-Parambu-nan-nadu
Munnar-Urum parikilar per anar. In an inscription, Tiruvidavür is said to have been situated in Ten-Parambu-nadu, & subdivision of Pandi. mandalam. (No. 423 of 8. 1. 1., Vol. VIII.)
There is a valuable contribution in the Kongumalar (Vol. IV, pp. 80f.) by Mr. K. S. Vaidyanathan on 'Vél. Evvi and his country' where he has collected together most of the references to Milalai-kärram and Mutturru. kurram found in inscriptions and Tamil classical works and has successfully established that these two Districts originally belonged only to Vél-Evvi.
