Indian Antiquary Vol 41

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 148

144
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[JUNE, 1912.
KARIKALA AND HIS TIMES.
BY K. V. SUBRAHMANYA AIYER, B. A.; OOTACAMUND. ONE of the oldest cities of Southern India is ka virippampattipam. It is situated on the sea coast, 12 miles south-east of Shiyali in the Tanjore district. In ancient times it also bore the name Pugar. That it was near the mouth of the river Kaveri and had in it the temples of Sayavanam and Pallavanisvaram are recorded in the Déváram songs.2 Ancient Tamil litera ture abounds in references to this old city and these show that it was a place of considerable size and importance in early times. Excluding the authors of the Dav dram, the poets that give a glowing description of the place, the wealth of the town, the pleasures and pastimes of ita inhabitants and the busy trade which it kept up with the outside world and the inland countries, are not few. Chief among them may be mentioned the Chêra prince liangovadigal the author of Silappa ligdram; Sittalai Sáttanar who composed the Manimegalai ; Rodraikanşanîr and Nappudagar, the authors of three of the poems in the collection krown as Pattupu páltu. There are evidences in these writings to show that some of the authors visited the place which they described, while others were its inhabitants.
Not long after the time of the Saiva saints, Nanasambandar and Appar, who are assigned to the middle of the 7th century AD, the sea washed away the whole town with its boastel splendour and glory. It was about this time that the Chinese pilgrim, Hiuen Tsiang, visited many of the important places of Southern India. This town should certainly have been one of them if it had then beeu in existence, But its identity with the southern Charitrapura, as some take it, is doubtful. There are grounds to suppose that even in earlier times, there was an encroachment of the sea on this portion of the east coast, when other places seem to have been submerged in the ocean. We may perhaps trace an allusion to such any inundation in the name Tônipuram by which the town of Shiyali was known in carly times. In their lıymns on Tirukkalamalam, Nanasambandar and Appar state in clear terms that it once floathed like a boat in the water of the sea. Several villages were destroyed, bat Tôniparam is sand to have survived the effects of the event. The foundations of the original city of Kåvirippampattinam must have been laid long after the first inundation but when it was founded, how long it thrived as the principal town of the Chola empire and who the sovereigns were that ruled. over it, are facts yet to be ascertained. The Greek geographer, Ptolemy, who flourished in the second century A. D. speaks of Chabaris Emporium and this has been taken to refer to the port of Kåvirippumpattinam. After the destruction of the city by the encroachment of the sesta perhaps at the close of the 7th century A. D., it seems to have been refounded and been-again
Sewell's Lists of Antiquities, I. p. 272
1 The references that Ponni sigaramtert sdykkadu,' i.e. Saykkadu (ŠAydvanam) at the place where the Ponni (Kávéri) joins the sea : Paytta milijui Baltaru van-Pigar-made pútta raviga! falndu polinda Baykkadu' and 'Pugarir-Pallavan fchcharam ooourring in Nanasambandar's hymns and Pam-Pugår-Chchdykkadu and Kantip piimpattinattu-8dykladu found in the hymns of Appar make it clear that both bykkadu and Pallavanjávara were in Kåvirippampattigam and that the town way near the sea. It is worthy of note that Saykkdu and Siyava am are synonymous. It may also be pointed out that Sundaramarti-Nayanar who is later than the other two Saiva saints has not contributed any hymn on the templos at Kåvirippumpattigam, though he has visited places near it and composed hymns on them.
The expression Kaduvarai dainda kulal-idai midakkum Kalmalaugar' occurring in one of the hymus of Nánasambandar, 'alaiyum peru-veļlatt-annu midanda Tini puram' and 'munn frin midanda' found in the verses of Appar and 'Kadal-kola midanda kafumala valanagar' in the songs of Sundaramurti furnish evidence on the point. One other referenco in Appar's D&odram which says that four or five birds are supposed to have borne the bur. don of the feet of god at Shiyali on the day wh22 the sea encroached ou the land is also of interest,