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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[JULY, 1914.
acknowledged the supremacy of the Náiks of Madura. The majority of these Kongu Polygars were not Tottiyan Naiks, but Canarese Kavuşdans. Comparative nearness to the Canarese country naturally exposed this province from very early times to Canarese invasions and immigrations. It was on account of this that the establishment of the Hoysala as well as Vijayanagar supremacy was earlier here than furtherio south. It is not surprising therefore that when Visvanatha established the Nâik kingdom of Madura and extended it over Kongu, he had to either suppress or conciliate these Kavunda chiefs, as he had to do with the Maravas and Palis of Tinnevelly. The Kavundans were Canarese, but it is curious that their chronicles say that they were Ve!!álas of Tondamandalam. They assert that about so "Kali 1100," a certain Chêraman Perumal married a Chola princess and she took with her 8,000 families of these Vellalas as her followers; and that these divided the Kongu country into 24 Nadus, over each of which they placed a Kayundan. The chiefs served the Chola, Pandya or Chêra kings as the political exigencies of the day demanded. Indeed they were not infrequently subject to Mysore. They had in this manner occupied the Kongu country for centuries; and they, as we shall presently see, were conciliated by the Nâik rulers of Madura. It is not possible to go into the details of the histories of these Kavundans, but a very brief reference to them may not be out of place. There was, in the first place, the able Vênu Udaya Kavundan of Kakavâdi;$1 the Mannâdiar of Kâdayûr, again, the chief whose ancestor Kângyan, we are informed, distinguished himself in the Kângyam Nadu as early as Kali 557 ! The Vallal Kavundan of Manjarâpuram, again, whose ancestor gave his country the name of Talai Nâdu-"country of heads"--from his habit of using the skulls of his numerous opponents for ovens! There was the valiant Vânava Raya Kavundan of Samattûr, whose namesake and ancestor, Piramaya Karundan, had dared, in order to get an interview with the Râya in Vijayanagar, to cut off of the ears, horns and tail of the Raya's fighting bull, and who, on account of his proud refusal to bow to the Raya, acquired the title of Vasangamudi Kavunda Raya! The MS history of this chief says that Vaiyapuri Chinnoba Naik of Virûpakshi was only a Veda relation and nominee of his ! Another prominent chief was the Kalingaraya Kavundan of the village of Ottukuli on the Ânaimalais, the 9th of whose line was soon to wait on Visvanatha Naik in Madura, and accompany him, like a faithful vassal, in the war with the five Pandyas. The Niliappa Kavundas of Nimindapatti had a fairly extravagant history. The first of them, it is said, served Kûna Pandya as a Sirdâr and vanquished an "Oddiya" invader,-a feat which is attributed also to some other Kavunda chiefs. His descendant also was, like others, destined to acknowledge the Naik supremacy, and pay tribute. The most important of the Côimbatore chiefs, however, was the celebrated Ghetti Mudaliâr of Dharamangalam. The MS history of his line says that, about s. 1400, two Mudaliar brothers, Kumâra and Ghetti, were in the service of “the Karta's2 at Madura ; that the latter, a vain man, once admired himself by the use of the royal ornaments on his own person, and so fearing chastisement, left for the
See the Kongudisa rdjakka! which attributes the Vijayanagar conquest to 1348-9. 80 The date is of course absurd. The dates given by the Kongu Polygar memoirs Are generally so. The chief of Kangyam, for example, is said to have lived in K, 557 and yet in the time of the Vijayanagar rulers !
81 For a full account of the topography and history of all these Palayams se Appendix VII. 82 This is the term generally used to denote the king or governor in the Naik period.
