Indian Antiquary Vol 43

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

Page 39

FEBRUARY, 1914.] THE HISTORY OF THE NAIK KINGDOM OF MADURA
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within their nominal rule were protected from foreign invasion and their propensity in fighting with one another kept in check." Subsequent researches have added much to the information given by Caldwell. It has been said that the first king of this line according to Caldwell was Parâkrama Paidya (1365) and the second Ponnumperumal Parâkrama Pâidya, who came to the throne in 1431,and that Mr. Sewell added the names of two kings between 1365 and 1431. Mr. Krishna Sastri confirms 1) the additions of Mr. Sewell. Only he says, on the authority of an earlier inscription, that Kule ekharail ruled in 1396 A.D. The Parakrama Pandya, whom Caldwell attributes to, year 1431 the really ascended the throne in 142212 A.D. and ruled for a space of 42 years till 1465 A. D.
Arik sari Par3 krama 1422-65. From a large number of inscriptions concerning him at Kuttalam and Tenkasi, we find that Arikesari Parakrama is a celebrated figure in the history of the later Pâidyan kingdom. As the builder of the important and historic temple of Visvanathaswami at Tenkasi, “the Benares of the South," which, ever since his time, was the capital of the Paidyas, he will ever live in the history of Indian religion and art. The story goes that god Visvanatha of Benares appeared to him in a vision, and asked him, as his own temple in distant Benares was dilapidated, to build a new temple at Tenkasi, on the banks of the holy Chitra Nadhi, in the Tennar Nadu. The king accordingly commenced the building of a shrine in S. 1368. It was a huge undertaking, and occupied, from the laying of the foundation to the completion of the pinnacle, the long space of seventeen years, and did not cease with the king's death.23 Parâkrama Pâidya was a great devotee of Siva, and he signalised his piety by constructing, in addition to the Tenkasi temple, a sabha at Jayantipura, a mantapa to each of the gods at Marudhûr and Senbagavanam, and by bestowing liberal endowments on the Salitsvara temple at Tinnevelly. Arik sari Parakrama was not only a builder and devotee, but in the view of Mr. Gopinatha Rao, a great soldier and an important political figure of the age. An inscription affirms that he was the conqueror over the chiefs of Singai, Anurai, Irasai, Semba, Vindai, Mudali, Virai and Vaippar. Mr. Gôpirâtha Rao believes that he was also the enemy of the celebrated Narasa Naik, the father of Krishna Deva Râya. "In all the Vijayanagar grants of the second or Tuluva dynasty, Narasa Nayaka, the father of the distinguished Krishna Deva Raya, is said to have defeated a king of Madura named Mânabhâsha. We know that Narasa lived about the time of the first usurpation of the Vijayanagar kingdom by Sâluva Narasimha14 about 1470 A. D., and
8 Caldwell's Tinnevelly, p. 54.
9 See Madr. Ep. Rep. 1906, p. 72 which gives an account of the Puduk Mtah plates, which are an im. portant document in this period of Päädyan history : (Ep. Rep. 1908 09, p 85-86.)
10 Ep. Rep. 1908-9; p. 100, Mr. Krishna Sastri here sums up all the information in regard to the Påndyan dynasty of Tinnevelly.
11 Inscription No. 270 of 1908.
12 Madr. Ep. Rep. 1909-10, p. 100; Trav. Arch. p. 44. According to Keilhorn, Arikesari Ascended the throne between 10th Juno and 19th July 1422, as proved from astronomical calculations (Soo. Ep. Ind. VII) Keilhorn mentions a Vira Pandya Märavarman, whose inscriptions are found at Tenkasi, Kilayar Koil and Tiruvadi, and who came to the throne, according to his calculation, between March and July 1443, and ruled till at least 1457. (Ep. Ind. VII).
13 For some minor differences betweon Mr. Krishna Sastri and Mr. Gopinatha Rao in regd to the meaning of the phraseology of the inscription describing the building of the temple, see. Trav. a ch. Series, p. 52.
14 This is wrong. The Såluva usurpation took place only about 1486. Narasa, however, lived about 1470. But he could not have met Peråkrama, as the latter died in 1465.