Indian Antiquary Vol 61

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 190

172
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[ SEPTEMPEP., 1932
two copper-plate grants issued in the reign of Bhaskara Ravivarman, a king who ruled the West Coast plains from N. Malabar to Central Travancore and whose date, though scholars rage furiously together on the subject, appears to be somewhere in or about the eleventh century. These plates provide for the management of the Tirunelli Temple, and it is clear that, in the days of King Bhaskara Ravivarman. the Western Wynad was, as it is now, poli. tically part of Malabar.
Further one of the grants is issued by a chief of "East Purai Nad," presumably a vassal of Bhaskara Ravivarman, and as the modern chieftaincy of Kottayam in N. Malabar is known as Pura Nad, the Wynad Plateau was presumably regarded in the eleventh century as the eastern part of the Kottayam territory.
This reference to Kottayam is of special interest, as it gives substance to the local tradi. tions recorded by Mr. C. Gopalan Nair. According to his informants the Wynad was once upon a time" ruled by two Vēdar* chiefs, of whom Ariappan held the northern half and Vedan the southern half, the boundary between the two being at Panamaram.
A chief of Kumbla, in S. Kanara, when on a pilgrimage to Tirunelli, was kidnapped by these Vêdars. The captive chief got in touch with the chiefs of Kottayam ("Cotiote") and Kurumbranad (also in N. Malabar) and begged their aid. These two chiefs, who were kinsmen, seized the Plateau and divided it between them, Kottayam taking the Western Wynad and Kurumbranad the Eastern Wynad. The boundary between them was fixed at Padri Rock, a short distance west of Sultan's Battery.
Under the Kottayam régime the Western Wynad was divided into a number of shares or "shires." The biggest and most important area, comprising the N.E. quadrant (fig. 1), with some of the best land to the west of Panamaram, was portioned out among a dozen Malayali vassals, and assigned as an appanage to the Third Prince of the Kottayam House ; the Tirunelli quadrant was allotted to the Second Prince with two vassals ; the valley of the Periya river, commanding the all-important routes to the Kottayam home-land in N. Malabar being retained under the direct charge of the Senior Prince. Most of the S.W. quadrant (Vayattiri and Kalpatta) formed another fief, and two more fiefs were established in the area between it and the Periya Valley; one of them (Kurumbala) being placed in charge of the Payyôrmala chiefs, who held a large principality in the adjoining plains. The southern portion of the S.E. quadrant, the Muppayi-Nâd, is not mentioned among the Kottayam fiefs and was probably not under Kottayam control.
Kottayam rule endured, but in the Eastern Wynad, Parakkumital as it is called, the Kurumbranad Rajas failed to make good, and in course of time the tract was absorbed by Kottayam.
This tradition of MalayAli occupation is attested on the Kanarese side by a Mysore inscription of 1117 A.D.,10 which relates how an army of the newly founded Hoysala Empire overran the Nilgiris and "frightened the Todas" and then, turning on the "Malayâlas," drove them down into Malabar ; & campaign which necessarily implies the occupation of the Wynad. It was probably at this period that the Badagas colonized the Nilgiris and Güdalir Taluk.11 There is no evidence that the Hoysalas retained their footing in Malabar or in the Wynad.
Towards the end of the twelfth century a religious reformation established ViraSaivism (commonly called Lingåvatism) all over the Kanarese country. About a century later came the Muhammadan invasions, followed by the rebuilding of the Hoysala heritage under the ægis of Vijayanagar. In this period certain chiefs of the S. Mysore marches
? Soo Ind. Ant., 1891, 285, and Trav. Archeol. Series, 2, 31 sq. 8 Vedan is a general term for "hunter," and cannot be taken as signifying any specific race or tribe. 9 See S. Canara Manual, 1895, vol. 2, p. 248. 20 Epigraphia Carnatica, vol. 4, No. 83 of ChamarAjnagar. 11 In 1921 there were 12,539 Badagas in Gudalur Taluk.