Jain Journal 1970 10

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 35

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according to Tholkappiar is observed as such by the people of Kanyakumari. The word 'asan' which means an authority in literature, medicine, astrology, mantra, wielding quarterstaff (silampam), etc., is used in the same sense here. This district of hilly region consists of numerous places bearing names ending in Kodu, such as Kattimankodu, Tiruvithamkodu, Tiruvidaikodu, Pakodu, Vellikodu, etc. (kodu means a hill). Indeed the name Vilavankodu is said to be derived from Valluvankodu.
Tirukkural is a work subsequent to Tholkappiam; its author Tiruvalluvar is a native of Nanjilnad, the nucleus of Kanyakumari district. Nanjilkuravan and Nanjilvalluvan are synonymous. Nagam Aiya's Travancore State Manual and Mudaliar Palm Leaf Records throw some light on the history of Nanjilkuravan. The places Kurathiyarai and Kuravanthattuvilai near Alagiapandipuram are positive proofs that Nanjilnad was dominated by Kuravas, otherwise known as Valluvas, in days of yore. We have evidence in Purananuru, an anthology of Tamil literature, that Nanjilnad was ruled by one Nanjil Porunan who has been eulogised by the poets Oruchirai Periyanar®, Maruthan Ilanaganar?, Avaiyars and Karuvur Kadappillai9. The commentator of Purananuru describes Porunan as Nanjil Valluvan. Karuvur Kadappillai remarks that Valluvan was a chieftain under the Pandya king.
JAIN JOURNAL
Today the name Nanjilnad denotes the region comprising Agas" teeswaram and Thovalai, the two southrn-most taluks of Tamilnad. But in ancient days it comprised a slightly bigger region. It is learnt from the Mudaliar Palm Leaf Records that it covered the tract bounded on the north by the place Mangalam in Vilavankodu taluk and on the south by the Manakkudi lake. (Mangalam muthal Manakkudi varai'.)10
Valluvanad was one of the divisions of Nanjilnad and it was ruled by a chieftain Valluvan, who happened to be a poet of genius. No doubt he was closely related to Nanjilvalluvan. One of the inscriptions belonging to the 18th year of the great Chola king Raja Raja I found in the rock-cut cave temple at Tirunandikkarai records the gift of the village of Muttom in Valluvanadu to the temple of Tirunandikkarai and the name of the village has been altered as Mummudi Cholanallur.11
• Puram, 137.
? Puram, 138, 139.
8 Puram, 140.
• Puram, 380.
10 T.A.S., Volume V, page 228.
11 T.A.S., Volume I, page 292.