________________
PĀŅDYAS
191
Mārkandeya,1 Vāyu 2 and Matsya, we find mention of the Pāņdyas. In Rock Edicts II and XIII, Asoka mentions the Pandyas whose territory lay outside his empire. The relations between the Damiļas and the natives of Ceylon form one of the main strands in the narrative of the Mahāvamsa. Though on several occasions the Chronicle speaks only of Damiļas in general, still the distinction between the Pāndya and Cõla divisions of the Tamil country is well known and clearly observed in it. A careful study of the Buddhist texts shows that the Damilas were a fighting people always engaged in constant strifes with the Ceylonese. They are described as anāriyā or uncultured. “Might is right' was their policy with the result that they were defeated and mercilessly massacred in almost all their battles with the Sinhalese as we find in the Mahāvamsa Commentary (p. 482). It is only in connection with a particular Damila general named Ariyacakkavatti that we are told that he returned with all booties to the Pāndu country, the land of the Pandyas in the south. The literary tradition of Ceylon keeps us entirely in the dark as to whether those Damiļas were sent with expeditions by the king of Pāņdu or they were a race of marauders who undertook those expeditions on their own initiative. The account of Vijaya distinctly brings out that there existed a matrimonial alliance between the ruler of Lankā and that of Pāņdya. It is also mentioned that there was a very early settlement in Ceylon of skilled craftsmen and families of the eighteen guilds, all from Pāndya.4 There existed similarly a close cultural relationship and constant intercourse between South India and Ceylon; the notable centres of Buddhist learning mentioned in Pāli works being Kāveripattana, Madhurā, and Kāñcipura.5
Strabo (XV, 4, 73) makes mention of an embassy sent to Augustus Caesar about the year 22 B.C. by a king 'Pandion', possibly a Pāņdya of the Tamil country. In the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, the Pandian kingdom is mentioned which was included in Damirica.? From the Hāthigumphā Inscription of the Cheta king Khāravela of Kalinga, it appears that in his eleventh year 'he had had Pithuda ploughed with a plough drawn by an ass', and seems to have pushed his conquest further south and made his power felt even by the king of the Pāņdya country. 8
We have very little information regarding the early history of the Pāņdya country. Meagre references in the pages of classical
1 Chap. 57, V. 45.
2 Chap. 45, V. 124. 3 Chap. 112, V. 46.
4 Mahāvamsa, Chap. 7. 5 B. C. Law, Geographical Essays, Vol. 1, pp. 79-80. 6 Cambridge History of India, Vol. I, p. 597. 7 Ray Chaudhuri, Political History of Ancient India, 4th Ed., App. E, p. 541. 8 Ibid., 4th Ed., p. 349.
