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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
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CHAP. XVI. TANJORE
335
end of the genuine Pandya Dynasty and the Mahomedan invasion ; whilst lists of numerous princes who reigned in this period have been banded down. Now we have just seen that the Mahomedan invasion took place in 1311, and we must throw aside the traditions and the lists altogether if we suppose that the Sundara Pandi of 1292 was the last prince of the Old Line. Indeed, though the indication is faint, the manner in which Wassáf speaks of Polo's Sundara and his brothers as having established themselves in different territories, and as in constant war with each other, is suggestive of the state of unsettlement which the Sri Tala and the traditions describe.
There is a difficulty in co-ordinating these four or five brothers at constant war, whom Polo found in possession of different provinces of Ma'bar about 1290, with the Devar Kalesa, of whom Wassáf speaks as slain in 1310 after a prosperous reign of forty years. Possibly the brothers were adventurers who had divided the coast districts, whilst Kalesa still reigned with a more legitimate claim at Shahr-Mandi or Madura. And it is worthy of notice that the Ceylon Annals call the Pandi king whose army carried off the sacred tooth in, 1303 Kulasaikera, a name which we may easily believe
to represent Wassáf s Kalesa. (Nelson's Madura, 55, 67, 71-74 ; Tumour's
Epitome, p. 47. )
As regards the position of the port of Ma'bar visited, but not named, by Marco Polo, and at or near which his Sundara Pandi seems to have resided, I am inclined to look for it rather in Tanjore than on the Gulf of Manar, south of the Rameshwararn shallows. The difficulties in this view are the indication of its being " 6o miles west of Ceylon," and the special mention of the Pearl Fishery in connection with it. We cannot, however, lay much stress upon Polo's orientation. When his general direction is from east to west, every new place reached is for him west of that last visited ; whilst the Kaveri Delta is as near the north point of Ceylon as Ramnad is to Aripo. The pearl difficulty may be solved by the probability that the dominion of Sonder Bandi extended to the coast of the Gulf of Manar.
On the other hand Polo, below (ch. xx.), calls the province of Sundara Pandi Soli, which we can scarcely doubt to be Cliola or Soladesana, i.e. Tanjore. He calls it also " the best and noblest Province of India," a description which even with his limited knowledge of India he would scarcely apply to the coast of Ramnad, but which might be justifiably applied to the well-watered plains of Tanjore, even when as yet Arthur Cotton was not. Let it be noticed too that Polo in speaking (ch. xix.) of Mutfili (or Telingana) specifies its distance from Ma'bar as if he had made the run by sea from one to the other ; but afterwards when he proceeds to speak of Cail, which stands on the Gulf of Manar, he does not specify its position or distance in regard to Sundara Pandi's territory ; an omission which he would not have been likely to make had both lain on the Gulf of Manar.
Abulfeda tells us that the capital of the Prince of Ma'bar, who was the great horse-importer, was called Bíyardáwal,* a name which now appears in the extracts from Amír Khusru (Elliot, III. 90-91) as Birdhúl, the capital of Bir Pandi mentioned above, whilst Madura was the residence of his brother, the later Sundara Pandi. And from the indications in those extracts it can be gathered, I think, that Birdhúl was not far from the Kaveri (called Kánobari), not far from the sea, and five or six days' march from Madura. These indications point to Tanjore, Kombakonam, or some other city in or near the Kaveri Delta.t I should suppose that this Birdhúl was the capital of Polo's Sundara Pandi, and that the port visited was Kaveripattanam. This was a great sea-port at one of the mouths of the Kaveri, which is said to have been destroyed by an inundation about the year 130o. According to Mr. Burnell it was
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t My learned friend Mr. A. Burnell suggests that Birdhúl must have been Vriddachalam, Virdachella;n of the maps, which is in South Arcot, about 5o miles north of Tanjore. There are old and well-known temples there, and relics of fortifications. It is a rather famous place of pilgrimage.
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