Telugu Historyతెలుగు చరిత్ర

Jatavarman Sundara Pandya II

Jatavarman Sundara Pandya, called the second of that name by Robert Sewell and the third by V. Rangacharya, was a Pandya king who came to the throne in 1276. The Nellore gazetteer of 1942 identified him with the Sundara Pandya who gave a village for a hall in the Ranganayaka temple at Nellore, and wrote that he was crowned at Nellore. Records of his 10th to 17th years at Nandalur, in the Kadapa country, tell of flower gardens and gifts by his officer Pillai Pallavarayar.

Jatavarman Sundara Pandya was a king of the Pandyas of Madurai who came to the throne in 1276.12 In his reign the Pandyas pressed into the Telugu country.13 An inscription at Nellore, and a group of records at Nandalur in the Kadapa (then Cuddapah) country, belong to his reign or have been given to it.142

Who he was

Robert Sewell and S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar (1932) called him Jatavarman Sundara Pandya II.2 They found records of his reign in South Arcot, Ramnad, Tanjore and Salem, as well as in the Kadapa country.23 The chronicle of Ceylon, they noted, speaks at this time of “the five brethren who governed the Pandya kingdom”.3

Crowned at Nellore

The Nellore gazetteer of 1942 wrote that Pandya attacks set back Kakatiya rule over Nellore early in the reign of Prataparudra.1 As evidence it gave an inscription of a king Sundara Pandya (Jatavarman), who came to the throne in 1276.1 He reigned for more than seventeen years and crowned himself at Nellore, the gazetteer said.1

The inscription is on the west wall of the Ranganayakaswami temple at Nellore.5 It calls the king “the emperor of the three worlds, the unequalled among kings, Sundara Pandyadeva”.56 At the request of Kalingarayar, he gave the village of Mavadikundai in Mundanadu.6 Its income was to pay for offerings in a hall built in his name in the temple.6 The year of the reign is lost.5 See the Nellore inscription of Sundara Pandya.

Records at Nandalur

Nandalur lies in the Pullampet taluk of the Kadapa district.72 V. Rangacharya (1919) listed several Tamil records of this king in its temple:47

  • in his 10th year, Pillai Pallavarayar laid out a flower garden, and gave land and gold for it
  • in his 15th year, a record that Sewell dated to 20 February 1290
  • in his 17th year, a flower garden was laid out in the name of the Tondaiman Nandivarman, by order of Manaparipala47

Pillai Pallavarayar came from Tunjalur in the Pandya country.4 Sewell and Aiyangar counted six records of Pandya princes at Nandalur, from 1286 to 1293.3 They took them, with a record of his 13th year in the Chingleput district, as signs that Pandya power was spreading north along the east coast.3

Where the sources disagree

  • His number. Sewell and Aiyangar call him Jatavarman Sundara Pandya II.2 Rangacharya calls him Sundara-Pandyadeva III.47
  • The Nellore inscription. The inscription itself names only Sundara Pandyadeva, and its year is lost.5 The Nellore gazetteer identified him with the Jatavarman of 1276.1
  • The length of his reign. Rangacharya gives 1276 to 1290.4 The Nellore gazetteer gives more than seventeen years.1 Sewell dated a Nandalur record of his 17th year to 18 March 1293.4

Footnotes

  1. Gazetteer of the Nellore District, brought up to 1938 (1942), p. 47 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  2. Robert Sewell and S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 165 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  3. Sewell and Aiyangar, Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 166 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  4. V. Rangacharya, A Topographical List of the Inscriptions of the Madras Presidency, Vol. I (1919), p. 646, Cuddapah Nos. 802–807 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  5. A. Butterworth and V. Venugopaul Chetty, A Collection of the Inscriptions on Copper-Plates and Stones in the Nellore District, Part II (1905), p. 830, Nellore No. 61 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  6. Butterworth and Venugopaul Chetty, Nellore District, Part II (1905), p. 831, Nellore No. 61 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  7. Rangacharya, Topographical List, Vol. I (1919), p. 647, Cuddapah Nos. 807–808 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

Dynasties

Pandyas

c. 1251–1311 CE

The Pandyas were an ancient Tamil dynasty based at Madurai. Their second empire reached the Telugu country in the 13th century. About 1260–63, Jatavarman Sundara Pandya I defeated the Telugus, their Telugu Choda allies and the Kakatiya Ganapati at Mudugur (Muttukuru in P. V. Parabrahma Sastry's account). He drove them to the Krishna and had himself anointed at Nellore and Kanchi. A later Sundara Pandya, crowned at Nellore, endowed a hall in its Ranganayaka temple. Pandya princes held Nandalur in the Cuddapah region from 1286 to 1293. The Kakatiyas recovered Nellore, and in 1317 a Kakatiya general restored a Sundara Pandya to his throne. Henry Yule and Robert Caldwell identified Marco Polo's 'Sonder Bandi Davar' of Ma'bar as a Sundara Pandya.

References

Sources (4)
  1. W. E. Johns, Gazetteer of the Nellore District, brought up to 1938, Vol. A (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1942, pp. 47. Paraphrased. [Public domain in India]
  2. Alan Butterworth and V. Venugopaul Chetty, A Collections of the Inscriptions on Copper-Plates and Stones in the Nellore District, Madras, in Three Parts, Part II (opens in a new tab), 1905, pp. 830–831. A. Butterworth and V. Venugopaul Chetty, Nellore No. 61. [Public domain]
  3. V. Rangacharya, A Topographical List of the Inscriptions of the Madras Presidency (collected till 1915), with Notes and References, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1919, pp. 646–647. [Public domain]
  4. Robert Sewell (ed. S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar), The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (Collected till 1923) and Outlines of Political History (opens in a new tab), University of Madras, 1932, pp. 165–166. Paraphrased. [Public domain in India]

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