PANDYA DYNASTY

Tamil rulers in the extreme south of India of unknown antiquity (they are mentioned by Greek authors in the 4th century BC). The Roman emperor Julian received an embassy from a Pandya about AD 361. The dynasty revived under Kadungon in the early 7th century AD and ruled from Madura or farther south until the 16th century. The small but important (9th13th century) dynasty of Pandya of Ucchangi, a hill fort south of the Tungabhadra River, may have originated from the Madura family. The Pandya kings were called either Jatavarman or Maravarman. From being Jains they became Saivas (worshipers of Siva) and are celebrated in the earliest Tamil poetry. They ruled extensive territories, at times including the Cera (or Kerala) country, the Cola country, and Ceylon through collateral branches subject to Madura. The Five Pandyas flourished from the 12th to the 14th century and eventually assumed control of all the plains of the extreme south as far north as Nellore (1257). Family quarrels, however, and Muslim invasions, from 1311, culminating in the foundation of the Madura sultanate, weakened P andya influence. By 1312 control over Kerala was lost, and by the mid-16th century all their territories had passed into other hands.