Kulasekara I (Madurai)

Who he is

Name

Jatavarman Kulasekara I (also written Sadayavarman Kulasekaran and Maravarman Kulasekara)

Title

King of the Pandyas at Madurai (a Chola client)

Since

1190 (the accession year in the English Wikipedia article on Sadayavarman Kulasekaran I; on 1 January 1200 he is in about his tenth year)

Born

not known

Family

Son of Vikrama Pandya, the king Kulottunga III set up before 1182. His younger brother is Maravarman Sundara (king from 1216, a later event). Queens, sons and any heir are not named in the pages we reached; the crown passes to the brother in 1216 (a later event), which suggests no adult son survived him, but that is an inference.

Confidence

medium

English Wikipedia on Sadayavarman Kulasekaran I, Pandya dynasty and Kulottunga Chola III. No Pandya minister or general of 1200 is named in the pages we reached; Pandya inscriptions name their officers by office and the records we could see give none.

Overlord

Kulottunga III Chola (acknowledged, with tribute; the king dates his own inscriptions by his own regnal years from 1190)

What it holds

• Madurai with its wall and ditch, the Vaigai crossing, the royal palace quarter and the temple of Minakshi and Sundaresvara
• The Vaigai tank plain (Pandimandalam) with Melur, Manamadurai and the tanks the kings and the nadu assemblies maintain
• Tirunelveli and the Tamraparni valley with its anicuts, the Kannadian channel and the cotton country east of it (Srivaikuntam, Cheranmahadevi, Ambasamudram, Nanguneri)
• The pearl coast: Korkai (silting up), Kayal and Punnaikayal, Kulasekarapattinam, Tiruchendur, Manapad and the fishery camp ground
• The Ramnad coast and the Palk Bay ports: Periyapattinam, Kilakarai, Devipattinam, Tondi, and Rameswaram with the crossing to Lanka
• The Cumbum valley and the passes to Kerala (the Shencottah and Aramboly gaps), held through hill headmen
• Tribute and service from Maravar chiefs of the Ramnad and Sivaganga country and Kallar chiefs of the Melur and Tirumayam side

How it was acquired

By inheritance from his father Vikrama Pandya in 1190. The family's title rests on the Chola settlement: Kulottunga III, who came to the throne in 1178, beat the Sinhalese-backed Vira Pandya in a first campaign that ended before 1182, took Madurai, and set Vikrama on the throne; he beat Vira Pandya again in 1185-86 (English Wikipedia). The Pandya succession of the 1160s and 1170s was a civil war between Parakrama Pandya and a Kulasekara (whom we could not match with certainty to the Kulasekara of 1190) which drew in Parakramabahu I of Lanka and the Chola king.

Allies and rivals

Overlord: Kulottunga III, who has made and unmade Pandya kings and keeps the right to do so. Rivals: the exiled line of Parakrama Pandya (the Sinhalese-backed claimant of the 1160s, killed in the civil war) and of his son Vira Pandya, whom the Chola set up in the 1170s and Kulottunga III drove out before 1182 and again in 1185-86, after which the English Wikipedia says he fled to Ceylon; the pages we read do not show whether he or his heirs live in 1200 or where. Brother: Maravarman Sundara, who succeeds him in 1216 (a later event).

Neighbours: Venad on the far side of the Aramboly and Shencottah gaps (sik's sheet), Lanka across the Mannar strait where Queen Lilavati is said by the English Wikipedia to be a Pandya princess, and the Kongu chiefs along the northern march.

How things stand that morning

In January 1200 Jatavarman Kulasekara I is in about his tenth year on the throne. He pays tribute, dates by his own years, holds the whole Pandya country and has no war in hand. Kulottunga III is busy with the temple programme and the Telugu north, and has not yet been refused anything. The pearl fishery of March and April 1200 is the main income of the year; the horse landings of November to March are in progress.

Wealth

Pearls (a six-week fishery on the Mannar banks in March and April; the crown's share is taken in oysters before they are opened; the Paravar boatmen and divers), chank, horses landed on the pearl coast from the Gulf (the Deccan and Tamil kings cannot breed cavalry; Marco Polo and Wassaf give large yearly counts for the 1290s and 1300s, which are later and we do not carry them back), coarse cotton cloth and rice from the Tamraparni, palmyra and tank-fed rice in the Vaigai plain, tolls at the Vaigai and Manamadurai crossings, pilgrim traffic to Rameswaram, Tiruchendur, Alagarkoil and Madurai, and temple endowments. Coinage: the Pandya fish-seal coins alongside Chola kasu.

Military

No figure is given by any source we reached. Retinues of Maravar and Kallar chiefs who serve for land, royal elephants, imported horses (the Pandya can keep cavalry supplied better than any inland king), coasting craft on the pearl coast. Record: the Pandya country was beaten by the Chola before 1182 and again in 1185-86; the king has paid tribute since 1190 (an inference from the client relation); the great defeat comes about 1205 (a later event).

Threats

• A Chola invasion if tribute stops (about 1205)
• The exiled line of Parakrama Pandya and his son Vira Pandya, who fled to Ceylon after 1185-86 (heirs not located)
• His younger brother Maravarman Sundara, a rival or a successor depending on how events fall
• Maravar and Kallar raiders on the northern march
• A failed north-east monsoon, which empties the Vaigai tanks

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. March and April 1200The pearl fishery on the Mannar banks: boats assemble off Kayal and Tiruchendur, a camp and market rise on the empty shore, the crown takes its share in oysters.Depends on: A flat sea and a bank that has not been fished out; the banks fluctuate and one may be barren. Stopped by: A barren bank, a storm, or the king farming the fishery out to a merchant house.
2. November 1200 to March 1201Horse landings on the pearl coast and the Ramnad ports.Depends on: The northern monsoon ending and the Gulf shipping coming south. Stopped by: A failure of the Gulf trade.
3. From about 7 July 1200The Chola king's 23rd regnal year opens and the famine of his 23rd and 24th years begins in the Chola delta; whether it reaches the Vaigai and the Tamraparni is not known.Depends on: A failed north-east monsoon over the Kaveri country; the Vaigai and Tamraparni have their own rains. The famine is a regnal-year statement found only in the brief and the campaign board's calendar (no page read confirms it). Stopped by: A good monsoon on the Pandya side would make the Pandya country a granary the Chola cannot reach.
4. About 1205 (outside 1200)Kulottunga III's third Pandya expedition sacks Madurai and demolishes the coronation hall, and the defeated Pandya ruler is restored (English Wikipedia; the page does not give the cause); Maravarman Sundara takes the throne in 1216 and in turn beats the Chola.Depends on: A Pandya refusal while the Chola king is busy in the north. Stopped by: Continued payment, or a revolt in the Chola north.

Places of note

• Madurai (Kudal), the Pandya capital: Wall and ditch, palace quarter and the temple of Minakshi and Sundaresvara.
• Tirunelveli (Nellai), the second city: The Nellaiappar temple and the Tamraparni anicuts.
• Cumbum valley, head of the Vaigai: The gate to Kerala at the head of the river, held through hill headmen.

Where the sources disagree

• Brief and assignment name Jatavarman Kulasekara I; the English Wikipedia article is titled Sadayavarman Kulasekaran I and gives 1190 for the accession. We keep the brief's name and give the others in the holder field.
• The assignment's phrase 'Vikrama Pandya, the future Maravarman Sundara' joins two people. Wikipedia makes Vikrama Pandya the father of Kulasekara I and Maravarman Sundara I Kulasekara's younger brother. We keep them as three men.
• The campaign board entry madurai says Sadayavarman Kulasekaran I acknowledges Kulottunga III: agreed. The campaign board's madurai-city-wall is a note on the wall and ditch of the capital: the wall is drawn from the Sangam and temple descriptions and we cannot date its present form.
• The campaign board dindigul-rock and the-kongu-marchland place the Pandya-Kongu line at Dindigul; the sources we reached give no firmer line, so the march is drawn as a belt and not as a border.

Evidence: The reign dates and the Chola relation rest on Wikipedia pages summarising epigraphy; the court, ministers and household are not named in anything we could read.

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

On the map: The king's holdings are drawn as two cores; the rest of the Pandya ground is the realm outline and the chiefs' country, which were held by service and tribute and not by garrisons.

Primary sources for Pandya kingdom

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• The Lesser Chronicle (the continuation of the Mahavamsa), Dhammakitti and later monks of the Mahavihara tradition (the first continuation about the 13th century (chapters 37 to 79), carried on in stages to the 18th century). The only narrative source for Lanka in 1200. Read online
• Epigraphia Carnatica: inscriptions of the Mysore country, Various (Hoysala chancery and temple scribes), edited by B. Lewis Rice and R. Narasimhachar (inscriptions of the 4th to 19th centuries; the series ran from 1886 to 1905, revised from 1972). The Hoysala kingdom of Veera Ballala II (reigning 1173 to 1220) is documented almost wholly by the inscriptions in this series, arranged by district and taluk with full English translations. Read online
• Epigraphia Zeylanica: lithic and other inscriptions of Ceylon, Various (the Polonnaruwa kings' chanceries), edited by D. M. de Zilva Wickremasinghe, H. W. Codrington and S. Paranavitana (inscriptions of the 3rd century BC to the 18th century; the series ran from 1904). Prints with translation the stone records of the Polonnaruwa kings who held or lost the throne around 1200. Read online
• South Indian Inscriptions (Archaeological Survey of India), Various (Chola, Pandya and other chanceries and temple scribes), edited by E. Hultzsch, V. Venkayya, H. Krishna Sastri and successors (inscriptions of the 7th to 17th centuries; the series ran from 1890). The temple inscriptions printed here are the primary record of the Tamil country in 1200. Read online
• Travancore Archaeological Series, Various (Kerala chiefs, temples and merchant guilds), edited by T. A. Gopinatha Rao, K. V. Subrahmanya Aiyer and A. S. Ramanatha Ayyar (inscriptions of the 9th to 18th centuries; the series ran from 1910 to 1938). The main corpus for the Kerala coast. Read online