Kayal (Kayalpattinam)

Who holds it

Name

Jatavarman Kulasekara I Pandya, through his port officers; the Muslim merchants' headmen

Title

see the lord or tenant line below

Born

not known

Confidence

medium

Lord in 1200

Jatavarman Kulasekara I Pandya, through his port officers; the Muslim merchants' headmen

How things stand that morning

The leading harbour of the Pandya coast. The March-April fishery of 1200 and the winter horse landings are the main events.

Wealth

Horse and pearl duties, customs, brokerage.

Military

A harbour guard; no figure.

Threats

• A barren pearl bank
• A seaborne Sinhalese or Chola move on the Mannar strait

Charter

Customs privileges to foreign merchants under royal grants are the rule on the coast; the text for Kayal is not known to me

Council

The crown's port officers and the heads of the Muslim merchants' quarter; none named

Communities

Muslim merchants (the later Labbai and Marakkayar), Tamil boatmen, Paravars, horse dealers from the Gulf, Hindu temple communities

Fairs and markets

The March-April pearl fishery market and camp; the winter horse landings

Militia

A harbour guard; no figure

Walls and castle

A harbour and warehouse town; no wall is described in the pages we read

Trade and crafts

Horses in, pearls and chank out, cloth, palmyra produce; shipping to the Gulf, Ceylon and the east

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 and the market on the shore.Depends on: A flat sea and a good bank. Stopped by: A barren bank or storm.
2. November 1200 to March 1201Horse landings.Depends on: The Gulf shipping season. Stopped by: A failure of the Gulf trade.

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign board entry kayal-kayalpattinam (8.573,78.12) agrees with the gazetteer. The campaign board's story that the Marakkayar hold a royal charter over the pearl fisheries is unsupported (see Pearl coast).

Evidence: Institution and season are certain; the persons are not named.

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

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