Tirunelveli (Nellai)

Who holds it

Name

Jatavarman Kulasekara I Pandya, through a royal governor and the Nellaiappar temple's managers

Title

see the lord or tenant line below

Born

not known

Confidence

medium

Lord in 1200

Jatavarman Kulasekara I Pandya, through a royal governor and the Nellaiappar temple's managers

How things stand that morning

The second seat of Pandya power and the nearest big town to the pearl coast. No event is dated for 1199-1200.

Wealth

The Tamraparni's irrigation, cotton and rice.

Military

A garrison; no figure.

Threats

• A failed north-east monsoon
• A raid through the Aramboly or Shencottah gap

Charter

No charter known

Council

A royal governor, the temple managers and the assemblies of the river villages; none named for 1200

Communities

Brahmins, Vellalar farmers, weavers, merchants, Paravars and Muslim traders of the coast

Fairs and markets

The temple festivals; the cotton markets of the east

Militia

A garrison; no figure

Walls and castle

Not described in the pages we read

Trade and crafts

Cotton cloth, rice, palmyra jaggery, the river's canals; pearls and chank brought up from the coast

Places of note

• Ambasamudram: Town on the upper Tamraparni.
• Cheranmahadevi: Brahmadeya town, an old Chola-era assembly village.
• Srivaikuntam: Vishnu temple town on the lower river; one of the nine Tirupati shrines.
• Mannarkovil: Temple village near the head of the Kannadian channel.
• Thirupudaimarudur: Temple village on the Tamraparni.
• Papanasam: Falls and temple on the upper Tamraparni.
• Kalakkad: Foothill village of the Podigai range.
• Nanguneri: Vishnu temple town, a stage toward the Aramboly gap.

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign board entry tirunelveli (8.728,77.70) and tirunelveli-nellaiappar (8.728,77.687) are the same cluster; the temple is covered in the religious array.

Evidence: A major town about which the pages we read give almost nothing dated for 1200.

"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