at Tribuvani near Pondicherry in and the other at Tirumukudal, Chengalpattu district, in . In Sanskrit centres, subjects like Vedas, Sanskrit grammar, religion and philosophies were taught. Remuneration was given to teachers in land as service tenure. The End of Chola Rule The Chola dynasty was paramount in South India from the ninth to the thirteenth centuries.
By the end of the twelfth century, local chiefs began to grow in prominence, which weakened the centre. With frequent invasions of Pandyas, the once mighty empire, was reduced to the status of a dependent on the far stronger Hoysalas. In , the Pandyan ruler, Jatavarman Sundara Pandyan I, sacked the Chola’s capital of Gangaikonda Chozhapuram. With Kanchipuram lost earlier to the Telugu Cholas, the remaining Chola territories passed into the hands of the Pandyan king.
marks the end of Chola dynasty when King Maravarman Kulasekara Pandyan I defeated the last king Rajendra Chola III and established the rule by Pandyas. II PANDYAS Pandyas were one of the muvendars that ruled the southern part of India, though intermittently, until the pre-modern times. Ashoka, in his inscriptions, refers to Cholas, Cheras, Pandyas and Satyaputras as peoples of South India. Korkai, a town historically associated with pearl fisheries, is believed to have been their early capital and port.
They moved to Madurai later. Many early Tamil inscriptions of Pandyas have been found in Madurai and its surroundings. Madurai is mentioned as Matirai in these Tamil inscriptions, whereas Tamil classics refer to the city as Kudal, which means assemblage. In one of the recently discovered Tamil inscriptions from Puliman Kompai, a village in Pandya territory, Kudal is mentioned.
In Pattinappalai and Maduraikkanchi, Koodal is mentioned as the capital city of Pandyas. It finds mention in Ettuthogai (Eight Anthologies) also. So, historically Madurai and Kudal have been concurrently used. Sources The history of the Pandyas of the Sangam period, circa third century BCE to third century CE, has been reconstructed from various sources such as megalithic burials, inscriptions in Tamil brahmi, and the Tamil poems of the Sangam literature.
The Pandyas established their supremacy in