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THE PANDYAS
epigraph can be identified with Neḍumāran Śrīvallabha. Among the benefac-
tions detailed in the Erukkaṅguḍi records attributed to this Iruppaikkuḍi-kilavan,
the construction of the tank and ambalam at Nenmali, noticed in the present
inscription is also mentioned (Ep. Rep. for 1929-30, p. 73). It is possible that
like Nenmali the other villages mentioned in that record may also contain inscrip-
tions relating to the irrigational facilities afforded to them individually by this
chief, Eṭṭi-Śāttan of Iruppaikkuḍi.
Maṛavarman Sundara-Pāṇḍya I.
37. Next in chronological order comes an inscription of Māravarman Sundara-Pāṇḍya I with the title ‘Śōṇāḍu-valaṅgi-aruḷiya’ (No. 174). This is dated in the
8th year and records an order of Kaṇḍan Āḷuḍaiyān alias Kalvāyil-Nāḍāḷvān to
the Nāttār of Adaḷaiyūr-nāḍu regarding the introduction of a new lineal measure
called Kuḍitāṅgi which measured 24 spans in length as against 18 of its predecessor,
and the consequent readjustment that had to be made in respect of the payment
of the taxes. This Kalvāyil-Nāḍālvān seems to have served Māravarman Sundara-
Pāṇḍya I and his predecessor Jaṭāvarman Kulaśēkhara I in the region comprised
by the present Tiruppattur taluk of the Ramnad distrcit and Neyyāśal in
the Pudukkottai State (Nos. 16 and 22 of 1926 and Pudukkōṭṭai Inscriptions, No. 252).
Māravarman Sundara-Pāṇḍya II.
38. A record of Kōnērinmaikoṇḍān (No. 77) from Śrīraṅgam in the Trichino-
poly district, dated in the 11+3rd year. may be assigned to Māravarman Sundara
Pāṇḍya II. The officer Aiyan Malavarāvan figuring in this record, served both
the Pāṇḍya kings Māravarman Sundara-Pāṇḍya I and II (Ep. Rep. for 1931-32,
p. 59). This inscription mentions a gift of the village Kumāranambinallūr newly
formed and named as such by donor Kuḷamukku Nāvāyan Kaṇḍa-Nambi
belonging to the merchant guild of Malai-maṇḍalam dealing in horses (kudiraich-
cheṭṭi), for providing worship and offerings to the god Alagiyamaṇavāḷa-Perumāḷ
at Tiruvaraṅgam.
The Kudiraichcheṭṭis of Malai-maṇḍalam.
The members of this guild probably plied a brisk trade in horses
in the Chōḷa and Pāṇḍya countries, as
testified to by later historians like Marco
Polo and Wassaf. They are mentioned in inscriptions in the Trichinopoly, Tanjore
and South Arcot districts. Two other horse-dealers named Paḍappai Nārāyaṇa-
Nāyakkan and Tālaippaḷḷi Śenni-Nāyakkan figure in Nos. 15 and 16 of 1935-36,
two records dated in the 24th year of Rājarāja III from Chidambaram, while in
No. 201 of 1905 from Tripurāntakam in the Kurnool distrcit dated in the
15th year of Rājēndra-Chōḷa III, mention is made of another horse-dealer named
Ashṭamūrti-Nāyakan of Malai-maṇḍalam. A record of Vikrama-Pāṇḍya (No. 161
of 1907) from Pēraiyūr in the Pudukkottai State also notices a horse-dealer of Malaimaṇḍalam. In No. 182 of 1926 from Tiruchchirrambalam near the sea-coast in the
Tanjore district, dated in the 7th year of the same king, figures a dealer named
Kulōttuṅgaśōla-cheṭṭi of Malai-maṇḍalam, while a record of Rājarāja III (No. 196
of 1928) at Tiruvalañjili in the same district refers to Gōvindan of Orutālaippaḷḷi,
a horse-dealers came from Malai-maṇḍalam, and that all the above-named horse-dealers came from Malai-maṇḍalam, and that they are invariably
called Nāyakkans or Cheṭṭis. Several merchants of this class of Nāyakkan from
Malai-maṇḍalam are mentioned in records of the 13th century A.D. from Kāñchīpuram. This horse-dealers’ guild appears to have had its headquarters in Malaimaṇḍalam (Travancore), to supervise the import of horse at ports in South India.
Jaṭāvarman Sundara-Pāṇḍya I—Kōyilponmēynda-Perumaḷ, A.D. 1251.
39. On a slab set up in front of a stone-maṭha in the South Uttira Street at
Śrīraṅgaṁ is engraved a record of Perumāḷ Sundara-Pāṇḍya without any distinguishing epithets (No. 99). On the top
of the slab are sculptured representations
of the Pāṇḍya emblem, of two carps with
a chakra mounted on a pedestal in between them. The inscription states that a maṭha called the Sundara-Pāṇḍya-maṭha was erected by the chief named Varan-
taruvān Eḍuttakai-älagiyān alias Pallavarāyan of Tuñjalūr in Naḍuvirkūrrunāḍu, for the accommodation of the tridaṇḍi-sanyāsins living at the place. It
may be assigned to Jaṭāvarman Sundara-Pāṇḍya I, in whose time many benefactions are known to have been made to the Śrīraṅgam temple. The same donor
figures in a record from Tiruppukkuli in the Conjeevaram taluk (No. 19 of
1899), wherein it is stated that he built a maṭha for the welfare of the arms
of Perumāḷ Kulaśēkhara. A benedictory verse in honour of Kōyilponmēynda-Perumāḷ Sundara-Pāṇḍya is also found in it. This person is mentioned again in
No. 176 of 1916 and in Nos. 592 and 614 of 1907 from Nandalūr in the Cuddapah
district dated in the 11th year of Jaṭāvarman Sundara-Pāṇḍya, whose 9th and 10th
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