Page:History of India Vol 2.djvu/423

 INFORMATION REGARDING SOUTHERN INDIA 365 introduced from the north, there is no good evidence to show. The historical period begins much later in the south than in the north, and it is quite impossible to carry back the story of the south, like that of the north, to 600 B. c. As will appear in the following pages, the orderly history of the Chola and Pandya dynasties does not commence until the ninth and tenth centuries A. D. respectively, although both kingdoms existed in Asoka's time. The earliest dynastic annals are those of the Pal- lavas, which begin in the second century A. D. The Pallava realm is not included in the three traditional " kingdoms of the south," the reason apparently being that the Pallavas were an intrusive foreign, non-Dravi- dian race, which lorded it over the ancient territorial Dravidian kingdoms in varying degrees from time to time. H THE PANDYA, CHERA, KERALA, AND SATIYAPUTRA KINGDOMS The Pandya country, as defined by tradition, ex- tended north and south from the Southern Vellaru River (Pudukottai) to Cape Comorin, and east and west from the sea to the " great highway," the Achchan- kovil Pass leading into Kerala or Travancore, and was thus nearly co-extensive with the present Districts of Madura and Tinnevelli. The kingdom was ordinarily divided into five principalities, known as the " five Pandyas." The capital of the premier chief was in