Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/353

 CHAP. I. INTRODUCTORY. 305 no means improbable, they are still unknown to us, and must remain so till the full results of the Archaeological Surveys are adequately published. In the early ages of their history the Pandya kings are believed to have been Buddhists, but one of them, perhaps in the I2th century, became a vSaiva, and persecuted the heterodox sect mercilessly. The Muhammadans, led by Malik Kafur, conquered Madura in 1311, and for about half a century they held the country, till dispossessed by a new line of Pandya princes, who were probably more or less under the supremacy of Vijayanagar. About 1525, however, the Nayyaks officers of Vijayanagar usurped supreme power at Madura, and ruled there till 1736. By far the most distinguished prince of the Nayyak dynasty was Tirumalai Nayyak, who ruled from 1623 till 1659. This prince adorned the capital city of Madura with many splendid edifices, some of which have been drawn by Daniell and others. What more ancient remains there are will not be known till they have been carefully and scientifically surveyed, and the results published. The Chola kingdom extended northward from the border of the Pandya country and the valley of the Kaveri and Kolerun rivers, whose banks seem always to have been its principal seat, to the Palr river or nearly to Madras, all along the eastern coast, called after them Cholamandalam or Coromandel. Westwards their kingdom extended into Mysore, but the boundaries varied at different periods, and, after the fall of the Pallavas of Kanchi, they advanced northwards to the limits of the Eastern Chalukyas of Vengi. The date of the origin of their kingdom is not known, but the mention of Chola as a state in the Aj-oka edicts is proof of its antiquity. Their early capital was Uraiyur, now a suburb of Trichinopoly. The earliest princes of the dynasty, whose position we can assign, belong to the 9th century, but it is only with Rajaraja I., who became king in 983, that any connected chronology commences. Their epoch of greatest glory was between the loth and I2th centuries, when they seem to .have conquered not only their neighbours the Pallavas, Pandyas and Cheras, but even to have surpassed the bounds of the triarchy, and carried their arms into Ceylon, and to have maintained an equal struggle with the Chalukyas in the north. Their capital during this period was at Kanchi, now Conjivaram, which they had wrested from the Pallavas. By the middle of the I3th century, however, their power had waned, and they sank step by step, first under the Muhammadans, from whom it passed to the Nayyaks of Madura, and then to the Marathas. The Cheras occupied the country northward of the Pandya VOL. I. U