Page:Madras Journal of Literature and Science, series 1, volume 6 (1837).djvu/205

1837.] have the testimony of Menu, that the Draviras were classed with the impure, or outcast tribes, when those institutes were compiled; and, even in the Mahábhárat, the people of the southern countries appear to be considered as scarcely Hindus.

Sundara and Minákshi, after a reign of some thousands of years, resumed their celestial characters, and returned to heaven. They were succeeded by their son, Wugra Pandyan, who, as the offspring of Siva and Déví, was, of course, an incarnation of Kártikéya. Eastward of Madura is the mountain Tiruparumkunru, whence fell a stream, named Sarovara Vaikál. Agreeably to the system of local adaptation which seems to have especially prevailed in the Dekhin, and which transferred the names of sacred places in the north of India to others in the south, this mountain became another Kailása, and the stream, another Ganges. The scene and chief actors being thus identified, we are not to be surprised that the birth of Wugra should have been here attended with the circumstances narrated by the Purànas of the birth of Skanda, or Kártikéya, and that this site acquired the honours of a Tirt’ha, or place of pilgrimage, under the presidence of Subrahmanya, another name of Kártekéya, who was, from a remote date, a favourite deity with the nations of the peninsula.

Wugra Pandyan, being of such exalted origin, was engaged in conflicts proportioned to his rank, and, after subduing the kings of earth, waged war against the king of heaven. Indra, being discomfited by him, was compelled to grant the showers which he had forborne to shed upon the Pandya kingdom. Wugra was married to Kántimati, the daughter of the Chola king, and by her he had Víra Pandyan, who succeeded him.