Page:Tamil studies.djvu/169

142 much as the Punal Nadu or the Tanjore district and Ten-Pandi Nadu or the Tinnevelly district have been included in the twelve Kodum-Tamil nadus or districts which are enumerated in the following stanza :

தென்பாண்டி குட்டங் குடங்கற்கா வேண்பூழி பன்றி யருவா வதன் வடக்கு-நன்றாய சீதம் பாலாடுபுனனாடு செந்தமிழ்சே ரேதமில் பன்னிருகாட் டெண்.

An earlier list gives Podunga-Nadu and Oli-Nadu instead of Venadu and Punal-Nadu. It must be remembered that the ancient districts of Kuttam, Kudam, Karka, Ven and Puzhi were in the Travancore State and in the modern district of Malabar ; Aruva and Aruva-vadatalai were in the Chingleput and North Arcot districts ; Sitam was the Nilgiris ; Maladu or Malai-Nadu was in South Arcot ; Panri was on the north-west of Madura ; and Podunga and Oli were probably somewhere in the ancient Ramnad country. It cannot therefore be said that either the Chera country, or the Tondaimnandalam, or even the Chola Desain was the land of pure or SemTamil, in spite of the claims put forward by some patriotic scholars for that honour.

The mediæval Tamils were entirely ignorant of the Indian Geography, and their ignorance is betrayed in the description of the countries which surrounded the Tamil Nadu. Nacchinarkiniyar mentions twelve, namely, Singalam, Pazham-divu (the Laccadives), Kollam, Kupam, Konkanam, Tulu, Kudagan, Karunatam, Kudam, Vaduku, Telugu and Kalingam. According to