Page:The Periplus of the Erythræan Sea.djvu/248

 238

was said to have been established by the descendants of Pandu, who was the father of the Pandava brothers, the heroes of the North Indian war recounted in the Mahabharata. Whether the dynastic connection was real, or whether it was attached to the legend like Pushkalavati and Takshasila through Pushkala and Taksha, sons of Bharata in the Rarnayana, is less Important than the obvious Aryan descent of the dynasty in this Dravidian land, and their rigid institution of the caste-system which still prevails here in a completeness long since outgrown in other parts of India. Those who would see in the northern spread of this dynasty a southern origin for the Dravidian race do not take into account the late origin of the dynasty, probably the 5th or 4th century B. C., and its alien character among a people already settled and developed.

Arrian ( Indica, VIII) gives another version of the origin of this dynasty, from Pandasa, who, he says, was “the only daughter of Heracles, among many sons; the land where she was born, and over which she ruled, was named Pandaea after her. ” No worthy con- sort appearing, Heracles made her marriageable at the age of seven years, and married her himself, that the family born from him and her might supply kings to the Indians.”

The story is not accepted by Arrian in entire faith; he observes that the power exerted by Heracles in hastening the maturity of Pandaea might more naturally have been applied to the postponement of his own senility; but, as he says in another connection (XXXI), “I know, however, that it is a very difficult task for one who reads the ancient tales to prove that they are false.’ ’

In Greek literature concerning India, Heracles is usually iden- tified with Vishnu, and Bacchus with Siva.

The dominion of the Pandyas was divided among three reputed brothers, Chera, Chola and Pandya, in which form it appears in Asoka’s inscription of the 3d century B. C., and in the Periplus. The capital had been removed, as Pliny states, to Madura (9° 55' N., 78° T E. ), which the Rarnayana describes as a great city, its gates being of gold inlaid with gems.

The seceding kingdoms were larger and more powerful than the original, the most important being the Chola, the “Coast Country” of § 59.

The dynastic succession of these kingdoms forms the longest un- broken chain in Indian history, covering a period of at least two thousand years.

(See Imperial Gazetteer, XVI, 389; — Vincent Smith, Early History, 341-7; and authorities quoted on p. 209.)