The Bhikṣuṇī Maṇimēkhalai

52 - How Far Historical in Character?
possibilities would arise if the poems deal with subjects that had
actually lived and passed away into history. These two poems take
their subjects [18] from contemporary life, as was already pointed out
in connection with the life of the authors. The matter is therefore to
some extent simplified for us in the fact that the authors have chosen
for their poetical treatment subjects contemporary with themselves.
Therefore whatever of historical, geographical and social features
that we may discern in the poem and which we may find it possible to
extricate from the encumbrances of poetical idealizing, must
necessarily have reference to the times of the authors themselves. To
that extent we are here face to face with pictures of history, idealized
though they be.
Maṇimēkhalai begins with the great festival to Indra in Puhār.
Throughout the whole work Puhār is spoken of as the Cōḻa capital
and even where its destruction by the sea is referred to, no other
capital of the Cōḻas finds mention. Puhār, therefore, may be taken to
have been the habitual capital of the Cōḻas in the course of the story.
The ruler of the kingdom was one who is described variously as
Neḍumuḍi Kiḷḷi or Māvaṇ Kiḷḷi or Velvēr Kiḷḷi or even Kalar Kiḷḷi.
He married in the family of the Mahābalis or the Bāṇas, 13 and his
queen’s name is given as Śīrti. He had a younger brother by name
Iḷaṁ Kiḷḷi who was ruling over Kāñcī at the time when Maṇimēkhalai
arrived in the city. That would mean that Kāñcī was a viceroyalty of
the Cōḻas, and was at the time being governed by a royal prince. In
other words, it was of sufficient importance to be regarded as a
palatine viceroyalty. This Iḷaṁ Kiḷḷi, the viceroy of Kāñcī, won for
13 XIX, ll. 50-55