The Bhikṣuṇī Maṇimēkhalai

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III. The Historical Materials 25
Taking only the more prominent features, it was already pointed out
that Maṇimēkhalai refers to the three royal capitals of the Tamil land
and Kāñcī. The story begins with the Cōḻa capital of Puhār, the capital
of the Cōḻas from the days of the legendary king Kavēra. It [35] is
generally accepted as a fact that the Cōḻa Karikāla improved it and
made it exclusively the capital of the Cōḻas in his days. Uraiyūr,
called Urandai in Tamil, seems to have shared the honour with it. We
can infer from the Śilappadhikāram that the great Cōḻa Karikāla was
anterior to the period of the story contained in the Śilappadhikāram
itself and of Maṇimēkhalai as well, perhaps not long anterior. It
therefore is in complete accord with this tradition, and Puhār is
shown in the Maṇimēkhalai as in a very high state of prosperity, as it
is in the Śilappadhikāram as well. The description contained in these
may be confirmed almost in every detail by the undoubtedly Śangam
work of the famous poet Rudran Kaṇṇaṉ, whose poem Paṭṭinappālai
forms one of the collection Pattupāṭṭu. This latter work is a
description of the city in the days of the great ruler Karikāla.
Therefore the two descriptions are not far apart of each other in point
of time.
The brother of the Cēra Śenguṭṭuvaṉ, Iḷangō, describes himself as the
son of a Cōḻa princess, and his grandfather’s name is described as the
Cōḻa, ‘of the high car drawn by seven horses.’ 26 It is possible, with
good reason, to equate him with Karikāla, but the equation is
nowhere stated explicitly. His Cōḻa contemporaries are referred to in
25 Orig.: The historical materials and the conclusions to which they lead.
26 Canto XXX. Introductory prose passage.