The Bhikṣuṇī Maṇimēkhalai

70 - The Historical Materials
the Śilappadhikāram at any rate, as his cousin on whose behalf he
defeated a number of rival claimants to the Cōḻa throne at a place
called Nērivāyil. 27
This contemporary ruler is described in one place as Neḍumuḍi
Kiḷḷi, 28 in various other places he is Kiḷḷi, which is synonymous with
Cōḻa, with various attributes. The attributes alone vary; the varying
[36] attributes are ‘Velvēl’, 29 ‘Māvaṇ’ 30 and so on, 31 merely indicative
of some feature or other of prosperity or prowess. At the latter end of
the story of Maṇimēkhalai and, certainly in the later years of his own
reign, the city of Puhār suffered destruction by the sea. The result of
this was that many people abandoned the city and migrated elsewhere,
some temporarily and many others permanently, and the prosperity
of the city seems to have been, greatly diminished, if not completely
destroyed, as a result of this calamity. 32 That is as far as we can go
with the story of Maṇimēkhalai.
In an undoubted Śangam poem Śirupāṇāruppaḍai of a period perhaps
in the generation following, the three crowned kings of Tamil India
are described more or less fully, and the capital of the Cōḻas is there
clearly stated to be Urandai without any mention of Puhār, which
seems to confirm, though indirectly, what is inferred from the story
of Maṇimēkhalai. Perhaps the Cōḻas themselves abandoned Puhār as
a capital and went to Uraiyūr in view to the war of succession ending
in the battle at Nērivāyil. The Ceylon tradition connected with
27 XXVII. ll. 115 ff. and XXVIII. ll. 112 ff.
28 XXIV. 29.
29 XXX. 3.
30 XIX. 127.
31 5 ‘Vaḍi-vēl Kiḷḷi’ in XXV. 193.
32 XXV. ll. 176 ff.