South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

The connotation of the word Koṅgu may be noted here. This term has a more limited application than the similar ones Chēra, Chōḷa, Pāṇḍya, Pallava, etc. While each of the latter conveys to our mind not only a particular country, but also a kula or race, its people and its king, the former, i.e., Koṅgu, means exclusively a country ; it does not denote any kula or race or king. We hear of Śōla-kula, Pāṇḍya-vaṁśa, Pallav-ānvaya, etc., but not of Koṅgu-kula.^[1] It may be noted, however, that the words Koṅgar and Koṅgar-kō are applied to the people and the king of Koṅgu, but that none of the later kings of the Koṅgu country called himself a Koṅgu-dēva or Koṅgudēva-Mahārāja, or of being of Koṅgu-kula.

The difference in the connotation of the word Koṅgu from other similar ones pointed out above seems strongly to indicated that the country did not belong to, and was not ruled by, any particular dynasty of its own. It will be noticed in the sequel that a number of kings held sway over the Koṅgu country in later times and that none of them had any distinguishing epithet, surname or title, such as Māran, Śaḍaiyan, Valudi and Pāṇḍyadēva of the Pāṇḍyas ; Vaḷavan, Śombiyan, Rājakēsari, Parakēsari and Śōlamahārāja of the Chōḷas ; or Villavan, Śēramānār and Kēraḷa of the Chēras. Instead, we often the rulers of Koṅgu (from the earliest times to the latest) calling themselves by Chēra, Chōḷa and Pāṇḍya names, and adopting their Surnames, epithets and titles, sometimes indiscriminately. Some chiefs of the 13th century even declared themselves to be the lineal descendents of very early Chēra kings who were the first rulers of the northern part of Koṅgu. We have yet to discover if even those kings that were invested with the hereditary rule of the province of Koṅgu had at any time any distinct and distinguishing emblem of royalty.

The only source of reliable information for the early history of South India beyond the ken of epigraphy is the Tamil Saṅgam literature. This, in respect of Koṅgu, is unfortunately very meagre and does not shed as much light as it does on other parts of the country. In spite of this, it may be said that it does not contradict the result that we have arrived at in our enquiry. On the other hand, it leads us to think that in early times the Koṅgu country was subject to the government of its own people. We find a number of references to the people of Koṅgu, but not a single one to the king of the land. And every foreign king that subdued the country came to be styled Koṅgar-kō, ^[2] i.e., the king of the Koṅgu people. One of the Chēra kings is said to have brought under his subjection the country of the Koṅgar or the Koṅgu country (Koṅgar-nāḍ-agappaḍutti).^[3] Here Koṅgar need not necessarily mean the people. It may as well stand for Koṅgu of which it is only another form. It is said of an Āy king that he used innumerable missiles and drove the Koṅgu people to the western ocean (Koṅgar-kuḍa-kaḍal-ōṭṭiya).^[4] The Chōḷa king Kurāppaḷḷit-tuñjina Kiḷḷi Vaḷavan is reported to have seen the back of the people of Koṅgu (Koṅgu-puram-perra).^[5] All these references to the Koṅgu people and the country, and the complete absence of mention of any Koṅgu sovereign by name seem strongly to suggest that the country was subject to ‘people’s government’. In this connection it is worth noting that in speaking of the persons or kings that set up images of Kaṇṇagi in their territories, the Tamil work Śilappadigāram does not mention any king of Koṅgu by name but only Iḷaṅkōśar, by which must be meant a people, not a monarch. The plural used is worth noting.

Though the Koṅgu country seems, as shown above, to have had the people’s government, in the earliest days, it is necessary to note that the northern part of it, or what is more likely the territory that lay north of it, was subject to the rule of a king who was styled Adigaimān or Adigan or Adiyar-Kōmān and had his capital at Tagaḍūr, identified with Dharmapuri in the Salem District. A division called after the village Tagaḍūr also existed. These Adigaimāns are

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^[1] [ Cf., however, SII, Vol. V, No.241, lines 9-10.─Ed.]
^[2] Padirruppattu, 88, 1, 19 ; 90, 1, 25.
^[3] Ibid., 22, 1, 15.
^[4] Puranānūru, 130
^[5] Ibid., 373.