Maravarman Rajasimha I ruled in the middle of the eighth century AD and was a contemporary of Nandivarman II Pallavamalla. Rajasimha I was also called Termaran. In the Pallava court at Kanchi there was a struggle going on between Nandivarman II and Chitramaya, a son of Paramesvaraman II.

The Pandyan king supported Chitramaya and on his behalf fought the Pallava king at Neduvayal, Kurumadai, Mannikurichi, Kodumbalur and so forth. In all these battles the Pallava was defeated.

Finally, the Pandya besieged the Pallava at Nandigramam near Kumbakonam. In the meanwhile Udayachandra, the Pallava general, rushed to the rescue of his king, lifted the siege, seized and beheaded Chitramaya and secured the throne for his master, having defeated the Pandya. The Pandya secured victories elsewhere over the Gangas, conquered Malakongam and defeated the Chalukya in the battle of Venbai.

The foreign policy of the Pandyas during this period was anti-Pallava, a policy which continued till the end. Rajasimha’s kingdom extended upto Pandikkodumudi in the north-west where he worshipped Siva and made generous gifts to the needy and the deserving. Nedunchadayan

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Jatila Parantaka Nedunchadayan succeeded his father and he proved to be the greatest of the Pandyas of the Kadungon line. He was the famous contemporary of the Velvikkudi grant and a donor of that village to the descendants of the original donees. He was also the donor of the Madras Museum plates.

The Anamalai and the Trichinopoly inscriptions give him titles like Jatilaparantaka, Varagunamaharaja, Maranchadayan and Nedunchadayan. The Velvikkudi grant was made in the 3rd regnal year of that king.

The Velvikkudi copper­plate grant records the redonation of a village granted in the Sangam times by the Pandyan Palyagasalai Mudu-Kudumipperuvalludi to a Brahmin Korkaikilan Narkorran.

The Kalabhras had disestablished this charity. A descendant of this Korran called Narsingan petitioned Nedunchadayan for the restoration of the old grant. The village was regranted and named Velvikkudi.

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This extraordinary act of charity persuaded the epigraphists to inscibe a rather full account of the transaction incidentally describing the manifold achievements of Nedunchadayan. The same king endowed the village Velankudi to brahmins and called it Sivaramangalam.

The king’s reign begins with a victory over the Pallava Nandivarman II in a battle at Pennagadam. He conquered the Ay Vel and the Nattukkurumbar.

He fought successful battles at Vellur, Vinnam etc. in Ayiraveliyur and Pugaliur. He defeated Adigaiman, ruler of Thagadur, though the latter was supported by the Chera and the Pallava. He caught and imprisoned the Kongu king in Madurai.

The contention that this Kongu king was the same as Adigaiman cannnot be sustained. Nedunchadayan built a hill like temple for Vishnu in Kanchivaipperur a place which has not yet been identified. The Trichinopoly record of this king says that he was once camping on the banks of ihe Pennai in the Tondainadu. He attacked the king of Venad and destroyed the military emporium of Vilinam.

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He founded and fortified Karavandapuram in South Tirunelveli. He defeated Sadayan Karunandan of Malainadu and destroyed Ariyurkottai. This Karunandan was possibly related to the Ays.

At one stage the Pandyan kingdom under Nedunchadayan included all the territory to the south of the Kaviri from sea to sea and he was easily the most powerful Tamil ruler of his times. Nilakanta Sastri gives the full title of Nedunchadayan as Jatilaparantaka Varaguna Maharaja Maranchadayan.

On this count he treats Nedunchadayan as Varaguna and will have in his Pandyan genealogy only one Varaguna i.e., the son of Srimara Srivallabha of the ninth century. But there are other scholars who hold that the title Varaguna never belonged to Nedunchadayan and that there was a separate Varaguna I who was predecessor of Sri Mara srivallabha. Thus the occurrence of the word Varaguna in an unconnected manner in Pandyan record has led to considerable genealogical confusion.

There was a Rajasimha II who succeeded Nedunchadayan and Varaguna I who succeeded this Rajasimha II according to the above- mentioned scholars. To this Varaguna I many victories are attributed and these include a defeat of the Pallava king, perhaps Dantivarman Pallava at Karur. He destroyed the fortress at Vembil and presented a perpetual lamp to the temple of Siva at Trichy.

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Videl Vidugu Muttaraiyar, a subordinate chieftain ruling at Tanjore is mentioned in an inscription of his 11th regnal year. It may be that the Muttaraiyiar who played a significant role in the early stages of the rise of the Cholas under Vijayalaya. were subject to Pandyan authority in the times of Varaguna I. This king seems to have ruled for 43 years. Srimara Srivallabha

Srimara Srivallabha was the next great ruler. According to the genealogy we adopted, he was the son and successor of Varaguna I and he ruled from AD 835 to 862. This king was known also as Sadayanmaran and was entitled Ekavira, Parachakrakolahala, Avanipasekhara and so forth. We get much information about this king from the larger Sinnamanur plates, and the Dalavaipuram plates.

He won battles at Kannur, Vilinam and Singalam. The Pallavas, the Gangas, the Cholas, the Kalingas and the Magadhas are said to have been jointly defeated by him at Kudamukku (Kumbakonam). In the battle of Vilinam the Chera who opposed him lost his life. He invaded Ceylon and the Mahavamsa says ‘the army of king Pandu spread destruction all over the land.’

The Pandyas who occupied the capital carried away much booty. The invading Pandya then entered into a treaty with the defeated king of Ceylon; thereby the Kingdom was restored to the original ruler.

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According to the Mahavamsa there was counter-invasion of the Pandyan country by the Ceylonese in the reign of Sena II. It is said that a disgruntled member of the Pandyan royal family by name Mayapartdyan approached the Ceylonese for help and invited them to invade the mainland. So Sena II to please his client and settle old scores with the Pandyas invaded the Pandyan country and even besieged Madurai.

The Mahavamsa goes on to say that the Pandyan ruler fled from ‘the field of battle on the back of an elephant and gave up his life and his queen also died with him’. This account is not confirmed by Pandyan records.

On the other hand, they speak of a victory over the Ceylonese. On the whole there is reason to believe that a major catastrophe as described by the Mahavamsa did not overtake the Pandyan. Srimara’s kingdom extended beyond the Kaviri and included the Tanjore area.

But this latter region was a bone of contention between the Pallavas and the Pandyas; in a battle fought at Kudamukku Srimara was successful and he extended his arms to the Tondaimandalam itself. In the meantime Nandivarman III had become the Pallava king and the fateful battle of Tellaru was fought; the Pallava emerged victorious and the Pandya retreated.

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There is a view that the Tellaru battlle was fought earlier than the Kudamukku battle and so the ultimate victor was the Pandya. Nevertheless Tellaru was the starting point of the decline of the first Pandyan Empire which is the designation for the Kingdom ruled by the Kadungon family. Nripatunga Pallava defeated Srimara at Arisil on the banks of the Kaviri.

The Dalavaipuram records mention a Pandya succeess against the Pallava. But details of this engagement are not forthcoming. The fact that the Pandayas enjoyed as many victories as they suffered from defeat in the relationship with the Pallavas merely shows that the two kingdoms were nearly equally matched.

A view that Srimara died fighting the Ceylonese unsuccessfully and that he was succeeded by a pretender called Maya Pandya receives no confirmation in Pandyan records and seems to be untrustworthy.