uraga and AlavAy

[Venkatraman Iyer]

>the Gadval plates assertion  that in  c. 674 A.D. the Chalukya
>  king Vikramaditya I first sacked Kancipuram and then continued
>southwards as far as Uragapura on the Kaveri.  It seems
> perfectly reasonable, moreover to equate THAT Uragapura
>with the one Kalidas mentioned a couple centuries earlier, [but as a
>city of Pandyas].

 Kalidasa does not mention Uraga is on the Kaveri river.
THE uragapura is on the Kaveri, acc. to Gadval plates.
The Gadval plates' uragapura could be Nagapattanam,
Nagesvaram (T. N. Subrahmanian), or TiruppAmburam (Tevaram).
I think the Kalidasa's uraga and Chalukya reference to uraga
are two different places.

>And as far as special jewels are concerned, just about every dynasty
>of ancient India had them in abundance: special jewels, drums,
> crowns, icons, you name it... I don't see the Raghuvamsa reference
> as indicating any special knowledge of Pandya specific palladiums.

However:
  The Pandyas wore a special necklace from Indra. This is
told in CilappatikAram (5th century) and Rajendra Chola 's
prasasti/meykkIrtti (11th century) - the tamil portion of Chola royal
announcement tells us that the Chola King took away
the necklace of Indra from the Pandyas. If Kalidasa is
talking of the special necklaces of Pandyas, it is something
special.

kOvA malai Aram kOtta kaTal Aram
tEvar kOn2 pUN Aram ten2n2ar kOn2 mArpin2avE!
                                - Cilampu 7.29.1-2
Yours,
V. Iyer


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