have the testimony of Menu,[1] that the Draviras were classed with the impure, or outcast tribes, when those institutes were compiled; and, even in the Mahábhárat, the people of the southern countries appear to be considered as scarcely Hindus.
Sundara and Minákshi, after a reign of some thousands of years, resumed their celestial characters, and returned to heaven. They were succeeded by their son, Wugra Pandyan, who, as the offspring of Siva and Déví, was, of course, an incarnation of Kártikéya. Eastward of Madura is the mountain Tiruparumkunru,[2] whence fell a stream, named Sarovara Vaikál. Agreeably to the system of local adaptation which seems to have especially prevailed in the Dekhin, and which transferred the names of sacred places in the north of India to others in the south, this mountain became another Kailása, and the stream, another Ganges. The scene and chief actors being thus identified, we are not to be surprised that the birth of Wugra should have been here attended with the circumstances narrated by the Purànas of the birth of Skanda, or Kártikéya, and that this site acquired the honours of a Tirt’ha, or place of pilgrimage, under the presidence of Subrahmanya,[3] another name of Kártekéya, who was, from a remote date, a favourite deity with the nations of the peninsula.
Wugra Pandyan, being of such exalted origin, was engaged in conflicts proportioned to his rank, and, after subduing the kings of earth, waged war against the king of heaven. Indra, being discomfited by him, was compelled to grant the showers which he had forborne to shed upon the Pandya kingdom. Wugra was married to Kántimati, the daughter of the Chola king, and by her he had Víra Pandyan, who succeeded him.[4]
- ↑ Book x. 5.
- ↑ The most famous place under this appellation, Subrahmanya Kshetram, or Tirt’ha, is in the province of Canara. A hill to the south of Madura, denominated, from ideas connected with this superstition, Skanda Malai, the Mount of Skanda, another name of Kártikeya, or Subrahmanya, has suffered a very curious change, Skanda Malai being converted into Sicander Malai, the hill of Secander, or Alexander. Les naturels croient que le médecin ordinaire d'Alexander le Grand y a été enterré. Langles, ii. 11. A native account says it is the tomb of Alexander himself; an idea, no doubt, introduced by the Mohammadan Fakirs, of whom many reside on this hill, and attach a profitable sanctity to the small tomb, once a temple of Skanda, now the shrine of Secander. To the Hindus it is equally sacred, as it is said to contain in one of its caves an image of Skanda, which they go to worship.
- ↑ This appears, however, from some accounts, to be the same as Skanda Malai (MS. No. 80), which is three or four miles south-east of Madura.
- ↑ One account, the Raja Cheritra, vol, vi., makes great confusion with this prince and his predecessors. It calls him Alaka, and makes him the father of Minakshi, married to Chokanath, and of Alyarasani, married to Arjuna. At the same time he is described as the son of Malaya Dhwaja, and grandson of Sundara, an order of descent very different from all the other authorities.
