Battle of Tellaru

01The victory and the title

Inscriptions of Nandivarman III from across the Tamil country call him Tellarrerinda Nandipottaraiyar, the Pallava Nandi who fought and won at Tellaru. The enemy was the Pandya Srimara and his allies, who had advanced up the coast. After the victory Nandivarman followed them south, and his records speak of his army on the banks of the Vaigai, the river of Madurai. He had married a Rashtrakuta princess, Shankha, daughter of Amoghavarsha, which secured his northern flank for the war.

02A poem for a king

The Nandikkalambakam, a Tamil poem of the period, is devoted to Nandivarman III and celebrates his victory at Tellaru among his other deeds. Tradition holds that the king loved its verses so much that he heard them to the end even though, in one telling, the poem was composed to bring about his death. The war did not end at Tellaru; the Pandyas struck back at Kudamukku, and the two houses fought on for another generation.

Dynasty · c. 4th century BCE – late 16th century CEPandya dynastyThe Pandyas ruled from Madurai for close to two thousand years, longer than almost any house in the world. Megasthenes and Ashoka knew them; they broke the Kalabhras in the 6th century, lost Madurai to the Cholas in the 10th, and under Jatavarman Sundara Pandya in the 13th century became the strongest power in the south.Read →