Breaking the Crown of Indra

The Pāṇḍyas and Their Dynastic Identity in the South Indian Context
Erscheinungsjahr 2025
ISBN: 978-90-04-72072-5
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 61, 374 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 768 g

Reihe: Brill's Indological Library

From the first years of our era up to the 18th century, in between wars, conquests, defeats and stellar political risings: Breaking the Crown of Indra takes you through a long and engaging quest to answer the apparently simple question “Who were the Pandyas?”
With the help of epigraphic evidence, literary texts, and temple chronicles never translated before, David Pierdominici Leão reconstructs the evolution of the Pandya royal perception through the different periods of this Tamil kingdom. His study investigates the so-called phenomenon of the “Pandyaness”, a concept enriched by different dynastic identities, mythical narratives of deeds and divinised sovereigns.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Pierdominici Leão, David

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Asiatische Geschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations

Introduction

1 The concept of#x201C;Pa??yaness”

2 Methodological considerations

3 Conclusive remarks

1 The World of the Ca?kam Heroes: Pa??ya rulers in the shadow of time

1 Historical background: the earliest references

2 The Ca?kam era and literature, and the Three Academies

3 The Pu?ana?u?u: tribal warriors of the South

4 “The Good Counsel in Madurai”: the King and the city

5 The Cilappatikaram: the beginning of the Pa??ya dynastic narratives

6 The kovai string for the Pa??ya: aesthetics exemplified through the royal persona

7 Conclusive remarks

2 Family matters: dynastic perception and copper plates in the age of the#x201C;First Empire”

1 Historical scenario

2 The Early Pa??ya epigraphical corpus: preliminary considerations

3 The Pa??ya royal identity engraved on copper: the Ve?viku?i plates

4 The#x201C;smaller” Ci??ama?ur plates

5 The Ta?avaypuram plates

6 The#x201C;larger” Ci??ama?ur charter

7 The Civakaci plates

8 Conclusive remarks

3 The Emerald King: the apogee of the Pa??ya power during the#x201C;Second Empire”

1 Historical introduction

2 The Pa??ya narratives#x201C;in exile” and during the reconquest

3 The#x201C;Second Empire”: the golden age of Ja?avarman SundaraI

4 Celebrating the glory of the dharmika Emperor in Tirupati

5 The King and the god in#x015A;rira?gam: who is who?

6 Conclusive remarks

4 The Poet who sang the god in Te?kasi: sacralization of identity and precarious kingship

1 Historical frame

2 The Pa??yas outside Madurai in the 14th–15th centuries

3 The Te?kasi kingdom in the 15th–16th centuries

4 Ma??alakavi and the Pa??yakulodayamahakavya

5 The Tiruvi?aiya?a?pura?am and the Halasyamahatmya

6 Thundering clouds and the#x201C;mortal man”: legitimising the divine power

7 A new city for the god: Te?kasi and Arikesari Parakrama

8 A god is born: the new idiom of the Pa??ya royal ideology

9 The hero of the poem: Ja?ilavarman Parakrama Kulasekhara

10 The physical description of the Te?kasi King

11 The#x015B;astric conception of Indian royalty

12 The royal body and ala?karas: the new sovereign in the kavya production

13 Merging into the sacred: geopolitics and transfiguring digvijayas

14 Yelling against history:#x201C;epic of resistance” and cultural reaction

5 Flower garlands shading away: royal genealogies and the nostalgy of power

1 Historical introduction

2 Remembering the past, the ineffectiveness of the present: the later Te?kasi genealogies

3 The Putukko??ai copper plates

4 The#x015A;rivilliputtur record

5 The Ta?avayagraharam plates (s. 1504)

6 The Ta?avayagraharam plates (s. 1510)

7 Last glimpse before the curtains fall: 1754?CE

Appendix1: List of Pa??ya Kings in the Pu?ana?u?u

Appendix2: Early Pa??yas

Appendix3: Transition—The Second Empire

Appendix4: The Te?kasi Court in the 15th–16th centuries

Appendix5: Te?kasi after Parakrama Kulasekhara

Appendix6: The most recurrent Pa??ya dynastic narratives

Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

David Pierdominici Leão, Ph.D. (2018), Sapienza University in Rome, is a Researcher in the Department of Languages and Cultures of India and South Asia at the Jagiellonian University. He is the author of several articles on Indian literature and history.