Pandya dynasty

The Pandya dynasty, the Pandyas of Madurai, was an ancient Tamil dynasty of South India and one of the four great kingdoms of Tamilakam, with the Pallavas, the Cholas and the Cheras. Existing since at least the fourth to third centuries BCE, it is counted among the longest ruling dynasties in the world, in power from roughly 400 BCE to 1618 CE, although its extent varied greatly. The early chieftains ruled Pandya Nadu from the inland city of Madurai and the southern port of Korkai, and the dynasty is sung in the earliest Tamil poetry, the Sangam literature; Graeco-Roman accounts, Ashoka's edicts, Tamil-Brahmi coins and inscriptions all attest its continuity into the early centuries CE. The early historic Pandyas faded with the rise of the Kalabhras, and from the sixth to the ninth centuries the Pandyas of Madurai, the Chalukyas of Badami and the Pallavas of Kanchi dominated South Indian politics, with the Pandyas repeatedly ruling or raiding the Kaveri plain, the Chera country and Sri Lanka. Under Jatavarman Sundara Pandyan I and Maravarman Kulasekara Pandyan I the Later Pandyas of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries held vast territories in South India and northern Sri Lanka through Madurai's vassal states.