THE WORLD ATLAS

Realm · approximate borders · 300 BCE – 300 CE

Ay chiefdom (Podiyil and Nanjil Nadu)

The chiefdom covered the southern end of the Ghats and the coast to Kanyakumari, including Porunan's Nanjil Nadu. The Periplus instead puts the coast from Comari eastward under the Pandyas, so the line near the cape is contested.

See Ay chiefdom (Podiyil and Nanjil Nadu) on the map in 300 BCE

On the map
300 BCE – 300 CE
Capital
Aykudi (site uncertain), around the Podiyil hill
Ports
Kottiara (Kottar?), Komaria (Cape Kumari)
Attested in
Purananuru 127–136 (Ay); 137–140 (Nanjil Nadu); Ptolemy's 'Aioi', with Cape Komaria and Mount Bettigo

Rulers named in the sources

Tamilakam in the Sangam age

Sangam poetry (the Purananuru, Akananuru, Ten Idylls and Patirruppattu) describes a Tamil country running from the Venkatam hills to Cape Kumari. It was shared by three 'crowned kings' and a ring of Velir chiefs in the hills between them. The Cholas held the Kaveri delta, the Pandyas the Vaigai and Tamirabarani basins, and the Cheras the Malabar coast and later Kongu. Ashoka's edicts, the Hathigumpha inscription, the Periplus, Pliny, Ptolemy, Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions and digs at Keezhadi, Kodumanal, Arikamedu and Pattanam confirm the kingdoms, capitals and ports. No source draws a frontier, though. The changes over time follow Nilakanta Sastri's dating, which puts most named kings in c. 100–250 CE. Other scholars place them a century or more earlier.

Sources