Breaking the Crown of Indra

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.

• AcknowledgementsAbbreviationsIntroduction1 The concept of#x201C;Pāṇḍyaness”2 Methodological considerations3 Conclusive remarks1 The World of the Caṅkam Heroes: Pāṇḍya rulers in the shadow of time1 Historical background: the earliest references2 The Caṅkam era and literature, and the Three Academies3 The Puṟanāṉūṟu: tribal warriors of the South4 “The Good Counsel in Madurai”: the King and the city5 The Cilappatikāram: the beginning of the Pāṇḍya dynastic narratives6 The kōvai string for the Pāṇḍya: aesthetics exemplified through the royal persona7 Conclusive remarks2 Family matters: dynastic perception and copper plates in the age of the#x201C;First Empire”1 Historical scenario2 The Early Pāṇḍya epigraphical corpus: preliminary considerations3 The Pāṇḍya royal identity engraved on copper: the Vēḷvikuṭi plates4 The#x201C;smaller” Ciṉṉamaṉūr plates5 The Taḷavāypuram plates6 The#x201C;larger” Ciṉṉamaṉūr charter7 The Civakāci plates8 Conclusive remarks3 The Emerald King: the apogee of the Pāṇḍya power during the#x201C;Second Empire”1 Historical introduction2 The Pāṇḍya narratives#x201C;in exile” and during the reconquest3 The#x201C;Second Empire”: the golden age of Jaṭāvarman SundaraI4 Celebrating the glory of the dhārmika Emperor in Tirupati5 The King and the god in#x015A;rīraṅgam: who is who?6 Conclusive remarks4 The Poet who sang the god in Teṅkāśi: sacralization of identity and precarious kingship1 Historical frame2 The Pāṇḍyas outside Madurai in the 14th–15th centuries3 The Teṅkāśi kingdom in the 15th–16th centuries4 Maṇḍalakavi and the Pāṇḍyakulodayamahākāvya5 The Tiruviḷaiyāṭaṟpurāṇam and the Hālāsyamāhātmya6 Thundering clouds and the#x201C;mortal man”: legitimising the divine power7 A new city for the god: Teṅkāśi and Arikesari Parākrama8 A god is born: the new idiom of the Pāṇḍya royal ideology9 The hero of the poem: Jaṭilavarman Parākrama Kulaśekhara10 The physical description of the Teṅkāśi King11 The#x015B;āstric conception of Indian royalty12 The royal body and alaṃkāras: the new sovereign in the kāvya production13 Merging into the sacred: geopolitics and transfiguring digvijayas14 Yelling against history:#x201C;epic of resistance” and cultural reaction5 Flower garlands shading away: royal genealogies and the nostalgy of power1 Historical introduction2 Remembering the past, the ineffectiveness of the present: the later Teṅkāśi genealogies3 The Putukkōṭṭai copper plates4 The#x015A;rīvilliputtūr record5 The Taḷavāyagrahāram plates (ś. 1504)6 The Taḷavāyagrahāram plates (ś. 1510)7 Last glimpse before the curtains fall: 1754 CEAppendix1: List of Pāṇḍya Kings in the PuṟanāṉūṟuAppendix2: Early PāṇḍyasAppendix3: Transition—The Second EmpireAppendix4: The Teṅkāśi Court in the 15th–16th centuriesAppendix5: Teṅkāśi after Parākrama KulaśekharaAppendix6: The most recurrent Pāṇḍya dynastic narrativesBibliographyIndex