PANDYA KINGDOM DURING SANGAM AGE

During the period of the second sangam the Pandyas had their capital at Kapatapuram and because of that they were also called as Kapata by the ancient custom of a person being called with the name of the place/Ur from where they come from. Thus the Pandyas were also called as the Kapatas. This Kapatas got transformed into Guptas during later period. When natural disaster struck Kapatapuram and destroyed the city the Pandyas capital has to be shifted along
with the people. They settled in present day Madurai on the banks of Vaigai away from the sea. After moving the capital to Madurai and extending/building the Meenakshi temple, the King started the third sangam there. The Cholas and the Elagais helped the Pandyas during this time. The Cholas already a matrimonial relationship with the Pandiyas as King Vijayalaya Cholan had already married a Pandyan princess. After the deluge Cholan men married lot of destitute Pandyan womens who had suffered because of the natural disaster. Some of them moved to Elagai as some(Northern) portion was ruled by the Cholas that time. This is mentioned in the Mahavamsa - the ceylonese chronicle. The pandya men joined the miltary
in large numbers. The Pandya king had to find a way to settle his uprooted people and provide land for agriculture to compensate for the lost land. He looked up North and that starts the campaign to get more land and starts the movement of Tamils to the North one of the many in history. This king was called Nilamtaru Tiruvir Pandyan or the Mudathirumaran the
lame.