SANSKRIT IN THE REIGN OF SUNDARAPANDYA

     

      Sundarapandya also called SundaraPandyadeva ruled the Madurai in Tamil Nadu region in the 500 A.D.  He was the author of the didactic poetry titled “NitiDviShashtika”. 

According to historians, this NitiDvi-Shashtika of 116 verses in the Arya metre composed by SundaraPandya of Madurai, was the earliest work of didactic literature about which some definite information is available.

          Janasraya of 600 A.D., quotes from this work on his Chando-viciti and the great Mimamsaka KumarilaBhatta  of 650 A.D., quotes from other lost works of SundaraPandya.  Therefore his date can be fixed about 500 A.D.  Sankaracarya cite Sundarapandya’s passage but the texts from which they must have been taken are now lost.

          Though many SundaraPandyas are known to South Indian history, the Simmanur inscription of 750 A.D., mentions one sundaraPandya as proficient in all Sanstras that “Samasta saastrarnavaKarnadharo yadudbhavah SundaraPandyaNaamaa”.  He was said to have been an ancestor of Arikesarin and was assigned to about 650 A.D.