The history of Kalabhras

The history of Munnur reached its prominence during the Sangam age, slightly declined after the invasion of the Kalabhras. The allusions to Munnur and nearby place of Oima Nadu pertaining to this Post Sangam period i.e. 4^th century A.D to 6^th century A.D are very meager. When compared with the references found in the Sangam Classical age, though it seems to be very little, they do help us to reconstruct the unbroken continuity of the history of Oima Nadu the territorial division including Munnur.

The early part or middle of the third century A.D. after the reign of Ugrapperuvazhudi Pandya ruler or soon after one of his immediate successors had passed away the political autonomy of the Sangam Tamils came to an end including the history of Oima Nadu. This is intimated to us positively by Post Sangam literary and epigraphical sources on the one hand and negatively by the absence of any mention of any Sangam Tamil monarch after Ugrapperuvazhudi on the other.

From the 3^rd century A.D. to 6^th century A.D we do not get any Tamil Sangam ruler and his rule in Munnur including Oima Nadu. On the contrary the epigraphs found in Gingee and its composition there is little bit of light fall regarding the spread of Jainism and the Kalabhra rule in Villupuram district. The Brahmi inscriptions and Jain sculptures appeared in Gingee confirms the unbroken continuity of the Villupuram district. The village Munnur located at a distance of 50 km from Gingee and it is also administered by the same chieftain through the ages upto the Sangam period.

From this we can surmise that Munnur also came under the influence of the Kalabhras from 3^rd century A.D to 6^th century A.D. The Gingee inscriptional records the Brahmi scripts, the Jain panels attested the above mentioned facts that from 300 A.D to 600 A.D. Munnur and nearby Oima Nadu came under the control of Kalabhras.^[1] Through this historical mist we can surmise that the glimpses of the nature and activities of the people called the Kalabhras who ruled Munnur and Oima Nadu also ruled considerable part of Tamil country.

Though the history of Kalabhras was obscure due to lack of source materials, the inscriptionals records found in several places in Gingee taluk Villupuram district viz., Neganurpatti, Parayanpattu and Sirukadampur. Brahmi inscriptions found on the Jain Beds and its Paleography speak of Kalabhra rule in Villupuram district including Munnur. From this we can surmise that Oima Nadu, Gingee taluk, Tindivanam Taluk and Villupuram district was ruled by the Kalabhras.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Unpublished Inscription.,See Appendix, No. 2.