Pandians, Egypt, and the Middle East

1. In Sumeria, the native Sumerian rule re-emerged for about a century during the Third Dynasty of Ur (refer Map 28 – Third UR Dynasty - Sumerian Renaissance) of the 21st to 20th centuries BC. This was when Indus Valley Civilization was flourishing (3300 BC to 1300 BC; mature period 2600 BC to 1900 BC). This does mean that the Ur Dynasty had a very close cultural, diplomatic and trade relationship with Indus Valley.
2. In the city of Ur (it has yielded remarkable antiquities to the archaeologists and which is the same as the Tamil word Ur meaning a place of habitation) there was mother-Goddess worship and surprisingly she was called the Lady of the Mountain straightaway reminding us of Parvathi (Lord of the Mountains or the one who is living in the Highest). Further, the worship of the Moon-God was another feature of religion in Ur. There of course the Goddess of the Mountain was married to the Moon-God (Someshvara or Shiva). Here the Lady of the Mountain was married to Lord Siva who wore the crescent on his head.
3. The crescent itself was supreme God in South India. The progenitor of the Pandian dynasty, which was probably the oldest among South Indian dynasties, was the Moon-God Himself. The Sumerians made all their calculations on the basis of the lunar cycle. Hence it is that units and multiples of thirty became important in mathematics and six becomes a sacred number.
4. The affinity between Murugan, the favourite God of the Tamils and the Moon-God of Ur becomes amazingly close. The sacredness of number six for Murugan and the fact that He is deemed the offspring on the one hand of the Lady of the Mountain and of the God who wore that crescent, and on the other of the Pleiades (a group of six female Gods of Greeks and Romans) a constellation of stars of which six alone are visible. The Tamil equivalent of that constellation namely the Krithika group (a six female devatas) bore Murugan.
5. Ancient biblical cities of Patriarch Abraham times like Nahor (as in Nahore in Tamilnadu) or Mari (Mari-amma, mother God of Devars i.e. the consort of Lord Siva) are Tamil city names of Ancient Ur Dynasty (21st Century BC) of Babylon (modern day Iraq).
6. Egyptians knew of the country called “Pand or Punt” (Pandian country or Pantinatu or Puntinatu or Pandinatu around 2600 BC) and their harbour is Ovir or Ouvar in Tamil. They were trading gold, teak and fragrance. This refers to Indus Valley civilization by its ancient name.
7. The Land of Punt is best known for Queen Hatshepsut’s famous expedition in 1493 BC in the 18th Dyanasty of Egypt, which brought back living trees to Egypt, marking the first known successful attempt at transplanting foreign fauna. Nonetheless, evidence suggests that the Egyptians were trading with the land of Punt as early as the reign of the pharaoh Khufu in the 4th Dynasty (2589–2566 BC).
8. The Land of Punt, also called Poun or Pwenet, or Pwene by the ancient Egyptians, was an old kingdom. A trading partner of Egypt, it was known for producing and exporting gold, aromatic resins, Blackwood, ebony, ivory, and wild animals. The region is known from ancient Egyptian records of trade expeditions to it. At times Punt is referred to as Ta netjer, the "land of the gods". I.e. Dravidam or Thiruvidam or “Holy abode of Gods” or “Pand”ianadu or Tamilnadu. Its inhabitants are called Devars or Gods or Lords. Pandianatu means old country and Pand or Pant means Old. At that point of time Punt or Pand or Pandianadu or Pantinatu or Puntinatu refers to the Indus Valley Civilization and it was long before they moved down to the south (Southern Tip) of India around 1300 BC to 1000 BC because of tsunami (Kadal Kozh) and floods.
9. The earliest recorded Egyptian expedition to Punt was organized by Pharaoh Sahure of the Fifth Dynasty (25th century BC) although gold from Punt is recorded as having been in Egypt in the time of King Khufu of the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt.
10. Subsequently, there were more expeditions to Punt in the Sixth, Eleventh, Twelfth and Eighteenth dynasties of Egypt. In the Twelfth dynasty, trade with Punt was celebrated in popular literature in the “Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor”.
11. In the reign of Mentuhotep III (around 1950 BC), an officer named Hannu organized one or more voyages to Punt, but it is uncertain whether he personally traveled on these expeditions. Trading missions of the 12th dynasty pharaohs Senusret I and Amenemhat II had also successfully navigated their way to and from the mysterious land of Punt.
12.  In the eighteenth dynasty of Egypt, Hatshepsut built a Red Sea fleet to facilitate trade between the head of the Gulf of Aqaba and points south as far as Punt to bring mortuary goods to Karnak in exchange for Nubian gold. Hatshepsut personally made the most famous ancient Egyptian expedition that sailed to Punt. During the reign of Queen Hatshepsut in the 15th century BC ships regularly crossed the Red Sea in order to obtain bitumen, copper, carved amulets, naptha and other goods transported overland and down the Dead Sea to Elat at the head of the gulf of Aqaba where they were joined with frankincense and myrrh coming north both by sea and overland along trade routes through the mountains running north along the east coast of the Red Sea.
13. This well illustrated expedition of Hatshepsut occurred in Year 9 of the female pharaoh's reign with the blessing of the god Amun (Sun God):

Said by Amen, the Lord of the Thrones of the Two Land: 'Come, come in peace my daughter, the graceful, who art in my heart, King Maatkare [i.e. Hatshepsut]...I will give thee Punt (Puntinatu or Pantinatu – “She is being married off to Pandian family”), the whole of it...I will lead your soldiers by land and by water, on mysterious shores, which join the harbours of incense...They will take incense as much as they like. They will load their ships to the satisfaction of their hearts with trees of green [i.e. fresh] incense, and all the good things of the land.'

1. The Puntites “traded not only in their own produce of incense, ebony and short-horned cattle, but [also] in goods from other African states including gold, ivory and animal skins.” According to the temple reliefs, the Land of Punt was ruled at that time by King Para’hu (Para’masivan) and Queen Ati (or Adh[At]i Parasakhthi). This well illustrated expedition of Hatshepsut occurred in Year 9 of the female pharaoh’s reign with the blessing of the god Amun.
2. As per records even live plants, animals and people (Tamils and Egyptians) were transported and resettled in distant lands (Egypt and India).
3. Hatshepsut’s 18th dynasty successors, such as Thutmose III and Amenhotep III also continued the Egyptian tradition of trading with Punt. The trade with Punt continued into the start of the 20th dynasty before terminating prior to the end of Egypt's New Kingdom (between 1550 BC and 1077BC). Papyrus Harris I, a contemporary Egyptian document which detailed events that occurred in the reign of the early 20th dynasty king Ramesses III mentions about Punt or “Pant”inadu.
4. 20th dynasty king Ramesses III, includes an explicit description of an Egyptian expedition's return from Punt:

“They arrived safely at the desert-country of Coptos (a small town in the Qena Governorate of Egypt about 43 km north of Luxor, on the east bank of the Nile): they moored in peace, carrying the goods they had brought. They [the goods] were loaded, in travelling overland, upon asses and upon men, being reloaded into vessels at the harbour of Coptos. They [the goods and the Puntites] were sent forward downstream, arriving in festivity, bringing tribute into the royal presence.”

1. After the end of the New Kingdom period (11th Century BC), Punt became "an unreal and fabulous land of myths and legends”.
2. Ancient Greeks, before Alexander the Great, thought that the Ethiopians, who are divided into two, live at the world's end - one part of them towards the setting sun, the other towards the rising (Indians or Punt or Pantinadu). Herodotos in several passages mentions the Eastern Ethiopians, but distinguishes them from the Indians (Pandians). Ktesias, however, who wrote somewhat later than Herodotos, frequently calls the Indians by the name of Ethiopians, and the final discrimination between the two races was not made till the Makedonian invasion gave the western world more correct views of India. In one reference, Alexander himself, as we learn from Strabo, on first reaching the mouth of the river Indus mistook it for the mouth of the river Nile of Egypt. Such ancient understandings on ancient Indians (or Tamils or Devars or Pantinadu or Pandinadu or Punt) by Egyptians, Greeks, et al., makes them to believe any such reference to them to be related to Somalia or Ethiopia. And even some modern historians who interpret Indian historical references by ancient foreign authors believe any reference to Pantinadu (Punt) or Pandinadu by to be somewhere around Egypt.
3. The above accounts from Egyptian History put the timeline of Pandian’s beyond 25th Century BC.Yemen is a country in Arabian Peninsula (a God in Saivism and Vaishnavism Tradition) is a Tamil name.
4. In Turkey, iron based place is called “Athiyaman – In Tamil: ????????”. Athiyaman is an ancient Tamil King (100 BC). Iron melting kiln is called “Elini – In Tamil: ?????. Ezhini (or Elini) is the son of King Athiyaman.
5. Amman is in Jordan and Ammon is in Libya (meaning mother, a great mother god and consort of Lord Shiva). Siwa is in Libya (Siva - The greatest of all Lords of Indian religion - Saivism and Vaishnavism).
6. An ancient Egyptian King is called Pandion. He waged a war with a Greek Pandion and lost the battle. This establishes the fact that Pandians had close matrimonial and trade relationship with Ptolemaic Egypt and Greeks.
7. Pandians also had trade relationship with Israel Kings David and Solomon around 1000 BC.
8. Ancient Jews knew Pandian country as “Pand or Punt or Put” around 1000 BC.
9. Jewish harvest festival months (March-May) are called Sivan – a vine tending festival month (a great God of Devars) and Iyyar – General Harvest month (Iyyanar - God of Devars).
10. The Jewish and Arabic month falling between June-July is called Tammuz (Tamils). It’s an auspicious month for them.
11. There have been a few African settlements by Devars in India as well. The purest of African race can be found in Andaman and Nicobar Islands of Bay of Bengal.
12. According to the study based on R.Balakrishnan’s research work, published in Bulletins of Indus Research Centre, Roja Muthiah Research Library Chennai - India, Orissa has more than 400 place names of Nigerian (Africa) origin. This indicates that the Nigerian King and his close associates were given settlement by Devars after having suffered a major defeat in Africa. This happened because of long time relationship and matrimonial alliance between Devars and the Nigerian King some 3000 years ago. Later they married and intermarried and aligned and absorbed into the local caste system and population.
13. According to Sangam literature and Srilankan chronicles (Mahavamsa – 500 BC) the Singhalese population (King Vijayan and his associates from Kalinga (modern day Orissa) were given resettlement by Pandians in southern Srilanka some 2500 years ago after they were exiled from Kalinga.
14. By 7th century, during Mohemmedian times, another conversion to Islam resulted in another major loss to Pandians (Devars - Tamils). They lost some of their important allies in the Middle East to Islam but the erstwhile trade relationship with them did continue.
15. The Chera Dynasty (of Devars – Agampidiyars) was further weakened by the conversion of their King Cheramaan Perumal III to Islam in the 7th century. He divided his kingdom among his five generals before leaving for Meccah and Madina in Saudi Arabia. With that the Cheras lost much of their glory and remained well inside the Pandian Territory.
16. Of the two brothers Sundara Pandian IV (1309–1327) and Vira Pandian IV (1309–1345) (the last two kings of Pandian Dynasty), after the fall of the last Pandian Empire, one settled down in a small country under his control called “Pand”alam (old place – created by the Pandian king) in modern day Kerala and the other settled down in the south of Srilanka under his control.
17. It is believed that one of the Pandia king fled to Pandalam (refer Map 16) in the face of an attack from Islamic forces (1327 AD to 1350 AD) from north and settled there in the land they bought from Kaipuzha Thampan, a landlord that was under his control. Erstwhile, the Pandia dynasty had provinces on either side of the Western Ghats and the entire South India was under their control before its fall. The King of Pandalam (Pandian) helped Marthanda Varma to conquer the Kayamkulam province. In return for this help, Marthanda Varma did not attempt to attack and conquer Pandalam, during the expansion of his kingdom. The princely state of Pandalam had extended up to Thodupuzha in Idukki district once. Pandalam was added to Travancore in 1820.Before the formation of Pathanamthitta district, Pandalam was in Mavelikara taluk of Alappuzha district. According to legend, Lord Ayyappan, the presiding deity of Sabarimala had his human sojourn at Pandalam as the adopted son of the Pandian King of Pandalam (1350 AD to 1450 AD). During Sabarimala pilgrimage season, devotees come to Pandalam in large numbers to worship the deity of Valiyakoikkal Temple near the Pandalam Palace. This temple is on the banks of river Achenkovil. Three days prior to the Makaravilakku festival, the Thiruvabharanam (sacred ornaments) is taken in a procession from Pandalam to Sabarimala.