JAYBEE ABOUT THE RICHNESS OF ANCIENT TAMILNADU
(WITH EMPHASIS ON HORSE TRADE)

Dear Friends,

This exchange took place in the Forumhub, several years ago.
I compiled them together and made them so that they can be
read easily.
There is also a Tamil language thread on a similar topic in
Agathiyar.

Regards

JayBee

--------------------------Fwd-Compilation-----


Richness of Tamiladu.

This thread started from a main discussion about -

1.Whether Tamilnadu has always been poor?
2.What happened to its past richness?
3.How did Tamilnadu safeguard against inflation?
4.The Impact of War on Economies and Civilisation

==============================================================

Tamilnadu was immensely rich for a long time.
Marco Polo
says that it was the richest kingdom in the world
(around 1270).
Frequent wars and conquest resulted in abundant booty
which
suddenly filled the treasury and the all the
soldier's purses,
thus pouring out into the general public.
Malik Kafur claims to have taken 96000 maunds
(maund is known as 'MANANGGU' in Tamil) 
1 mananggu = 45.3592 kilos.
Hence 96000 mananggu will be 4,354,483 KILOS.
Yes that will be FOUR MILLION THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY FOUR THOUSAND AND FOUR HUNDRED AND EIGHTY THREE KILOGRAMS OF GOLD PRECIOUS STONES FROM TAMILNADU, LADEN ON 612 ELEPHANTS AS WAR BOOTY.
HE ALSO TOOK 20000 TWENTY THOUSAND HORSES from Tamilnadu
This is according to his own historians.
The fact is, all these riches belonged to
Tamilnadu.
And more. Because the Malik did not go into the
ChOlzha and
ChEra territory proper.
We can surmise that these riches were
accumulated by
trade, productivity, taxes, and mining. But a major
part of
it would have been war-booty. And we must keep in
mind that
their frequently victorious armies were causing
greater and
greater influx of riches.
Now, how did Tamilnadu absorb this richness?
Did they suffer from inflation?
How did they buffer against inflation?

Regards

JayBee


==============================================

The Richness of Tamilnadu

Strabo wries that every year, about the time of the summer solstice,
120 ships sail from Hormos, an Egyptian port on the Red Sea. They
traversed the sea by making use of the monsoon. They reached the ports
of Tamilakam in forty days.
The ships returned with a rich cargo which was off-loaded at and
transported by camels to the Nile. From there the cargo was sent by
river to Alexandria. The cargo then reached the capital(Rome).
The author of 'Periplus of Mare Erythream' says:
'The produce of the soil like pepper, great quantities of best pearl
are likewise purchased here; ivory, silk in the web, spikenard from
the Ganges, betel from the countries further to the east, transparent
stones of all kinds, diamonds, rubies and tortoise shell from the
Golden Chersonese(Malaya) or from the island off the coast of
Limurike(Sumatra). This is all from the port of Muzizris on the west
coast.
He goes on to say:
There is great resort of shipping to this port for pepper and betel;
the merchants bring out a large quantity of spice, and their other
imports are topazes, stibium, coral, fling, glass, brass, and lead, a
small quantity of wine as profittable as at Barugaza(modern
Broach-Gujerat), cinnabar, fine cloth, arsenic and wheat, not for sale
but for the use of the crew.

This is supported by the Sanggam description of Musiri - Musiri to
which the well-rigged ships of the Yavanas come, bringing gold and
taking away spices-pepper(kaRi) in exchange.

Fine muslins and jewels, especially beryls and pearls were exported
from Tamilakam, for personal adornment. Drugs, spices and condiments
as well as costus lycium and other cosmetics fetched high prices.

Even greater was the demand for pepper which sold in the days of
Pliny at the price of 15 denarii(gold pieces) a pound. Sapphire and a
variety of ruby were also exported from the Pandyan kingdom. Cotton
stuff is compared to the 'sloughs of serpents' and 'vapour from milk'
and are spoken off as 'fine textures, the thread of which could not be
followed even by the eye.' There were thirty vairieties of silk.

One of the fashionable extravagances of the Romans at the time was
the consumption of huge quantities of spice at funerals. Even as early
as the days of Sulla (13-78 BC), we hear of two hundred and ten
talents(1520 lbs-c.680 kg) weight of spices being used at his
obsequies. The climax was reached in the days of Nero.
Petronius complains that fashionable ladies of Rome exposed their
charms much too immodestly,, by clothing themselves in 'the webs of
woven wind', as he called the muslins imported from South India.
Pliny says that India drained the Roman Empire annually to the extent
of 55,000,000 sesterces, equal to 500,000 pound sterling(1911), (This
will be about $60 million US dollars, now.) sending in return goods
which sold at a hundred times their value in India.
He also remarks:
'This is the price that we pay for our luxuries and for our women.'

I am giving excerpts from 'History of Pandya Country' written by
Prof.S.A.Q.Hussaini. Thsi book is well-researched.
It should be noted that this book was written before 1962. He has
based his facts from the treasre troves found more than 40 years
before his time - since the 19th century.
Since then, there have beeen other discoveries.

Roman Coins in Tamilnadu:
'The largst number of coins of the early emperors(Augustus to Nero)
has been found in the vicinity of the South Indian beryl mines which
produced the best and purest quality in the world. Most of the items
mentioned by the Roman writers have come from Tamilakam. It is for
this reason that so many Roman coins have been found in and near
Coimbatore district and at Madura, the capital of the Pandya kingdom.
Actually in one notable finding, were 612 gold coins and 1187 silver
coins. Besides these, other hoards are described as:1.'of gold coins,
a quantity amounting to five cooly-loads, 2. and of silver coins 'a
great many in a pot', 3.'about 500 in an earthern pot, 4.'a find of
163', 5.'some thousands enough to fill five or six Madras measures',
6.'pot full of coins.
These coins were a small part of the products of 55 separate
discoveries mostly of the Coimbatore and Madura districts.
An analysis of all these coins available, gives us coins of all the
emperors from Augustus to Alexander Severus(27 BC to 235 AD), a period
of nearly three centuries.
Then there is a gap of over a hundred years which suggests a
temporary stoppage of trade between Rome and Tamilakam. This was due
to internal revolts and external attacks by the various tribes of the
Barbarian people - Huns, Vandals, Visigoths, Ostragoths, Gauls, etc.
When order and good government were restored in Rome, trade with
Pandya country was resumed. Zeno's coins take us to the end of the
Roman empire.
With the help of these shining little bits, we can follow the
commercial relationship between Rome and Madura, from the time of
Augustus, a little before the Christian era, to the end of the fifth
century AD..

The presence in different places of Madura, of so many Roman coins,
found lying on the ground and in the sandy beds of the River vaigai,
which flows across the town, implies that these coins were in daily
circulation and were carelessly dropped or otherwise lost by the
inhabitants of the city.
Obviously most of the currency used by the people was Roman in
origin.Tamil inscriptions clearly state that the Roman 'dinarus' and
'drachma' had been in use among the Tamils. Colonel Tuffnel, in his
'Hints to Coin Collectors in Southern India', and Robert Sewell are of
the opinion that there might have ben a Roman settlement at or near
Madura. The little copper coins with the Roman Emperor's head on them
might have been minted locally or might represent a special issue for
use in a country like Tamilakam where things were cheap.

The Imperial Cholzhas ruled the whole of Tamilzhagam for almost three
centuries. But at the beginning of the 13th century, the Pandyas
struck back. Maravarman Sundara Pandya ravaged the Cholzha kingdom.
But still the Cholzhas held back.
Several decades later, Jatavarman Sundara Pandya invaded, ravaged,
destroyed, and plundered the Cholzha land.
He conquerd an immense amount of booty which had been hoarded up by
the Imperial Cholzhas for a span of two and a half centuries.
But Sundara Pandya did not take all the booty back to Pandya nadu.
Instead he made very huge donations to the temples of Cholzha nadu and
repaired, beautified, and made additions to a lot of Cholzhian temples.
Perhaps he wanted to win over the hearts of the Cholzhiya people and
put them at ease. The greatest benefaction was received by the
SriRangam temple. The next big benefactor was the Chidhambaram temple.
Perhaps again, Sundara Pandya may have wanted the SriVaishnavaites to
feel at ease and give him, a foreigner and a stauch Saivite who had no
love lost for the Cholzhiyans, full support.
The nature of these gifts was the 'Thulabara Dhanam'.
In the case of the SriRangam temple, the donation was done on the
banks of the river.
Let me quote from the works of Dr.Krishnaswamy Aiyengar:

'But what is of interest here is that these and various other things
such as cars, gold and jewel fittings for the cars, jewels of various
kinds for the God and Goddess, all these amounted to eighteen lakhs(1
million 8 hundred thousand) of pieces of gold of the current coin in
circulation.
This vast amount was set apart for these various purposes by a
peculiar kind of Thulabara(weighment against gold).
He got two boats constructed of the same size and weight, and had
them afloat in the bathing ghat that goes by the name 'Makha'(the
asterism in the full moon of February-March of each year under which a
festival takes place).
On one of the boats, he placed the Royal elephant of seven cubits of
the carpenter's yard, high; and himself mounted on it in full panoply
of war with all his war-like accoutrement. And on the other boat, he
put an equal weight of gold and pearls, and gems of all sorts so mixed
as to make the boat sink to the same depth as the other.
Then he made it over to the temple for these miscellaneous items of
expenditure.
He also received the honorific titles of 'Pon VEyndha PerumaL' and
HEmaachadhana Raja', 'The Great One Who Covered the Roof with Gold'.

-----------------

Marco Polo on the richness of Pandya country:

When you leave the island of Seilan(Ceylon), and sail
westward about 60 milaes, you come to the great province of Maabar
which is styled 'India the Greater', it is best of all the indies and
is on the main land. You must know that in this province are five
kings, who are own brothers. I will tell you about each of them in
turn. The provnce is the finest and noblst in th
At this end of the province reigns one of
those five Royal Brothers, who is crowned king, and his name is SONDER
BANDI DAVAR> In his kingdom they find very fine and great pearls.

It is a fact that this king goes as bare as the
rest, only around his loins he has a piece of fine cloth, and round
his neck he has a necklace entirely of precious stones - rubies,
sapphires, emeralds, and the like, insomuch that this collar is of
great value. He wears also hanging in front of his chest, from the
ncek downwards, a fine silk thread strung with 104 large pearls and
rubies of gre

The King aforesaid also wears on his arms,
three golden bracelets, thickly set with pearls of great value, and
anklets also of the kind that he wears on his legs, and rings on his
toes likewis
So let me tell you what this King wears between
gold, gems, and pearls, is worth more than a city's ranso

And 'tis no wonder; for he hath great store of
such gear. And besides they are found in his kingdom. Moreover nobody
is permitted to take out of the kingdom, a pearl weighing more than
half a saggio, unless he manages to do it secretly. This order is
given because the king desires to reserve all such to

And so in fact, the quantity he has is something
almost incredible.

Cail is a noble city and belongs to Ashar, the
eldest of the five brother Kings. It is at this city that all the
ships touch that come from the west, as from Hormos and from Kis and
from Aden and all Arabia, laden with horses and with other things for
sale. And this brings a great concourse of people from the country
round about, and so there is great business done in this cit

The king possesses vast treasures, and weras
upon his person great store of rich jewels. He maintains great state
and and administers his kingdom with great equity, and extends great
favour to merchants and foreigners, so that they are glad to visit his

When the king dies, none of his childeren dares
to touch his treasure. For they say, As our father did gather together
all this treasure, so we ought to accumulate as much in our turn. And
in this way, it comes to pass that there is an immensity of treasure
accumulated in this king.

Wassaf says:

Ma'bar extends in length from Kulam(Quilon) to Nilawar(Nellore),
nearly three hundred parasangs along the sea coast. And in that
country the king is called Dewar, which signifies the Lord of Empire.

The curiosities of Chin and machin, and the beautiful products of Hind
and Sind, laden on large ships(which they call junks) sailing like
mountains with wings of the winds on the surface of the water, always
arriving

The wealth of the isles of the Persian Gulf in
particular, and in part the beauty and adornment of other countries,
from 'Irak and Khurasan as far as Rum and Europe, are derived from
Ma'bar, which is so situated as to be the key of Hin

In the months of the year 692 H, the above
mentioned Dewar, the ruler of Ma'bar, died, and left behind him much
wealth and treasure. It is related by Malik-ul-Islam Jamul-ud din,
that out of that treasure 7000 oxen, laden with precious stones, and
pure gold and silver, fell to the share of the brother who succeeded.

----------------------

Pandya's Horse Trade with the Arabs:Marco Polo-

Here are no horses bred. And thus a great part of the wealth of the
country is is wasted in purchasing horses.
I will tell you how. You must know the merchants of KIS and HORMEZ,
DOFAR and SODEN and ADEN collect great number os destriers and other
horses, and these they bring to the territories of this king and his
four brothers, who are kings likewise as I told you. For a horse will
fetch among them 500 saggi of gold worth more than 100 marks of
silver. And vast numbers are sold every year.
Indeed this king wants to buy more than 2000 horses every year, and so
do his four brothers who are kings likewise. The reason why they want
so many horses every year is that by the end of the year there shall
not be 100 of them remaining, for they all die off. And this arises
from mismanagement, for those people do not know in the least how to
treat a horse; and besides they have no farriers. The horse merchants
not only never bring farriers with them, but they also prevent any
farrier from going thither, lest they should in any degree baulk the
sale of the horese, which brings them in ever year vast gains. They
bring these horses by sea aboard ships.

=============================

Pandyan Horse Trade with Arabs - Wassaf

It was a matter of agreement that Maliku-l Islam Jamalu-d din and the
merchants sholud embark every year from the island of Kais, and land
at Ma'bar, 1400 horses of his own breed, and of such generous origin
that, in comparison with them the most celebrated horses of antiquity,
such as the Rukhs of Rustam, etc., should be worthless as the horses
of the chess-board.
It was also agreed that he should embark as many as he could procure
from all the isles of Persia, such as Katif, Lahsa, Bahrein, Hurmuz,
and Kulhatu.
The price of each horse was fixed from as of old at 220 dinars of red
gold, on this condition, that if any horses should sustain any injury
during the voyage, or should happen to die, the value of them should
be paid from the royal treasury.
It is related by authentic writers that in the reign of Atabak Abu
Bakr, 10000 horses were annually exported from these places to Ma'bar,
Kambayat, and other other ports in their neighbourhood, and the sum
total of their value amounted to 2,200,000 dinars, which was paid out
of the overflowing revenues of the estates and endowments belonging to
the Hindu temples and no charge was incurred.

Marco Polo says:

And another strange thing to be told is that
there is no possibility of breeding horses in this country. For even
when a great blood-mare here has been covered by a great blood horse,
the produce is nothing but a wretched wry-legged weed, not fit to ride.

Wassaf says:

In a short time, the most strong, swift, fresh, and
active horses become weak, slow, useless, and stupid. In short they
all become wretched and good for nothing. In this climate, these
powerful horses which fly swiftly without a whip(for whips are
required for horses, especially if they are to go to any distances),
should they happen to cover, become exceedingly weak and altogether
worn out and unfit for riding. There is therefore, a constant
necessity of getting new horses annually, and, consequently, the
merchants of Muhammadan countries bring them to Ma'bar.

====================================

Here is a discussion that took place on the same subject in the ForumHub:
ChandraSekharan Periannan and Manivannan also participated.


From: JayBee (@ sp-69-222.tm.net.my) on: Thu May 6
11:33:57

I think its more suitable to deal with your queries in
the chronological sequence.

Which takes us back to the times of the Imperial
Pandyas. The Cholzhas were finished off by the late 13th century; the
Pandyas took control of Tamilnadu. In the north, was the large
sultanate of Delhi. South of the Vindyas, there were four small
empires. The Yadavas Devagiri ruling over Maratha territory;
Kaakaththiiyas of Telengaana/Northern Andra; HoysaaLa of Karnataka;
and The Pandyas of Tamilnadu.

The last of the Grand Pandyas, Maravarman Kulasekara was ruling. As
was the prevalent custom at that time, the Pandyan territory was ruled
by five Pandyas who happened to be brothers or uncles The main Pandya
ruled at Madurai.

The northern capital was at Jayangonda Cholapuram , 6
miles from Gangaikonda Cholapuram, somewhere near Kumbakonam. At the
time when Kulasekara was ruling, Marco Polo who visited the Pandya
country, described it as the richest country in the world.

Wasaf, the Arab historian, says the the Emperor had accumulated 1000
crores of gold in the capital city of Madurai. This was in addition to
the great storage of pearls, and other jems. We have to digress a bit,
to see the Muslim connection. For a very very long time, Tamilnadu had
colonies of Romans, Jews, Arabs, etc.

Large settlements of Arabs were found in coastal towns. They had
intermarried with Tamils who had converted, but pure Arabs were always
there in large numbers. The Arabs were very very rich and very
influential. The most important Arab colony was known as Vajranaadu.
This was the land around Ramanathapuram. The main metropolis was
Kiilzhakkarai which was called Pauththiramaanikka Pattinam; it was
known as Ma'abar and Fatan also. The local Arabs named it as
Vahudhaapuri-named after Baghdad.

A royal prince from Medina and a few islands of the Gulf was the
chief of that area. He was Takiyuddin Abdur Rahman. He had a very
large commercial network.

Among many of his business ventures, one noteworthy programme was a
contract made with the Pandyan Emperor. Takiyuddin undertook to bring
10000 horses every year to the Pandya country; the cost was 220 gold
pieces per horse. The import was at the risk of the Emperor.

That contract alone brought Takiyuddin 2.2 million gold coins every
year. As chief of the Arabs, he was known as the Maliki Azam
Marzabanil Hindii. "Hind" was the name that the Arabs called India.

In addition, he was one of the ministers of the Empire. There is a
local ballad which says that Takiyuddin married a Pandyan princess and
became the sixth Pandyan in addition to the other five. Kulasekara in
one of his wars, sent an invasion to Ceylon. His commander, Arya
Chakravarthi looted Ceylon and captured the Holy Tooth Relic of
Buddha. The Singhalese king had to come bare-footed to Madurai and
fall at the feet of Kulasekara with tribute and got back the Tooth
relic. This was the highest peak of the glory the Pandyas. After that,
the Pandyas declined in power.

JayBee

---------------------------------------------

From: Chandra (@ viking2.delta-air.com) on: Thu May 6
14:37:03


JayBee, very interesting. I also read recently in the
prototype of the the heirloom quality edition of Tamil Heritage
handbook-cum-Thirukkural by the International tamil language
foundation a quote of Marco Polo that said, "1200 crores of gold coins
and vast quanitities of gems and pearls".

If one calculates to compare the current budget of TN, the gold
deposit alone amounts to almost 1200 years' worth budget assuming 1
gold coin = 1 pavun (8 gm) as was the case since the Gupta period even
though some Chola coins were 1/2 pavun and and 4000 Rs/pavun the
annual TN budget is about Rs. 4000 crores;( I know it was about
Rs.1000 crores 15 years ago).

Unbelievable wealth! No doubt invaders lined up to plunder India!

Also no wonder that Tamil emperors like karikAl vaLavan gave 16 lakh
gold coins to great pulavars such as katiyalUr uruththirangkaNNanaR as
reward for their poetry! I wonder how much KarikAl vaLavan must have
had...he had 11 mantapams one of which was made of pearls awarded by a
king from an island nation. Of course, one chEran gave 40 lakhs gold
coins to a pulavar whose poem is in the pathiRRUppaththu!

As for the horse trade, the Pandiyans never learnt from earlier
debacles: mANikkavAcakar etc. Of course with 1200 crores gold coins,
he would never be bankrupted...but 2.2 million gold coins per year is
2.2/12000 = 1/5450 of the wealth not bad for defence budget...I think
advannced countries spend a few percent per year of GDP but *not*
total wealth on defence...India spends much more on defence.
Interesting to compare with the present day to get a better perspective.

-----------------------------

From: JayBee (@ sp-69-26.tm.net.my) on: Thu May 6
20:01:43

Yes Chandra.
The riches were accumulated wealth for a period of
more than 2000 years, i.e., 1000B.C-1300A.D.

The Romans and others were having immense trade with Tamilzhakam.
Apart from the wine, weaponary, and women, and mercenaries, the Tamils
got from the Romans, the Roman Aureus, the Roman gold. 12 million
sesterces of gold was paid annually to India.

One of the articles that the Romans wanted was pepper. Gold was
cheap in Rome. They stole it elsewhere. Sometimes pepper was paid its
weight in gold.

The drainage of Roman gold worried the Romans so much t hat Pliny
lamented about it and the Roman Senate moved an embargo on trade with
the Tamils. The drainage was so bad that in later times the Roman gold
coins became debased with copper. But on the other hand, there was so
much Roman gold coins in Tamilnaadu that, we were using the Drachma
and Dinar well until the 13th century. The Drachma was known as
"thiraamam" and the Dinar as "thinaaram".

We were also getting gold from north.

There was also goldfrom Siberia. It found its way into India through
the "Silk Route". It reached south via the "Dakshina paadha"-the
Southern Grand Trunk Road". Due to rupture caused by the Huns, Yueh
Chi,and others, this gold trickled down.
So the Tamils tured East. We developed South East Asia and ther was
plenty of gold there.

So Malaya earned the name Suvarna Diipa, and Sumatra became the
Suvarna Bumi.

All along the 2500 years, the Tamils were never conquered and so
nobody looted. But we looted others, on and off, now and then. Then
there was also the locally mined gold. That was how so much gold was
acumulated.

How did the Tamils prevent inflation, when there is so much influx of
gold? I'll come to that later.

JayBee

---------------------
From: Chandra (@ user-37kbbgk.dialup.mindspring.com) on:
Thu May 6 23:59:59

As I had commented before in the vvv thread, if there
was that much wealth, it becomes believable that women would throw
their golden ear rings and pearl necklaces in their tiffs with their
husband... I would also say that the current budget for TN would have
to be smaller if there were no corruption. In those days, with no
corruption, there must have been enormous amount of wealth distributed
among the people just as it is with the western countries these days.

----------------------------------

From: Manivannan (@ sji-ca9-114.ix.netcom.com) on:
Fri May 7 04:01:13

One of the interesting things about Cilapathikaram is
that kOvalan and kaNNaki set out to start their new life in Madurai
with nothing but a pair of cilampukaL. Even with mANikka paralkaL, I
wondered how much were they really worth. It turns out that in Pandian
Capital, the only jeweller considered rich enough to afford kaNNaki's
anklets is the jeweler to the King! Moreover, even he considers it to
be of such high quality that he steals it and replaces it for the
Queen's anklets! One wonders how wealthy the kOvalan-kaNNaki family
must have been to afford such an expensive jewel. And then in the
court room scene, kaNNaki proudly declares her to be the
daughter-in-law of mAcAthuvAn, the great merchant of the city of
pUmpukAr. It appears that the merchants were wealthy enough to rival
the royals, some times acting as the bankers to the royalty - much
like the European merchants of the colonial era.

However, I doubt if the wealth distribution was fair.

-maNivaNNan

------------------------

From: JayBee (@ sp-69-152.tm.net.my) on: Fri May 7
06:08:48

But as you suggested, the Tamilian prosperity etc.,
can be
dealt with in the culture thread or we can open new threads. You can
study the changes that have taken place in Tamilian personality.
People tend to think that the Tamils were very superstitious and too
orientated towards rituals and astrology in the ancient times. But
history shows a different picture. They were more action orientated
than us. Even after the sack of Tamilakam, you see it being very
prosperous in less than two hundred years time to rank as one of
world's most prosperous regions of those times.

JayBee
-----------------------

From: JayBee (@ sp-69-132.tm.net.my) on: Fri May 7
09:24:11

To return to the Turkish invasion and the postmath:

The beginning of the downfall:
Kulasekhara Pandya had two sons. One of them, Sundara
Pandya, was by
the chief queen; the other, Vira Pandya, was by his favourite wife. He
was younger.
Kulasekara chose his favourite younger son, Vira
Pandya as the crown prince. The elder son, Sundara Pandya in a fit of
rage, murdered his father. He crowned himself as the Emperor at
Madurai. Vira Pandya was centred in Chola territory. The nobles of
Pandya country were angry at the murder and a big civil war started.
Sundara lost. So he went to Delhi. At that time, The Delhi Sulatanate
was ruled by the crook, Allauddin Khilji. His c-in-c, Malik Kafur was
already on an invasion of South India. He had subdued the Yadavas,
Kaakatiiyas and the KoysaLas. While he was receiving the surrender of
HoysaLa, Sundara's request for help came. Khilji ordered Kafur to
capture the Pandya country and make Sundara as Delhi's vassal. Kafur
came, saw, and destroyed. His main targets were the temples. Vira
Pandya ran away. Kafur went up to Rameswaram to stop the Singhalese
king from coming to help Vira Pandya. He asked the Arab-Tamils of
Vajranaadu to join him in fighting against Vira Pandya in the name of
religion. But they told Kafur that the Koran does not preach treachery
and betrayal of one's king.

After a while, Kafur returned back to Delhi. He took back with him
96000 maunds of gold and jewels loaded on 612 elephants.

Yes that will be FOUR MILLION THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY FOUR THOUSAND AND FOUR HUNDRED AND EIGHTY THREE KILOGRAMS OF GOLD PRECIOUS STONES FROM TAMILNADU, LADEN ON 612 ELEPHANTS AS WAR BOOTY.
HE ALSO TOOK 20000 TWENTY THOUSAND HORSES from Tamilnadu
20000 horses of the once powerful Pandyan cavalry also were taken away.

Subsequently, Tamilnadu was invaded and raided by
Khusrau Khan and Muhamed Bin Thuglaq. Both of them ravaged and looted
Tamilnadu, almost bone.

But a few decades later, Tamilnadu came under the reign of the
VijayaNagar Empire. In one of century, Tamilnadu became the main
source of income, man-power and power-base for the VijayaNagar Empire.
Vijayanagar came to be called as the richest country in the world,
by the Poruguese and other people who came here.
The Nayak kingdoms which followed the break-up of VijayaNagar were
also rich.
However hard Tamilnadu might have fallen economically, it always
bounced up with renewed vigour withinn a short space of time.
Thus was the riches-generating cabacities of the Tamisl?
So.....
Who made Tamilnadu poor?

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