1. The Kushans, Sakas, Huns (all the Scythic tribes)never ruled Tamil
Nadu (TN) and some parts of Kerala (which was Tamil-speaking in those
days prior to 15th century)
2. None of the Mughals - not even Aurangzeb - ruled TN.
3. The Brits never ruled Travancore (Kerala area)
4. Tipu Sultan, Maharaj, and Portugese never ruled TN or Kerala.
5. Delhi Sultanates, Tamerlane, Mohammad of Ghur, Mahmud of Ghazni,
Greeks, and Iranians never ruled TN/Kerala.
Now, after reading my point 5, about the Greeks, I read that either
the Greeks or the Romans have build stadiums in Tamil Nadu, and maybe
both the Greeks and Romans were very familiar with TN. However, they
never ruled it. They ruled lands west of Pakistan/Afghanistan.
Aurangzeb, as mighty as he was, didn't go that far south.
Even the Brits couldn't rule Travancore, even though this area is
extremely desirable. It is lush, mountainous, and full of natural
resources. It was known to have much spices there (black pepper was
first eaten there and exported).
My point is, knowing that TN and Kerala were prized lands, why was it
not ever conquered?
My honest opinion was that the people there fought all the invaders
off. However, you just never read about how the Tamil/Travancorites
fought off invaders. I truly don't buy that invaders were tired and
never wanted to go beyond the Vindhyas/Deccan mountains.
Read Nilakanta Sastri's book "History of South India"
Malik Kafur conquered tamil nadu in 1330 and within 10 years the tamils did
a mass communal riot against muslims
and evicted them from south India
Even after Vijayanagar empire ,lost its capital to the muslims in 1565, for
another 100 years, Vijayananagar resisted islam from Tamil Nadu
Aurangzeb was finally defeated by the Marathas in 1705 at Gingee Fort in
Tamil Nadu
G.S
"Nirvana" <worryles...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
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I wonder how come there is not much mention of this in Indian history
books. It seems to me that the message Indian history books seems to
spread out is this: Because of north Indians (i.e. Sikhs and all),
the South was able to preserve its Hindu heritage. However, this
seems to be false.
Finally, at the Battle of Gingee, did the Marathas fight side-by-side
with Tamils, or was the army there purely Marathas?
Assam, Orissa, Jharkand, Chattisgarh, Rajastan and South India rarely came
under muslim rule
Tribals had a large kingdom called Gondwana and Tribals fought in the army
of Rana Pratap when he was in exile
The Sikhs started armed resistance only in 1699
For authentic history read
1. R.C.Majumdar - he has written 11 volumes of which
"Delhi Sultanate" and "Maratha Supremacy" may be of interest
2. Also get Nilakanta Shastri's book "History of South India"
I think indiaclub.com has them
The marathas were losing 1 lakh casualties a year and operating in Gingee,
far from their homeland, it is inevitable that large numbers of tamils were
recruited
Aurangzeb besieged Gingee for 20 years and failed to capture it
About 30 years ago, when I was studying in tamil nadu, we had to learn a
tamil poem about
Raja Desingh, the maratha prince of Gingee
From 1650 onwards, Thanjavur was ruled by the descendant's of Shivaji's
brother
There is a Raja Serfoji library in Thanjavur
In 1850, the british annexed this kingdom
There is still a large number of Marathi origin people in Thanjavur
As far as Vijayanagar went
After the loss at Talikota, the borders shifted south by 100 miles and its
new capital was Vellore
and until 1650, It lasted in kerala, tamil nadu, South Karnataka, and south
Andhra, upto the Krishna River
Chennai was started by the later day Vijayanagar kings and in 1640, they
leased it to the british
The rise of Shivaji was helped by the fact that the muslims of Bijapur were
focused south on the remnants of Vijayanagar
The Nayak kings of Madurai were a part of the Vijayagar
"Nirvana" <worryles...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
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Thanjai Nalankilli in An Analysis of Tamil History
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