I THE "THREE KINGDOMS" A NCIENT tradition recognizes the " Kingdoms of -^- the South " as three the Pandya, the Chola, and the Chera. Of these three the Pandya kingdom occu- pied the extremity of the peninsula, south of Pudu- kottai, the Chola kingdom extended northwards to Nellore, while the Chera kingdom lay to the west, and included the Malabar coast. In the third century B. c., the Chola and Pandya realms were well known to Asoka; but in lieu of the Chera state he specifies two kingdoms, those of Kerala and Satiyaputra. The former of these is undoubtedly the Malabar coast south of the Chandragiri River; the latter should probably be identified with the tract on the same coast to the north of that river, of which Mangalore is the centre, and in which the Tulu tongue, one of the Dravidian languages, is spoken. In the Kerala of Asoka, which may be regarded as synonymous with the Chera of tradition, the prevailing language is 363
