Ancient Port City of Kaveripattinam

                                  Buddhist Monastery ruins, Poompuhar / Image Credit

40 km from Chidambram town in the state of Tamil Nadu, Kaveripattinam, now a fishing village in the Mayiladuthurai district, was a great city and the chief port of the Chola empire in ancient India. It had an artificial harbour which was built by soldiers captured by the great Chola ruler Karikala on a raid on Sri Lanka. The greatness of Kaveripattinam finds mention in the great ancient Tamil epics of Silappathikaram (Jewelled Anklet) and Manimekalai.

Manimekalai was written by the poet Seethalai Saathanar, who was a Buddhist. The heroine of Manimekalai, Manimegalai, is the daughter of Kovalan, the son of a wealthy merchant of the city of Kaveripattinam. Her mother was Madavi, a dancer who became a Buddhist nun on hearing of Kovalan’s death. Manimegalai also became a Buddhist nun.

Kaveripattinam (currently Poompuhar), also known as Puhar in ancient India, is home to the ruins of a 4th-5th-century AD Buddhist monastery. According to the 5th century AD Pali commentator Buddhadatta, Theravada Buddhism flourished in Kaveripattinam. He spent some time in this monastery while composing his Abhidhammavatara.

Located at the convergence of river Kaveri and Bay of Bengal, Kaveripattinam was swallowed by the sea and is now only a small village.

Alauddin Masud Shah (1242-46)

Coins of  Alauddin Masud Shah / Image Source

After getting the reigning Mamluk sultan Muizuddin Bahram murdered in 1242, the nobles of Delhi Sultanate raised Ala-ud-din Masud, a grandson of Iltutmish through his son Rukn ud-Din Firuz, to the throne. Muizuddin Bahram, another son of Iltutmish, had succeeded the throne after his sister Raziya Sultana.

Ala-ud-din Masud proved to be a depraved and licentious ruler. In June 1246 the nobles deposed him and put him into prison, where he was murdered. Ala-ud-din Masud had reigned for four year.

In 1246 he was deposed by the nobles and was succeeded to the Slave throne by his cousin Nasiruddin Mahmud (1246–66), grandson of Iltutmish through his son Nasiruddin Mahmud.