If you think Game of Thrones was awesome, Read this thread.

Back in 1169, there was family feud in Pandya Dynasty between two brothers, with regards to who would be the next king. One side there Parakrama Pandya, the elder one and on the other, there was Kulasekara Pandya (1)

Now only one of them could be the king and magnanimity was not a quality in either of the contenders. As there was no Mano - e - mano type contest to decide who is the winner, Kulasekara decided to lay a siege to Madurai, the Pandya capital, where Parakrama Pandya was located (2)

As Parakrama was not strong enough to fight Kulasekara, he asked the Sri Lankan king, Parakramaprabhu for help. (The name might just be a coincidence).

Seeing this as a golden chance to get one up on South India after years of getting whacked by them (3)

the Sri Lankan king sent an army under his general LankaPura, By the time the Sri Lankan army had landed in Rameshwaram, Kulasekara had killed Parakrama pandya.

But the Sri Lankan Parakrama had decided to rule South India by hook or by crook.(4)

So he instructed his general to capture Madurai and crown the Indian Parakrama's minor son, Vira Pandya, as a puppet ruler.

At the same time, When Kulasekara heard the news about the Lankan landing, he went to the Chola king, Rajadhiraja for help.(5)

As Madurai is so beautiful, Rajadhiraja too wanted to seize it. So he sent a force in alliance with Kulasekara Pandyan, to fight the Sri Lankans

Parakrama² force, defeated the Chola-Kulasekara Pandya force, in both of them, entered Madurai in all pomp and splendour.(6)

Lankapura, The Sri Lankan Genral, as instructed, installed Vira Pandya, Parakrama Pandya's minor son, as the puppet king. The Sril Lankans now ruled Madurai. Post this, Lankapura could have lived happily ever after

But no, he decided to attack he Chola territory of Tondi.(7)

And This time Rajadhiraja, didn't mess around. He sent a bigger force under his ablest Genral, Perumanambi, to screw the Lankans, six ways to Sunday.

Which Perumanambi gladly did.

Not only did he destroy the Lankan Army, he also cut the head off LankaPura (8)

And nailed it to the gates of Madurai as a warning. Seeing this, Virapandya got the message and ran away, and Kulasekara Pandya was made king.

War over and soldiers went home? No..

Sri Lankan Parakrama got news that Head of favourite General nailed to the gates of Madurai,(9)

He decided to invade India again.

But this time Rajadhiraja was forewarned. So he incited Parakrama's brother Vallabha to rebel, and then using that as an excuse, sent an army, for a pre emptive strike on Parakrama.

(10)

And then the Chola's, as they did in the previous 3 centuries, tucked into the Sri Lankan army like a Piranha tucks into Amazonian livestock. Totally defeated, Parakrama had one last card to play.

He sent a lot of money to Kulasekara, the same Kulasekara who was his enemy (11)

And the guy who the Chola's installed as the Madurai king, to turn around and attack the Cholas.

And that ingrate went and cut the branch that he was sitting on. He attacked the Cholas. However the Cholas turned it around, drove off the old allies but now invaders.(12)

Having decided that enough was enough, they killed Kulasekara.

But now they had no king in Madurai. So they searched Vira Pandya, the same old Vira Pandya who had started off as the Chola enemy, and made him king.

So from 1169 to 1177, Two Pandyas fought for throne. (13)

One went to Sri Lanka, other went to Cholas. The Cholas defeat the Sri Lankans and install the Pandya guy who came to them as the king. The same guy then attacked Cholas for 30 mounds of silver, forcing Cholas to kill him, only to install the guy who was first enemy, as new King

All of this, While invading Sri Lanka on the side. This my friends, is the real Game of Thrones..

P:S : Unfortunately the Pandya Kings never learnt from this bitter lesson. At the end of this civil war, Pandya empire somehow survived. (15)

But There was another Pandya Civil war in the 14th Century. This time however, Malik Kafur and the Ruthless Delhi Sultanate was around.

That civil war not only lead to a Sultanate invasion, it lead to massive temple destruction & violation,mass murder, loot,general pillage (16)

And the brutal end of the once glorious, Pandya empire.

As some one said, Great civilizations don't fall because of external factors, but because of internal decay (17)