Jatavarman Sundara Pandya of the Imperial Pandyan dynasty (Second Pandyan dynasty) is one among the illustrious kings in South India who ruled from his capital city of Madurai from 1251 to 1268 A.D. He was a great conqueror; he ruled almost the whole of the area extending from Kanyakumari in the south up to Nellore and Cudappah districts in the north.

Jatavarman`s conquest of Sri Lanka added a feather to his cap and the king of this island nation was made to pay tribute to him. Many of the smaller chieftains were also subdued and thus his conquest of the whole of the ancient Tamil country and some neighbouring areas was complete. His inscriptions found at various temples across Tamil Nadu, provide evidence to his heroic conquests and also his philanthropic nature.

Even though his endowment towards development of temples was great yet he is not much commemorated. In particular, his donations to the Nataraja temple in Chidambaram and the Sri Ranganatha Swami temple, Srirangam, the most famous Siva and Vishnu temples respectively in the Tamil country deserve special mention. Jatavarman sheltered the roof of the Nataraja shrine with gold and performed a tulabhara (weighing oneself against an equal amount of a precious material), and gave the amount of gold and pearls against which he weighed himself to this temple. He also contributed considerably to the architectural expansion of this glorious temple.

Similarly, at the Srirangam temple, his expensive gifts were aplenty. Jatavarman covered a number of the shrines here with pure gold, and also presented a garland of emeralds to Lord Ranganatha enshrined here. At this place too, he preformed several tulabhara ceremonies. He is also known to have donated liberally to several Jaina pallis. His son was Maravarman Kulasekhara I who ruled with him for some time as crown prince and ascended the throne in 1268 A.D.