The Early Cholas of the pre and post Sangam period (100 C.E. – 200 C.E.) were only the three main kingdoms of the ancient Tamil country. Along with Pandyas and Cheras, Chola history goes back to the period where the history is covered with the mists of time. The Sangam is a collection of Tamil literature composed between 1,500 and 2,000 years ago. ... -1... For other uses, see number 200. ... The Pandyan kingdom was an ancient state at the tip of South India, founded around the 6th century BCE. It was part of the Dravidian cultural area, which also comprised other kingdoms such as that of the Pallava, the Chera, the Chola, the Chalukya and the Vijayanagara. ... The Cheras were one of the three ancient Tamil dynasties who ruled the southern tip of the peninsula of India for most of its early history. ... The Cholas were the most famous of the three dynasties that ruled ancient Tamil Nadu. ...

Although we hear the exploits of a number of Cholas of this period through Sangam Literature and later folklore, it is hard to elucidate exact histories with any amount of certainty. Sangam Literature is the collective name for the Tamil literature created over 1800 years ago. ... Folklore is the body of verbal expressive culture, including tales, legends, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs current among a particular population, comprising the oral tradition of that culture, subculture, or group. ...

Sources

On the history of Cholas, as in many other subjects of Indian history, we have very little authentic written evidence. Historians during past 150 years have gleaned a great treasury of knowledge on the subject from a variety of sources such as ancient Tamil Sangam literature, oral traditions, religious texts, temple and copperplate inscriptions. Areas under direct control of the Chola Empire, 1030 CE. The Chola Empire rose to power in the 9th century in the Tamil speaking districts of Southern India. ... The lists of legendary early Chola Kings are recorded in Tamil literature and in the inscriptions left by the later Chola kings. ... Vijayalaya was the Chola king of South India who captured Thanjavur during c. ... Aditya I (870-906) was an Indian ruler. ... Arinjaya Chola succeeded Gandaraditya Chola c. ... Parantak Chola II (957 c. ... Uttama Chola ascended the Chola throne c. ... Rajaraja Chola I ascended the Chola throne in July 985 C.E. Raja Raja the Great, as he is known in history reigned for 29 years, and conquered the whole of southern India and the Chola empire expanded as far as Sri Lanka in the south, and Kalinga (Orissa) in... Rajendra Chola I was the son of Rajaraja Chola I, the great Chola king of South India. ... Rajadhiraja Chola I (1018-1054) was the king of the Cholas empire in southern India and the eldest son of king Rajendra Chola I. Although not supreme king untill his fathers death in 1044 he was associated in kingship since 1018 He maintained Cholas authority over most of Lanka, despite... Athirajendra Chola ( 1070 C.E.) reigned for a very short period of few months as the Chola king succeeding his brother Virarajendra Chola. ... The Chalukya Chola dynasty ruled the Chola Empire from 1070 C.E. until the demise of the empire in the second half of the 13th century. ... Kulothunga Chola was the offspring of two rival dynasties - the Cholas of Thanjavoor and the Chalukyas of Vengi when he came to the throne in 1070 A.D. The Cholas and the Chalukyas had always existed in constant warfare, spaced by periods of uneasy peace, for decades, due to differences... Detail of a Statue of Rajaraja I at the Brihadisvara Temple The period of the imperial Cholas (c. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Cholas. ... Temple at Gangaikonda Cholapuram Gangaikonda Cholapuram is a village in the inland Perambalur district of Tamil Nadu, India. ... Thanjavur, formerly known as Tanjore, is a city in Tamil Nadu, in southeastern India. ... Prehistory The prehistory of India goes back to the old Stone age (Palaeolithic). ... Tamil (தமிழ் ) is a classical language and one of the major languages of the Dravidian language family. ... Sangam Literature is the collective name for the Tamil literature created over 1800 years ago. ...

The main source for the available information of the early Cholas is the early Tamil literature of the Sangam Period. There are also brief notices on the Chola country and its towns, ports and commerce furnished by the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea (Periplus Maris Erythraei). Periplus is a work by an anonymous Alexandrian merchant, written in the time of Domitian (81 – 96 CE) and contains precious little information of the Chola country. Writing half a century later, the geographer Ptolemy has more to tell us about the Chola country, its port and its inland cities. The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea (Periplus Maris Erythraei ) is a Greek periplus, describing navigation and trading opportunities from Roman Egyptian ports like Berenice along the coast of the Red Sea, and others along East Africa and India. ... Alexandrian is either: Alexandria Alexandrian text-type This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Domitian bust in the Louvre Titus Flavius Domitianus (24 October 51 – 18 September 96), commonly known as Domitian, was a Roman emperor of the gens Flavia. ... Centuries: 1st century BC - 1st century - 2nd century Decades: 0s BC - 0s - 10s - 20s - 30s - 40s - 50s - 60s - 70s - 80s - 90s - 100s Years: 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 Events Domitian succeeds his brother Titus Flavius as emperor of the Roman Empire. ... For other uses, see number 96. ... Claudius Ptolemaeus (Greek: ; ca. ...

Mahavamsa, a Buddhist text, also recounts a number of conflicts between the inhabitants of Ceylon and the Tamil immigrants. The Mahavamsa, also Mahawamsa, (Pāli: great chronicle) is a historical record, written in the Pāli language, of the Buddhist kings of Sri Lanka. ... A replica of an ancient statue found among the ruins of a temple at Sarnath Buddhism is a philosophy based on the teachings of the Buddha, Siddhārtha Gautama, a prince of the Shakyas, whose lifetime is traditionally given as 566 to 486 BCE. It had subsequently been accepted by...

Cholas also are mentioned in the Pillars of Ashoka (inscribed 273 - 232 BCE) inscriptions, where they are mentioned among the kingdoms, which, though not subject to Ashoka, were on friendly terms with him. The pillars of Ashoka are a series of columns dispersed throughout the northern Indian subcontinent, and erected by the Mauryan king Ashoka during his reign in the 3rd century BCE. SAlMAN Ashish Many of the pillars are carved with proclamations reflecting Buddhist teachings: the Edicts of Ashoka. ... Centuries: 4th century BC - 3rd century BC - 2nd century BC Decades: 320s BC 310s BC 300s BC 290s BC 280s BC - 270s BC - 260s BC 250s BC 240s BC 230s BC 220s BC 278 BC 277 BC 276 BC 275 BC 274 BC - 273 BC - 272 BC 271 BC 270... (Redirected from 232 BCE) Centuries: 4th century BC - 3rd century BC - 2nd century BC Decades: 280s BC 270s BC 260s BC 250s BC 240s BC - 230s BC - 220s BC 210s BC 200s BC 190s BC 180s BC Years: 237 BC 236 BC 235 BC 234 BC 233 BC - 232 BC... Emperor Ashoka (a possible picturisation) Ashoka the Great (Devanagari: अशोक; IAST transliteration: ) was the emperor of the Mauryan Empire from 273 BCE to 232 BCE. After a number of military conquests, Ashoka reigned over most of South Asia and beyond, from present-day Afghanistan to Bengal and as far south as...

Kharavela, the Kalinga king who ruled during the second century BCE in his Hathigumpha inscription claims to have destroyed a confederacy of Tamil states (‘’Tamiradesasanghatam’’) which had lasted 132 years. It is difficult to determine the nature of such a confederacy and how it became a danger to Kalinga as we hear nothing more of this from any other sources. Kharavela was a powerful king of Kalinga in India during the 2nd century BCE. He is said to have been born in 209 BCE, and to have been a Jain. ... Kalinga in 265 B.C.E. Kalinga was an ancient kingdom of central-eastern India, in the province of Orissa. ... Hathigumpha inscription. ...

Early Legends

The inscriptions of the Medieval Cholas are replete with legends about the mythical Early Chola kings. The Cholas were looked upon as descended from the sun. These myths speak of the Chola king Kantaman, supposed contemporary of the sage Agastya, whose devotion brought the river Kavery into existence. There is also the story of the king Manu who sentenced his son to death for having accidentally killed a calf. Mahavamasa portrays King Elara who was defeated by Duttha Gamini (c. second century B.C.E.) as the just king who '...had a bell with a rope attached at the head of his bed, so that all who sought redress might ring it...'. King Shibi who rescued a dove from a hawk by giving his own flesh to the hungry hawk was also part of the early Chola legends. King Shibi was also called Sembiyan, a popular title assumed by a number of Chola kings. In Hinduism, Agastya (अगस्त्य in devanagari, pronounced as /ə gəs tyə/; also transliterated as Agathiar, Agasthiar, Agastyar and in other ways) is a legendary Vedic sage or rishi. ... Ellaalan( c. ... Gamini Abhaya or Dutte Gamini(c. ... King Shibi Chakravati was a famous Hindu mythological king. ...

These legends received enormous emphasis in the later Chola period in the long mythical genealogies incorporated into the copper-plate charters of the tenth and eleventh centuries. The earliest version of this is found in the Anbil Plates which gives fifteen names before Vijayalaya Cholan including the genuinely historical ones of Karikala, Perunarkilli and Kocengannan. The Thiruvalangadu Plate swells this list to forty-four, and the Kanyakumari Plate runs up to fifty-two. There are other lists gathered from literary works such as Kalingathuparani. No two of these lists agree, although some names and details are common to all. The Tiruvalluvar statue The Vivekananda memorial The Gandhi Mandepam Kanyakumari is a town and a cape at the southernmost tip of the Indian peninsula. ...

Tamil Sangam

Main article: Sangam

The Sangam is a collection of Tamil literature composed between 1,500 and 2,000 years ago. ...

Age of Sangam

Sangam was the ancient academy, which enabled Tamil poets and authors to gather periodically to publish their work. The Sangam met periodically in the city of Madurai in South India under the patronage of the Pandyan kings. The current estimate is that the Sangam period lasted between 100 C.E. until 300 C.E. The earliest mention of the Sangam is to be found in the 8th century commentary on the Irayanar Agapporul. It mentions three Sangams lasting, at long intervals, for a total of 9990 years. This is clearly absurd and cannot be taken literally. Tamil (தமிழ் ) is a classical language and one of the major languages of the Dravidian language family. ... Madurai (மதுரை in Tamil) is situated on the banks of Vaigai River in Tamil Nadu, a southern Indian state. ... A map of South India, its rivers, regions and water bodies. ... The Pandyan kingdom was an ancient state at the tip of South India, founded around the 6th century BCE. It was part of the Dravidian cultural area, which also comprised other kingdoms such as that of the Pallava, the Chera, the Chola, the Chalukya and the Vijayanagara. ... -1... Events Romano-Celtic temple-mausoleum complex is constructed in Lullingstone, and also in Anderida (approximate date). ...

Sangam literature comprises of some of the oldest extant Tamil literature, and deals with love, war, governance, trade and bereavement. Unfortunately much of the Tamil literature belonging to the Sangam period had been lost. The literature currently available from this period is perhaps just a fraction of the wealth of material produced during this golden age of Tamil civilisation.

In the Sangam literature the Tamil language had reached a level of maturity and began to serve as a powerful and elegant medium of literary expression. It had already developed an elaborate code of conventions governing the portrayal of social life in literature. This must clearly have been the result of evolution and development spread over some generations. Tamil (தமிழ் ) is a classical language and one of the major languages of the Dravidian language family. ...

Recent researches examining Chera inscriptions found in southwestern Tamil Nadu have revealed names of three generations of rulers from the Chera clan. These names are also found in some of the Sangam anthology Pathirruppaththu. Palaeographic analysis of the inscriptions has revealed its age to be within the first two centuries of the Common Era. The Cheras were one of the three ancient Tamil dynasties who ruled the southern peninsula of India at the beginning of its recorded history. ... Tamil Nadu (தமிழ் நாடு, Land of the Tamils) is a state at the southern tip of India. ...

Evidence from ancient Greek and Alexandrian travellers such as Strabo, Ptolemy and Pliny give details of the trade and other relations between the Tamil states and the ancient Greece and Rome. Archaeology has given proof supporting these accounts. Numerous Roman gold and silver coins and pottery have been found from all over Tamil Nadu. This article needs to be updated. ... Strabo (squinty) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. ... Claudius Ptolemaeus (Greek: ; ca. ... Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus (63-ca. ...

Sangam as a Historical Source

It is difficult to estimate the exact date of these Sangam works. The period covered by the extant literature of the Sangam is unfortunately not easy to determine with any measure of certainty. Except the longer epics Cilappatikaram and Manimekalai, which by common consent belong to the age later than the Sangam age, the poems have reached us in the forms of systematic anthologies. Each individual poem has generally attached to it a colophon on the authorship and subject matter of the poem, the name of the king or chieftain to whom the poem relates and the occasion which called forth the eulogy are also found. Cilappatikaram (The Anklet) also spelled as Cilappadhikaram or Silappadhigaram, is one of the five great epics of ancient Tamil Literature. ... Manimekalai is one of the masterpieces of Tamil literature and belongs to The Five Great Epics of Tamil Literature. ...

It is from these colophons and rarely from the texts of the poems themselves, that we gather the names of many kings and chieftains and the poets and poetesses patronised by them. The task of reducing these names to an ordered scheme in which the different generations of contemporaries can be marked off one another has not been easy. To add to the confusions, some historians have even denounced these colophons as later additions and untrustworthy as historical documents.

A careful study of the synchronisation between the kings, chieftains and the poets suggested by these colophons indicates that this body of literature reflect occurrences within a period of four or five continuous generations at the most, a period of 120 or 150 years.

Any attempt at extracting a systematic chronology and data from these poems should be aware of the casual nature of these poems and the wide difference between the purposes of the anthologist who collected these poems and the historian’s attempts are arriving at a continuous history.

The last Sangam ended around the 3rd century C.E. with the invasion of Kalabhras from the north. Kalabhras were the South Indian dynasty who between the 3rd and the 6th century C.E. ruled over entire Tamil country, displacing the ancient Chola, Pandya and Chera dynasties. ...

Cholas in Sangam Literature

The earliest Chola kings of whom we have evidence are those mentioned in the Sangam literature. According to Sangam works, all three clans were anxious to connect themselves with the Mahabharata was to prove their antiquity. All three kings have been portrayed as fighting the war or involved in feeding both the armies at that legendary war. The Mahabharata (Devanagari: महाभारत, phonetically Mahābhārata - see note), sometimes just called Bharata, is one of the two major ancient Sanskrit epics of India, the other being the Ramayana. ...

Karikala Chola

Karikala Chola (c. ?120 C.E.) stands pre-eminent amongst all those mentioned in Pattinappaalai. He is described in a poem as the descendent of a king (not names) who sailed the seas. Karikala’s father was Ilamcetcenni, a brave king an a hard fighter. 'Karikala' means 'the man with the charred leg', a reference to an accident by fire which befell the prince early in his life. Pattinappaalai describes this accident and the enterprising way in which the prince escaped and established himself in the Chola throne. Pattinappalai is a long poem on the then Chola capital Kaveripattinam. This work also describes the numerous battles Karikala fought against the other two Tamil kings in one of which the Chera king was disgraced (received a wound on his back) and committed suicide. Karikala thus broke the confederacy that was formed against him and established hegemony over Pandyas and Cheras. For other uses, see number 120. ... The Pandyan kingdom was an ancient state at the tip of South India, founded around the 6th century BCE. It was part of the Dravidian cultural area, which also comprised other kingdoms such as that of the Pallava, the Chera, the Chola, the Chalukya and the Vijayanagara. ... The Cheras were one of the three ancient Tamil dynasties who ruled the southern tip of the peninsula of India for most of its early history. ...

The bulk of the content of Pattinappalai is taken up describing the town Kaveripattinam and its foreshore. It gives a vivid idea of the commerce and industry at this period.

In later times Karikala was the subject of manu legends found in the Cilappatikaram and in inscriptions and literary works of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. They attribute to him the conquest of the whole of India up to the Himalayas and the construction of the flood banks of Kaveri with the aid of his feudatories. These legends however are conspicuous by their absence in the works of Sangam. Cilappatikaram (The Anklet) also spelled as Cilappadhikaram or Silappadhigaram, is one of the five great epics of ancient Tamil Literature. ... The Cauvery (sometimes written as Kaveri) is one of the major rivers of southern India. ...

Nalankilli and Nedunkilli

The poet Kovur Kilar mentions a protracted civil war between two Chola chieftains Nalankilli and Nedunkilli. Nedunkilli shut himself in a fort in Avur, which was being besieged by Mavalattan, Nalankilli’s younger brother. The poet chided Nedunkilli to come out and fight like a man instead of causing untold misery to the people of the city.

In another poem, the poet begs both the princes to give up the civil was as whoever wins, the loser will be a Chola.

Kocengannan

Kalavali by Poygayar mentions the Chola king Kocengannan and his battle with the Chera king Kanaikkal Irumporai. The Chera was taken prisoner and Poygayar, who was a friend of the Chera, sang Kocenganna’s prince in 40 stanzas. The Chola king, pleased with the work, released the Chera. Kalavali describes the battle fought at Kalumalam, near the Chera capital.

Kocengannan became the subject of many legends in later times and is portrayed as a pious Siva devotee who built many fine temples for Siva along the banks of the river Kaveri. This article is about the Hindu God. ... The Cauvery (sometimes written as Kaveri) is one of the major rivers of southern India. ...

Social Conditions

Sangam literature gives an unusually complete and true picture of the social and economic conditions during the early chola period. The culture is best described as an amalgam of the Dravidian and Aryan. The stories of Mahabharata and Ramayana were well known to the Tamil people, shown by the claims of the kings to have fed both the opposing army in the Mahabharata War. The claim that Shibi, who gave his own flesh to save a dove, as a Chola is obviously influenced by northern legends. Dravidian may refer to: Dravidian languages, including the Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada languages spoken especially in southern India and Sri Lanka. ... Aryan is an English word derived from the Indian Vedic Sanskrit and Iranian Avestan terms ari-, arya-, ārya-, and/or the extended form aryāna-. The Sanskrit and Old Persian languages both pronounced the word as arya-. Beyond its use as the ethnic self-designation of the Proto-Indo-Iranians... The Mahabharata (Devanagari: महाभारत, phonetically Mahābhārata - see note), sometimes just called Bharata, is one of the two major ancient Sanskrit epics of India, the other being the Ramayana. ... The Rāmāyana (Sanskrit: रामायण, march or journey (Āyana) of Rāma) is part of the Hindu smriti, written by Valmiki. ... King Shibi Chakravati was a famous Hindu mythological king. ...

The Tamil people had a simple concept of marriage. They recognised the natural coming together of a man and a woman and the natural differences in the manifestations of love due to the differenes in the physical conditions of the land. They designated these as the five Thinais. They also names for the different aspects of love such as Kaikkilai (unilateral love), Perunthinai (improper love), etc. The Tamil people are an ethnic group from South Asia with a recorded history going back more than two millennia. ...

The land of the early Cholas was fertail and there was ample food. Sangam poems say that in the Chola country watered by the river Kaveri, in a space in which an elephant could lie, one can produce enough grains to feed seven.

Hereditary monarchy was the prevailing form of government. Disputed succession and civil war was not uncommon. The sphere of the state activity was limited. In a society steeped in respect for custom, even the most perverse dictator could not have done much harm.

The Chola monarchs were very approachable by his subjects and justice was meted out directly by the king in most occasions. This is in marked contrast to the magnificent empires of the later Cholas where the Emperor was kept much away from contact with the lay people. The kings often took the field in person in battles and if the kings is killed or wounded in battle, his army immediately gave up the fight and surrendered.

The trade that flourished between the Chola country and the ancient Roman Empire is given in much detail by Periplus of the Erythraean Sea (c. 75 C.E.). The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea (Periplus Maris Erythraei ) is a Greek periplus, describing navigation and trading opportunities from Roman Egyptian ports like Berenice along the coast of the Red Sea, and others along East Africa and India. ... Centuries: 1st century BC - 1st century - 2nd century Decades: 20s 30s 40s 50s 60s - 70s - 80s 90s 100s 110s 120s Years: 70 71 72 73 74 - 75 - 76 77 78 79 80 Events Last known cuneiform inscription Accession of Han Zhangdi. ...

See also

• Legendary Early Chola Kings
• Sangam Literature

The lists of legendary early Chola Kings are recorded in Tamil literature and in the inscriptions left by the later Chola kings. ... Sangam Literature is the collective name for the Tamil literature created over 1800 years ago. ...

References

• Nilakanta Sastri, K.A. (1955). A History of South India, OUP, New Delhi (Reprinted 2002).
• South Indian Inscriptions - http://www.whatisindia.com/inscriptions/
• Nagaswamy, R, Roman Karur, Brahadish Publications (1995)
• Krishnamurthy, R Non-Roman Ancient Foreign Coins from Karur in India, Garnet Publishers, Chennai
• Codrington, H. W. A short History of Ceylon, London (1926) (http://lakdiva.org/codrington/).