The Colas c10.5

c10.5

Of the origin of the name Cōḻa we have no knowledge whatever. The learned Parimēlaḻagar is inclined to make it the name, like Pāṇḍya and Cēra, of a ruling family or clan of immemorial antiquity⁵ and renown. The story of the eponymous brothers Cēran, Śōḻan and Pāṇḍiyan is doubtless an instance of euhemerism.⁶ Whatever its origin,⁷ the name Cōḻa was from the earliest times used to describe the people and the country subject to the sway of the Cōḻa dynasty of rulers. Col. Gerini's attempt to connect the word with the Sanskrit *Kāla* (black), and with *Kōla* which ‘in the early days designated the dark-coloured pre-Aryan population of southern India in general,’ is hardly more convincing than the efforts to derive it from Tamil ‘*Cōḷam*’ (millet) or Sanskrit ‘*Cōra*’ (thief).⁸