The Colas c11.15

c11.15

Of Karikāla’s personal life we hear next to nothing. While Uruttiraṅgaṇṇaṉār, the author of the *Paṭṭinappālai*, tells us vaguely that he enjoyed the society of women and children,²⁶ the late annotator Naccinārkkiniyar, possibly reproducing a correct tradition, states that Karikāla took to wife a Vēḷir girl from Nāṅgūr,²⁷ a place celebrated in the poems of Tirumaṅgai Āḻvār for the heroism of its warriors. A daughter of Karikāla, Ādimandi by name, is the subject of many poems. She lost her husband, a Cēra prince, by name Āṭṭan Atti, who was drowned in the Kāvēri, but subsequently, by the power of her chastity, she is said to have brought him back to life.²⁸