The Colas c11.3

c11.3

Two names stand out prominently from among those of the Cōḷa kings known to the Śaṅgam literature; and their memory is cherished in song and legend by a loving posterity; they are those of Karikāla and Kōcceṅgaṇān. There is no sure means of settling the order of their succession, of fixing their relations with one another and with many other princes and princelings of about the same period. If Puhār or Kāvirippūmpaṭṭinam rose in importance only in the time of Karikāla,² then the civil strife between the two branches of the Cōḷas, one of them apparently stationed at Uṛaiyūr and the other at Puhār, may be taken to fall in the period subsequent to the rule of Karikāla. In any event, this strife between the rival branches of the royal family appears to have been a constant factor in the annals of the Cōḷas of the Śaṅgam age. Even Karikāla, the most illustrious among them, had his own troubles in the beginning.³