The Colas c11.4

c11.4

Before we proceed to discuss the kings of the Śaṅgam Age, some attention may be given to the legends about the mythical Cōḷa kings known to this literature. The Cōḷas were even then looked upon as descended from the sun⁴—a fact that received elaborate emphasis in later times in the long mythical genealogies incorporated in copperplate charters of the tenth and eleventh centuries, in the Kanyākumārī stone inscription of Vīrarājēndra, and in literary works like the *Kaliṅgattupparaṇi* and the *Vikramaśōḻan Ulā*. Coeval with Agastya and Paraśurāma was king Kāntan, whose devotion to the former brought the river Kāvērī into existence,⁵ and who at the bidding of Pārvati (Kanni) entrusted his kingdom for a time to his illegitimate son Kakandan, in order to escape the fury of Paraśurāma, who waged relentless war against all Kṣatriyas.⁶ He ruled from Campā, later called Kākandi, Puhār and Kāvirippūmpaṭṭinam. Another legendary hero was Tūṅgeyil-eṟinda-toḍittōṭ-cembiyan, who destroyed some mysterious flying fortress of the Asuras⁷ and also instituted in Puhār, at the instance of Agastya, an annual festival to Indra of the duration of twenty-eight days.⁸ The story of the king who sentenced his son to death for having killed a calf by rash driving⁹ and that of another who rescued the dove from the hawk, but not the names of Manu and Śibi, are known¹⁰ to this early literature. The king of the bird-story is, however, once called Śembiyan.¹¹ Some of these legends, like the story of the calf and the prince,¹² the origin of the Kāvēri, and the institution of the festival to Indra, are not found in the anthologies of the Śaṅgam, and make their appearance for the first time in the twin epics of the *Śilappadikāram* and the *Maṇimēkalai*.