The Colas c9.11

c9.11

The copper-plate grants known by the names of Anbil, Leyden (larger), Tiruvālangāḍu and Karandai, as well as the Kanyākumārī stone inscription and the Chārāla plates of Vīrarājēndra, give long legendary genealogies intended to bring out the solar origin of the Cōḷa dynasty. The Udayēndiram plates of Pṛithivīpati II Hastimalla¹⁹ give a much shorter list of the legendary ancestors of Vijayālaya. Of the several names in these legendary lists, which are by no means identical with one another,²⁰ only two or three names appear to be historical. Karikāla, Kōcceṅgaṇān and probably also Kiḷḷi may be identified with the kings of the same names of whom we hear in the Tamil literature of the Śaṅgam age. Barring the names of these kings, however, and some common legends,—e.g., that of Manu sentencing his son to death as he had by an accident crushed a calf to death under his chariot-wheel, and the story of Śibi rescuing a dove from the pursuit of a vulture by offering it his own flesh—there is nothing else to indicate the relation in which the Cōḷas of the Vijayālaya line stood to those of an earlier time mentioned in early Tamil literature. We shall see that even in regard to Karikāla and Kōcceṅgaṇān the account given in the copper-plates is more legendary than historical and has little in common with the earlier literary accounts.