A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c12.18

c12.18

Ādan’s younger brother was ‘ Kuṭṭuvan of many elephants ’ who conquered Kongu and apparently extended the Chera power from the western to the eastern sea for a time. Ādan had two sons by different queens. One of them was known as ‘the Chera with the kaḷangāy festoon and the fibre crown’; the crown he wore at his coronation is said to have been made of palmyra fibre and the festoon on it contained kaḷangāy, a small black berry. It was not altogether to be despised for the crown had a golden frame and festoons of precious pearls; but why the king had to wear such an extraordinary tiara is not explained anywhere. He is said to have won successes against the contemporary Adigaimān chieftain Anji of Tagaḍūr and to have led an expedition against Nannan whose territory lay to the north of Malabar, in the Tulu country. He too was an adhirāja wearing a garland of seven crowns.