A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c12.33

c12.33

Among the Cholas, Karikāla (c. A.D. 190) stands out pre-eminent. He is described in a poem as the descendant of a (nameless) king who compelled the wind to serve his purposes when he sailed his ships on the wide ocean—possibly a reference to the early maritime enterprise of the Cholas. Karikāla’s father was Iḷanjēṭcenni ‘of many beautiful chariots’, a brave king and a hard fighter. Karikāla means ‘the man with the charred leg’, a reference to an accident by fire which befell the prince early in life. Other explanations for the name were invented in later times, however, and it has also been taken to be a compound word in Sanskrit meaning either ‘death to Kali’ or ‘death to (enemy) elephants’. Early in life he was deposed and imprisoned. The plucky way in which he escaped and re-established himself on the throne is well portrayed by the author of Paṭṭinappālai, a long poem on the Chola capital Kāvēri-paṭṭinam in the Paṭṭuppāṭṭu (‘Ten Idylls’). One of his early achievements was the victory in a great battle at Veṇṇi, modern Kōvil Veṇṇi, 15 miles to the east of Tanjore. This battle is referred to in many poems by different authors. Eleven rulers, vēḷir and kings, lost their drums in the field; the Pāndya and the Chera lost their glory, and the latter sustained the last disgrace that could befall a warrior—a wound on his back—and from a sense of profound shame he sat facing north, sword in hand, and starved himself to death. Veṇṇi thus marked a turning point in the career of Karikāla; his victory meant the breaking-up of a widespread confederacy that had been formed against him.