Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

Tribes in Ancient India c49: Chapter XLV. Keralas or Cheras

Tribes in Ancient India c49

Language
English

Chapter XLV. Keralas or Cheras

c49.2

The Keralaputra (Ketalaputra or Chera) is ‘the country south of Kūpaka (or Satya), extending down to Kanneti in Central Travancore (Karunagapalli Taluk). South of it lay the political division of Mūshika’. It was watered by the river Periyār on the banks of which stood its capital Vañji (near Cochin) and at its mouth the seaport of Muziris (Kranganur).¹ According to L. D. Barnett ² the Chera or Kerala territory comprised Travancore, Cochin and the Malabar District; the Koṅgu-deśa (corresponding to the Coimbatore District and the southern part of Salem District), which at one time was separate from it and later annexed to it. Its capital was originally Vañji (now Tiru-Karūr, on the Periyār river, near Cochin), but later Tiru-Vañjikkalam (near the mouth of the Periyār). It had important trading centres on the western coast at Tondi on the Agalappulai, about five miles north of Quilāndi, Muchiri (near the mouth of the Periyār), Paḷaiyūr (near Chowghāṭ), and Vaikkarai (close to Kottayam).

c49.3

¹ Political History of Ancient India, 4th Ed., p. 273.

c49.4

² Cambridge History of India, Vol. I, p. 595.

c49.5

The three Tamil kingdoms, viz. Cōḷa, Chera and Pāṇḍya, are vaguely mentioned in the Sanskrit Epics and Purāṇas. Thus in the Purāṇas, as Sir R. G. Bhandarkar points out,³ the term Dakṣiṇāpatha or Dakṣiṇa is used to denote the whole peninsula to the south of the Narmadā. The Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa (Chap. 57, 45) reads Kevalas. The Vāyupurāṇa (XLV, 124) and the Matsyapurāṇa (CXIII, 46) as well as the Bhīṣmaparvan of the Mahābhārata (IX, 352 and 365) give the correct reading Kerala. According to the Mahābhārata,⁴ the Keralas seem to have been a forest tribe. In historical times they are associated with the Cōḷas and Pāṇḍyas. This is upheld by Harivaṃśa as well (XXXII, 1836). The Mārkaṇḍeya, Vāyu and Matsya Purāṇas mention the Cōḷas, Pāṇḍyas and Keralas among the peoples of the Dakṣiṇāpatha. In the Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa,⁵ the reading of the second line, as R. G. Bhandarkar says, is wrong. He gives his reading as follows: ‘Pāṇḍyāś ca Keralāścaiva Coḷāḥ Kulyās tathaiva ca’. In the Rāmāyaṇa,⁶ we read that Sugrīva, the monkey-king, is described as sending his followers to the different quarters in search of Rāma's wife, Sītā, and Rāvaṇa, her ravisher. The monkey-soldiers are directed to go to the countries of the Andhras (Telugu people), the Pāṇḍyas, the Cōḷas and the Keralas, in the south, and are told that they will there see the gate of the city of the Pāṇḍyas adorned with gold and jewels. In the *Mahābhārata*¹ Sahadeva in his career of conquest is represented to have subdued the Pāṇḍyas, Drāviḍas, Udras, Keralas and Andhras. Patañjali in his *Mahābhāṣya*² Kerala (or Malabar) is mentioned. The same work mentions Māhiṣmatī, Vaidarbha and Kāñcīpura (Conjeeveram).³ In the second and thirteenth rock edicts of Aśoka, the outlying provinces of the Cōḷas, Pāṇḍyas, Satiyaputras, Ketalaputras (Chera or Kerala), and the Andhras and Pulindas are mentioned.

c49.6

³ Early History of the Dekkan, p. 1.

c49.7

⁴ Sabhāparvan, XXX, pp. 1174-5.

c49.8

⁵ Chap. 57, 45 (ed. Bibliotheca Indica).

c49.9

⁶ IV, Chap. 41, Bom. Ed.

c49.10

¹ Sabhāparvan, Chap. 31.

c49.11

² IV, I, 4th Āhnika.

c49.12

³ *Early History of the Dekkan*, p. 7.

c49.13

Damirica is shown in the age of the *Periplus* as including Cerobothra (i.e. Keralaputra). During the age of Ptolemy the kingdom of Karoura was ruled by Kerobothros (Keralaputra).

c49.14

After the Cōḷas, the Cheras for a time became the leading power of the south. After them the Pāṇḍyas became the supreme power for some time in Southern India and then the Pallavas.

Linked texts (7)