Studies in Cola History and Administration c14.77

c14.77

The *cāvērs* were a class of specially trained warriors who braved death cheerfully;* it has been supposed that this class of warriors was confined to the Malabar country. The mention in the Tiruvadi inscription of the *cāvērs* of the Pāṇḍya is a very interesting fact. This fact renders it easier for us to understand the Tamil *praśasti* of Kulōttuṅga which narrates the war with the *cāvērs* that, preceded the colonisation of Kōṭṭār and other places in the Pāṇḍya country. Another interesting fact to which special attention may be drawn is the prominent part of the cavalry implied in the repeated reference to horses in the inscriptions. One of the extracts from the Cidambaram inscription given above (teṇṇavartam pūvēru etc.) says that when Toṇḍaiyarkōṇ got up on his steed, the Pāṇḍya got up on the mountain (fled for refuge) with his women. Again the military colonists whom Kulōttuṅga settled in the Pāṇḍya country, evidently at the end of the campaign here noticed, are described as chiefs of his cavalry forces (mā-vēriya-taṇ varūdinit-talaivarai). It seems such a pity that we have no reliable means of ascertaining the nature and equipment of the Cōḷa army at the time and its methods of warfare.