Legendary early Chola kings

List of Chola kings
Early Cholas
Elara Chola  ·   235 BC – 161 BC
Ilamcetcenni  ·   Karikala Chola
Nedunkilli  ·  
Killivalavan  ·   Kopperuncholan
Kocengannan  ·   Perunarkilli
Interregnum (c.200–848)
Medieval Cholas
Vijayalaya Chola 848–871(?)
Aditya I 871–907
Parantaka Chola I 907–950
Gandaraditya 950–957
Arinjaya Chola 956–957
Sundara Chola 957–970
Uttama Chola 970–985
Rajaraja Chola I 985–1014
Rajendra Chola I 1012–1044
Rajadhiraja Chola 1018–1054
Rajendra Chola II 1051–1063
Virarajendra Chola 1063–1070
Athirajendra Chola 1067–1070
Later Cholas
Kulothunga Chola I 1070–1120
Vikrama Chola 1118–1135
Kulothunga Chola II 1133–1150
Rajaraja Chola II 1146–1173
Rajadhiraja Chola II 1166–1178
Kulothunga Chola III 1178–1218
Rajaraja Chola III 1216–1256
Rajendra Chola III 1246–1279
Chola society
Chola government
Chola military  ·   Chola Navy
Chola art  ·   Chola literature
Solesvara Temples
Poompuhar  ·   Uraiyur
Melakadambur
Gangaikonda Cholapuram
Thanjavur  ·   Telugu Cholas
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The lists of legendary early Chola kings are recorded in Tamil literature and in the inscriptions left by the later Chola kings.

Contents

Chola Empire

The genealogy of the Chola empire as found in the Tamil literature and in the many inscriptions left by the later Chola kings contains a number of kings recorded for whom there is no verifiable historic evidence. There are as many versions of this lineage as there are sources for them. The main sources are (a) the Sangam literature – particularly Purananuru, religious literature such as Periapuranam, semi-biographical poems of the later Chola period such as the Kalingathuparani written during the Kulothunga Chola I and in the temple and cave inscription and copper-plate grants left by medieval Cholas.

Irrespective of the source, no list of the kings has a high level of historic fact and, while they generally are similar to each other, no two lists are exactly the same. Modern historians consider these lists not as historically reliable sources but as comprehensive conglomerations of various Hindu deities and Puranic characters attributed to local chieftains and invented ancestry of the Cholas of the Vijayalaya dynasty attempting to re-establish their legitimacy and supremacy in a land they were trying to conquer.

Prehistorical Cholas

A number of mythical hero and demi-gods found their place in the ancestry claimed by the later Cholas in the long mythical genealogies incorporated into the copper-plate charters and stone inscription of the tenth and eleventh centuries. The earliest version of this is found in the Anbil Plates which gives fifteen names before Vijayalaya Chola including the genuinely historical ones of Karikala, Perunarkilli and Kocengannan. The Thiruvalangadu Plate swells this list to forty-four, and the Kanyakumari Plate runs up to fifty-two.

The Cholas were looked upon as descended from the sun. These myths speak of a Chola king, supposed contemporary of the sage Agastya, whose devotion brought the river Kavery into existence. There is also the story of the king Manu who sentenced his son to death for having accidentally killed a calf. King Shibi who rescued a dove from a hawk by giving his own flesh to the hungry hawk was also part of the early Chola legends. King Shibi was also called Sembiyan, a popular title assumed by a number of Chola kings.

Cholas of the Sangam period

Though legendary and apocryphal, the early Chola kings of the Sangam period and the life of people contributed much to the cultural wealth of the Tamil country. The Sangam literature is full of legends about the mythical Chola kings.Their Pantheon of Gods were led by Siva the supreme, Aiyai or Uma the Kotravai(Kullabai), Sevvel or Muruga the Kurinci-Marudakkadavul, ThiruMaal or Maayoan the Mullaikkadavul, Vanci-Irai(Indra), Neitharman(Varuna), El the Uthi(the Sun) and Nanna the Mathi(the Moon) . The following list of early Sangam Cholas has been built from the various poems of Purananuru. The dates of accession are approximate interpolation of the Hindu Puranic Timeline.

Genealogy from Chola inscriptions

There is no concordance between various Chola inscriptions as far as their ancestry is concerned.

The genealogy of the Chola family conveyed by the Thiruvalangadu copperplate grant consists of names that are mostly mythological.