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Yanaikat-sey Mantaran Cheral was a Chera king who ruled during the Sangam period (between the first and the third century CE). According to Sangam literature he was a contemporary of Pandya king Talaiyaalam-Kaanattu Seru Vendra Neduncezhian. Purananuru (PN:20,22,32,53 & 229) states that he participated in the battle of Talaiyaalam-Kaanam allied with Chola emperor Killivalavan and five other small rulers including Ezhini, Thithiyan, Irungo Vaenmaan, Porunan and Erumaiyuran . The Pandyan Neduncezhiyan won the battle and the Chera king was taken as a prisoner to Madurai. After his court trial he was locked in a fort inside a bamboo forest surrounded by the crocodile lake. He later escaped from his cell and returned to his country and "continued to rule his loving people in peace, plenty and harmony for many more uninterrupted years"( Purananuru-PN:229).
"Seven days after a bright comet appeared in the sky, amidst the Mesha constellation, past midnight on the first leg of the starday of Krittikai in the month of Panguni in the first quarter of Anusham(PN:229), with North star going down on the west, Moolam rising from the east and Mrigasirisha wandering above towards north and east of the port of Tondi, Mantaran Cheral Irumborai died suddenly". Thus the prediction of an imminent[1] loss for the kingdom by the council of Vaanaviyal Kanidar(ancient Tamil astrologers) came to be agonisingly true. The mentioned brightly visualised comet that appeared in the said month of March and April points to the Halley's comet of 141 CE(February–April 1 week).[2] This apparition was recorded in Chinese chronicles.[3]