Chozha Dynasty

Ask any this generation kid to name a few kings with the highest valours. They would immediately name Alexander, Shahjahan or Mohammed bin tughlaq.

But if you ask me to name any such kings I’d name the kings of Chozha kingdom proudly. It is because they all were highly skilled in Governance, Control, Centralization, Urban Planning, Architecture, Patronizing literature, triumph over his wars etc. They were a powerhouse in Military, Economy, Architecture and a lot more across South East Asia. The Chozhas had a huge navy fleet which represented the Zenith of Indian sea power in Ancient India.

The copper plates of Aanaimangalam (A small village from the Nagapattinam district of South Tamil Nadu) in the year 1886 and Thiruvalangadu (near Chennai) in the year 1905 are one of the primary sources that tell us about the history of Chozha kingdom.

Chozhas can be categorized into early Chozhas, medieval chozhas and later chozhas. Chozhas were headquartered around the river Kaveri region, conquered beyond the river Tungabadra in the west and the sacred Ganga to the east. We at present do not have enough inscriptions that say about the early Chozhas as they have said to have ruled at least 2000 years back. But we do have enough references about the existence of early Chozhas from Sangam literature.

Medieval Chozhas rose to prominence from the 9th century. It was Vijayalaya Chozhan who laid the foundation of Medieval Chozhas by conquering back the Thanjavur from Mutharaiyar. Then came the Adityan Chozhan I, Parantaka Chozhan I, Kandaraathittha Chozhan, Arinjaya Chozhan. During the demise of Kandaraathittha Chozhan, his son was too young to take over the throne. Hence his brother Arinjaya Chozhan became the king. After Arinjaya Chozhan who ruled for a very little time was succeeded by his son Parantaka Chozhan II. Parantaka Chozhan II was the embodiment of beauty and hence he was named Sundara Chozhan who is widely referenced in the famous novel Ponniyin Selvan by Kalki.

Sundara Chozhan had 2 sons namely Aditya Karikalan and Arumozhi Varman who was later named Raja Raja Chozhan who is still the greatest king of all time. Aditya Karikalan was assassinated at a very early stage of his life and the reason for his assassination remains a mystery even after 1000+ years.

Though Raja Raja Chozhan won the hearts of people to become the next heir to the throne after Aditya Karikalan’s demise, he refused to take up the throne to fulfil the wish of his uncle Uttama Chozhan who wanted to become a king.

It is practically impossible to name anyone great king in the Chozha dynasty as everyone in Chozhas was the best in their way of ruling. But two noted kings who got their recognition across continents are Arumozhi Varman @ Raja Raja Chozhan and Madhurantagan @ Rajendra Chozhan where the former is the father of the latter.

Read his war expedition in the next blog post.

My sincere thanks to Mr. Aandavar Kani who researched the Chozha inscriptions from various temples. This blog post wouldn’t have been possible without his help.