Date of Karikal chola

Date of Karikal Chola
Karikalan is one of the most legendry kings of Tamil literature. His legendry status include.
  1. Building kallanai or Grand anicut.
  2. Waging a war on North India and Etching the chola emblem on the Himalayas
  3. Making Kanchi the capital of Cholas
Though many place the date of Karikalan to 2nd century AD. There is no historical inscription to confirm this. Let us analayse the literary sources to see the date.

Cilapthikaram
Cilapathikaram is the most ancient literary work to speak about Karikalan. This work says karikalan is Maternal Uncle of Cheran Cenguttuvan. To look further on this kindly follow the link
When we cannot establish the date of Cilapathikaram how can we date karikalan using this.

Pattinappaalai
Here is the dating frenzy gone mad. The pattinappaalai is dated to 1st century BC to 1st century AD, But the king mentioned in work is dated 2nd century AD. That is author praises a king and gives vivid accounts who is born 100 years later Let us not go to another myth of antiquity of tamil article. Written by Uruttirankannanar the work talks about mostly karikalan and puhar.
Let us see info about him.

One inscription throws a different light about uruthirang kannanar A mandapa was donated to kannanar by Karikala . Around 1200 AD Sundara pandiyan ransacked the whole of chola kingdom. He destroyed all forts, palaces etc. but left this one single mandapa untouched. There is a detailed inscription in thiruvellarai - in the form of a Tamil poem – which records this. Though it was a chola who donated the gift, it was a gift for a Tamil poet - uruthirang kannanar - that's all pandiyan considered. Did a mantapa donated by Karikala survived 1000 years. Most unlikely, the date of the above poet cannot be taken for dating karikalan.

Kalingathu Parani
Kalingathu parani was composed at the time of Kulothunga chola (1070-1120). Kulothunga was chalukyan prince who crowned himself as chola king. The difference between the said date of karikala and composition has to noted here.

Ponniyn selvan
Most of the myths about cholas and tamil in general are from this book, Ponniyn selvan written in 20th century. Making the cholas great legendry builders, fighters and naval power belong to this book. The author carelessly twists the historical facts to suit his theories. Most tamil people get their history from this book and naturally gungho about their language and history.


Inscription
The first inscription to date are copper plates of Udayendram, This is in 10th century AD ,so the king who ruled cannot be remembered only after 700 years and not any where else, that should be strange. Because medieval cholas start around 9th century AD. Also see article here link2 about telugu chodas.

So there is no definite date for karikalan, Tamil historians follow circular logic in dating , they say karikala is 2nd century AD and so the authors should be around that time. And in another instance the literary works are of that age, so the king should be that age. If karikalan cannot be dated around 9th century and 10th century AD , why date him to 2nd century AD , he can be dated to 7th and 8th century AD.

16 comments:

  1. He cannot be in 7th and 8th century, because from 4th to 8th century, the whole tamil land was under pallava control. There is no record about cholas on that period. We have records only about Pallavas and Pandyas on that period. So, the great Karikala should be around 1st to 2nd century only.

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    1. According to sangam poets And other information available, he should be lived between 1 and 100 AD. He also may be maternal uncle of chenguttuvan, because karikalan's daughter adimanthi married chera prince attain atthi. Their son may be chenguttuvan and ilango adigal.ilango praises karikalan in many places in silappatikaram. Karikalan's city is poompuhar. Silapathikaram speaks and praises puhar city. Silapathikaran might have been written around 150 to 250 AD.according to above karikalan's might have lived during 1 to 100AD.

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    2. Sangam literature is post 10 century AD. Go to myth of Tamil Sangam article

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    3. Date of Sliapathikaram, go to silapathikaram article

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    4. Also who are are sangam cheras article

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  2. 1. There is no record of karikala chola existence before 9th century.

    2. first inscription mentioning him is in 10th century, the legend also starts around the same time with Kalingathu parani and reaches a cresendo in 20th century ponniyn selvan
    3. Can you find any external evidence for karikalan existence, kindly let me know

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    1. 7th century Telugu Chola king Punya kumar's Melpadu inscription clearly mentions that he is the Decendant of Karikala Cholan

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    2. Melapadu plates of Punyakumara telugu choda king does not talk about karikala, it talks about Trilochana pallava raising banks of river kaveri.

      charuna - sarbruha vihita - vihita -vilochana – trilochana pramukhakila - pritvisvara -karita kaveri- tira

      In another copper plate inscription punyakumara gives his geneology with vikramaditya chola (12 century AD), So the grant is not 8th century CE as claimed, but 12th century or later.

      Mckenzie manuscript gives the date Tokka 990 for karikalan who raised embankments, if we take tokka as saka then it gives date as 1089AD. If we check who was the chola who ruled at that, it is virarajendra who has title of karikala.

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  3. Karikala said to have defeated Oliya nagas and according to Mahabalipur Inscription of Rajendra I oliya nagas are of his period( 11th century AD.)

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  4. Do not confuse Adhiya Karikala who is a part of Ponniyin Selvan with Karikala. Chola

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    1. So According to you Venkat, Aditya Karikala is not historical figure

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    2. Aditya karikalan, who stayed in kanchipuram and taking control northern part of chola kingdom during parantakan's reign. Aditya karikalan is good prince. That's it. But karikalan is a emperor, king of kings. He won chera and and pandya kings at the age 10 in a battle of venni. He was emperor until he dies.ie 85

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  5. Karikalan was not made kanchipuram as chola capital, he made uraiyur as cholas newcapital during his period, before him puhar was chola's capital. Don't give wrong information.his father ilamcetenni was ruled from puhar and karikalan also was start ruling from puhar, then he created second new capital uraiyur(kozhiyur) not kanchipuram . tell me if am wrong.

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    1. @arun K ;None of your comments give any evidence for dating karikalan.

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  6. Erikal muthuraju dhananjaya chola rule andhra Pradesh.evidence chenna keshava temple kamallapuram stone engrave in 575AD...name itself enough for karikala chola descendants.karikala rule trichy thanjavur central tamilnadu in first century.then from 2century to 4century tamilnadu ruled by kalabhras martial arts kings

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  7. Karikal chola is decendent of Erikal muthuraju choda (not Chola) and cholas are telugus
    See origin of Chola article
    http://controversialhistory.blogspot.in/2007/10/origin-of-cholas-tamil-myth.html

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