The existence of this king is scientifically confirmed and is known either from religious literature such as Periyapuranam, semi-biographical poems of the later Chola period as well as temple, copper plate and cave inscriptions.

Description

Parāntaka I ruled for forty-eight years, as the latest inscription of his reign is dated in his forty-eight regnal year. Early in his reign he resisted with success the attempt of Rāṣṭrakūṭa Kṛṣṇa II to put his own grand-son Kannaradeva on the Cōḷa throne. Thenceforth Pārantaka’s rule was one of increasing success and prosperity for the best part of it; he followed up his father’s victories by putting an end to Pāṇḍyan independence and extending the empire up to Kanyākumāri in the south; he even invaded Ceylon, though the raid, as we shall see, failed of its object.

[…]

Parāntaka invaded the Pāṇḍya country very soon after his accession. He bears the title Maduraikoṇḍa (who captured Madurai) as early as his third year. The conquest and subjugation of the Pāṇḍyan kingdom was, however, a gradual process; the earliest inscription of Pārantaka actually found in the Pāṇḍyan country is dated in his 24th year.

1

Āditya was on friendly terms with the contemporary Chera ruler Sthāṇuravi, whose daughter was married to his son Parāntaka.

2

He had many wives, of whom the names of no fewer than eleven occur in his inscriptions. Kōkkilān was the name of the mother of Rājāditya, called Kōdaṇḍarāma, the eldest son of Parāntaka who died in the battle of Takkōlam. Another queen of Parāntaka, a Kēraḷa princess, the mother of Ariñjaya, deserves special notice as her marriage, contracted possibly in Āditya’s lifetime, not only gave proof of the friendly political relations that obtained between the Cōḷa and Kēraḷa rulers, but apparently furnished the occasion for large influx of Malaiyāḷis into the Cōḷa country in search of service under the king and his sons.

3

The son of Rājakēsari-varma Āditja-Chōla I was Vīra-Chōla. We know from other epigraphical sources that this king bore the names Vīra-Nārāyaṇa, Parāntaka I and ‘Parakēsari-varman who took Madurai, Cylon and the crowned head of Vīra Pāṇḍya.’

4

Genealogical relationship

The following illustration provides an overview of the family relationships:

Genealogy Parantaka Chola I.

Genealogy Parantaka Chola I.

Informations

Preamble: Maduraiyum ilamum konda koparakesari – King Parakesari who captured Madurai and Lanka

Title: Parakesari

Year of birth: c. 873 CE

Place of birth: Tiruvottiyur (Chennai)

Year of death: c. 955 CE

Place of death: Tiruvottiyur (Chennai)

Reign: from 907 to 955 CE

Seat of government: Thanjavur

Predecessor: Aditya Chola I.

Successor: Gandaraditya Chola5

Father: Aditya Chola I.

Mother: Vayiri Akkan alias Tribhuvana Madeviyar (Chera wife)[?]

Wives: Ko Kizhan Adikal alias Tayar Nampirattiyar Kokkilanadigal678, Kizhan Adikal Ravi Neeli alias Iravi Nîli, Mallisvarattu Nampirattiyar Tennavan Mahadeviyar alias Narayana Nangai Nangaiyar9, Solamadeviyar10, Villavan-Mahadeviyar1112

Children: Anaimerrunjinar Rajaditya (Kodandarama), Gandaraditya Chola, Uttamasili, Arinjaya (also know as Arinchika, Arindigai or Arikulakesari or Arikesari or Arindama or Alvar Arikulakesarideva), Viramadevi13, Anupama14, Adittan Karralippiratti15

Era: Chola period

Time period: Medieval Cholas

Pictures

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no picture available

  1. Sastri, K. A. Nilakanta, The Cōḷas, 1955, pp. 120-121 ↩
  2. Sastri, K. A. Nilakanta, A History of South India – from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar, 1966, p. 175 ↩
  3. Sastri, K. A. Nilakanta, The Cōḷas, 1955, p. 134 ↩
  4. Archaeological Survey of India, EI. – Volume XV, 1925, p. 50 ↩
  5. Balasubrahmanyam, S. R., Early Chola Art – Part I, 1966, p. 163 ↩
  6. Balasubrahmanyam, S. R., Early Chola Art – Part I, 1966, p. 165 ↩
  7. Archaeological Survey of India, SII. – Volume II – Part III, 1932, p. 383, No. 76, Plate IIb, Verse 8 ↩
  8. Balasubrahmanyam, S. R., Early Chola Temples – Parantaka I to Rajaraja I, 1971, p. 65 ↩
  9. Balasubrahmanyam, S. R., Early Chola Art – Part I, 1966, p. 163 ↩
  10. Balasubrahmanyam, S. R., Early Chola Art – Part I, 1966, p. 165 ↩
  11. Archaeological Survey of India, SII. – Volume III – Part I, II, III and IV, 1929, p. 12 ↩
  12. Archaeological Survey of India, EI. – Volume XV, 1925, pp. 50-51 ↩
  13. Sastri, K. A. Nilakanta, A History of South India – from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar, 1966, p. 178 ↩
  14. Sastri, K. A. Nilakanta, The Cōḷas, 1955, p. 134 ↩
  15. Archaeological Survey of India, SII. – Volume III – Part I, II, III and IV, 1929, p. 13 ↩