Cheras

Also called: Keralaputras · Topic: Sangam Age and Early South India · NCERT: Class 7, Ch 4 "New Beginnings: Cities and States"; Class 7, Ch 6 "The Age of Reorganisation"

Meaning

The Cheras were one of the three muvendar (the three crowned chiefs) of Tamilakam (the old Tamil land), along with the Cholas and the Pandyas. They ruled the Malabar coast and the hills behind it, which are now Kerala and western Tamil Nadu [3]. Their capital was Vanji, which is identified with present-day Karur.

They matter because many kinds of evidence describe them: Ashoka's inscription, Sangam poems, local inscriptions and a Greek geography book. Their pepper trade with Rome also shows how early south India grew rich through sea trade.

Explanation

Background: name, land and early mention

• Outsiders called the Cheras Keralaputra, which means "sons of Kerala". Sanskrit and Prakrit sources use this name.
• The name first appears in a 3rd-century BCE rock inscription of the Mauryan emperor Ashoka [2].
• This is the earliest written mention of Kerala.
• It shows that north India already knew the Cheras in Mauryan times.

• In that century the region was an independent Dravidian kingdom called Keralaputra [2].

• Their land was the Malabar coast and its hinterland (the inland area behind the coast) [3]. The Pandyas held Madurai and the Cholas held the Kaveri valley [3].

Main features: chiefs, not kings

• Sangam poems name Chera chiefs who can be dated to about the 1st century CE [3].
• Nedunjeral Adan attacked Yavana ships and held Yavana traders for ransom [3].
• Yavana was the word early Indian texts used for Greeks and Romans, and later for other westerners [3].

• The raid shows that a Chera chief could fight at sea as well as on land.

• Senguttuvan was the son of Nedunjeral Adan. Sangam poems praise him heavily [3].

• These rulers are better called chiefs than kings:
• They had no large standing army.
• They had no land-tax system.
• They had no treasury of coins like later kingdoms had.

• Their power came from war booty, gifts and control of trade routes.

• Royal emblem: the bow (vil). Chera coins carried the bow. The tiger was the Chola sign and the fish was the Pandya sign.

How it worked: poets, gifts and trade

• Chera chiefs supported Sangam poets.
• Poets sang about the chief's fame.
• In return the chief gave gold, elephants, chariots and food.

• This exchange kept the Tamil literary tradition alive.

• Giving gifts was a political act. A generous chief drew more warriors and poets to his court.

• Trade with Rome and West Asia
• In the early centuries BCE the Chera region became known to the Greeks and Romans for its spices [3].
• Main exports: spices (especially pepper), timber, ivory and pearls.
• The Romans paid gold for pepper. This is why hoards of Roman coins are found in south India.
• Coins with the bow symbol show that the chief wanted to be recognised in many markets.

Results: a rich land

• Sangam texts describe the Chera country as rich in jackfruit, pepper and turmeric. They also mention the growing of ragi (finger millet) and sugarcane.
• Pepper and turmeric were cash crops (grown to sell abroad).
• Ragi was a dry-land crop that people ate every day.

• Sugarcane needs a steady water supply, so some areas had good irrigation.

• Farming and trade supported each other.

• Pepper, ivory and timber from the forests and hills were carried down to the coast.
• From the coast they went out by ship.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: Sangam Age, c. 300 BCE – 300 CE. The named chiefs belong to about the 1st–2nd centuries CE [3].
• Region: Malabar coast and its hinterland, now Kerala and western Tamil Nadu [3].
• Capital: Vanji, identified with Karur in the Tiruchirappalli region of Tamil Nadu.
• Key people: Nedunjeral Adan and his son Senguttuvan [3]. The Irrumporai clan of Chera chiefs is also known from inscriptions [3].
• How we know:
• Ashoka's rock inscription (3rd century BCE) names the Keralaputras [2].
• Sangam poems describe the chiefs, their gifts to poets, their raids and the crops of their land.
• Chera inscriptions of the 2nd century CE found near Karur name the Irrumporai clan [3].
• Ptolemy, a Greek geographer, calls the town Korura [3]. This means Indian inscriptions and a Greek book both point to the same place.
• Bow-emblem coins and Roman coin hoards show trade and royal claims.
• The Gajabahu synchronism (a match in time between two rulers): Sangam poems link Senguttuvan with Gajabahu of Sri Lanka (2nd century CE) [3]. Scholars use this link to date the Sangam Age.

Don't confuse with

• Cholas: they ruled the Kaveri valley and used the tiger emblem. The Cheras held the Malabar coast and used the bow [3].
• Pandyas: they ruled from Madurai and used the fish emblem. The Cheras' capital was Vanji (Karur) [3].
• Yavanas: this was not a Chera group. It was the Indian name for Greeks, Romans and later other westerners. Nedunjeral Adan attacked Yavana ships [3].
• Gajabahu: he was a ruler of Sri Lanka (2nd century CE), not a Chera chief. Sangam poems only link him in time with Senguttuvan [3].

Prelims Hooks

• The name Keralaputra first appears in a 3rd-century BCE rock inscription of Ashoka [2]. This is the earliest written mention of Kerala.
• Chera capital Vanji = Karur, which Ptolemy calls Korura [3].
• 2nd-century CE inscriptions near Karur name the Irrumporai clan of Chera chiefs [3].
• Emblem pairs: Chera – bow (vil); Chola – tiger; Pandya – fish.
• Nedunjeral Adan held Yavana traders for ransom. His son Senguttuvan is linked with Gajabahu of Sri Lanka [3].
• Chera exports: spices (pepper), timber, ivory, pearls. Crops in Sangam texts: jackfruit, pepper, turmeric, ragi, sugarcane.

Mains Points

• Trade, not land revenue, built Chera power.
• The chiefs controlled pepper-rich hills and west-coast ports.
• This made them rich without a tax bureaucracy.

• It supports the view that early Tamilakam had chiefdoms rather than states.

• Different kinds of evidence check each other. Sangam poems (about Senguttuvan), the Karur inscriptions, Ashoka's mention of the Keralaputras and Ptolemy's Korura can be used together [2][3]. This is a good example of how historians build a picture of a period with few records.

• India–Rome contact went both ways and was sometimes violent.
• Roman gold flowed in for pepper.
• Nedunjeral Adan also raided Yavana ships [3].
• So the old picture of purely peaceful trade is too simple.
• The Gajabahu synchronism [3], the main tool for dating this period, is itself debated. Answers should call it a working tool, not a settled fact.

Related concepts

• Senguttuvan

Read more

• The Cheras