Cheraman Perumal (Nayanar)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article does not cite any references or sources. (January 2008)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

Cheraman Perumal was a Nayanar regal saint from the ancient Chera country (Kongu Nadu). He is said to have ruled from the seat of Cheras, Karuvur vanchi (modern Karur) located on the shores of Anporunai (modern Amaravati River). He also ruled the Koduntamizh regions of Kuttanadu, Venadu and Tenpandinadu, the first two north and south modern Kerala and the third, the southern tail end districts of Tamil Nadu from his seat at Karur.

[edit] Life

He was a King of the Chera dynasty in the late 8th Century AD, He was a friend of Sundaramoorthy Nayanar.

[edit] History

Cheraman Perumal is a Hindu saint Nayanmar of the Bhakti era who conclusively ruled from Karur Vanci, the capital of the Sangam Cheras who are totally different from the later Kerala Varmans. These Bhakti Cheramans (Sans: Keraputra) were direct descendants of the Sangam age Cheras. They were referred to as Chera - mans (man meaning "the noble") just like the Adiyamans (Sans: Satyaputras) who ruled from Tagadur (Dharmapuri). Cheramal Perumal is also said to have ruled Venadu (later Travancore) and Kuttanadu (Malabar), two Koduntamizh (deviant Tamil) regions which compromise modern Kerala. Cheraman Perumal Nayanar was a friend of the Saivite saint Sundaramurthy Nayanar. He left for Kailasam with the saint leaving a young man from Poondurai (Erode district) as the successor according to both Poondurai Puranam and Keralodpathi.

Similairly, another Chera of the Bhakti age, Kulasekharazhvar describes himself as Kollikkavalan (ruler of the Kolli hills, an attribute carried by the Sangam Cheras of Karur) and as the ruler of Kollinagar (Karur). The most interesting fact is that he has called himself as Kongar Koman or the ruler of the Kongu Nadu, the traditional Chera territory in Tamil Nadu in which Karur has been the Vanchi (capital) and Kolli hills have been the frontier with the Chozhas.

A confusion created by modern Keralite historians is to try mixing this Sangam-Bhakti Cheras with the Kerala Varmans though archeological, literary, numismatic and epigraphic proofs indicate otherwise.[1]

Ramabhakta Kulasekharazhvar who wrote the Tamil Prabandams is never mentioned in the vast Tamil cannon as to have written any Sanskrit work while many works of the other eleven Azhvars are written of. Thus Vaishnavite traditions hold the other later Sanskrit Krishna Bhakta Kulasekhara as a Kerala Varman and not as a Chera.

Similairly Cheraman Perumal of the Bhakti age is confused with the later Kerala Varmans who are in no way connected to the Cheras.