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Perunarkilli

Reign	Unknown
Title	Rasasuyam Vetta Perunarkilli
Capital	Urayur
Queen	Unknown
Children	Unknown
Predecessor	Unknown
Successor	Unknown
Father	Unknown
Born	Unknown
Died	Unknown
Tomb	{{{Location of Tomb}}}

List of Chola kings Early Cholas Ilamcetcenni  ·  Karikala Chola Nedunkilli  ·  Nalankilli Killivalavan  ·  Kopperuncholan Kocengannan  ·  Perunarkilli Interregnum (c.200-848)

Medieval Cholas Vijayalaya Chola 848-871(?) Aditya I 871-907 Parantaka Chola I 907-950 Gandaraditya 950-957 Arinjaya Chola 956-957 Sundara Chola 957-970 Uttama Chola 970-985 Rajaraja Chola I 985-1014 Rajendra Chola I 1012-1044 Rajadhiraja Chola 1018-1054 Rajendra Chola II 1051-1063 Virarajendra Chola 1063-1070 Athirajendra Chola 1067-1070 Chalukya Cholas Kulothunga Chola I 1070-1120 Vikrama Chola 1118-1135 Kulothunga Chola II 1133-1150 Rajaraja Chola II 1146-1163 Rajadhiraja Chola II 1163-1178 Kulothunga Chola III 1178-1218 Rajaraja Chola III 1216-1256 Rajendra Chola III 1246-1279

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Perunarkilli was one of the Early Cholas mentioned in Sangam Literature. We have no definite details about this Chola or his reign. The only information we have is from the fragmentary poems of Sangam in the Purananuru poems.

Contents 1 Sources 2 Powerful Monarch 3 See also 4 References

The only source available to us on Kopperuncholan is the mentions in Sangam poetry. The period covered by the extant literature of the Sangam is unfortunately not easy to determine with any measure of certainty. Except the longer epics Cilappatikaram and Manimekalai, which by common consent belong to the age later than the Sangam age, the poems have reached us in the forms of systematic anthologies. Each individual poem has generally attached to it a colophon on the authorship and subject matter of the poem, the name of the king or chieftain to whom the poem relates and the occasion which called forth the eulogy are also found.

It is from these colophons and rarely from the texts of the poems themselves, that we gather the names of many kings and chieftains and the poets and poetesses patronised by them. The task of reducing these names to an ordered scheme in which the different generations of contemporaries can be marked off one another has not been easy. To add to the confusions, some historians have even denounced these colophons as later additions and untrustworthy as historical documents.

Any attempt at extracting a systematic chronology and data from these poems should be aware of the casual nature of these poems and the wide difference between the purposes of the anthologist who collected these poems and the historian’s attempts are arriving at a continuous history.

Perunarkilli must have been a powerful monarch, as he is the only one among the early Tamil kings of the Sangam age to have performed the rajasuya (royal consecration) sacrifice. It is likely that the Chera king Mari Venko and the Pandya Ugrapperuvaluthi attended this occasion (Purananuru – 367). The sangam poetess Auvaiyar has written this fine benediction.

Nothing is known of the events in this king’s reign. He must have had his share of fighting as inferred from a poem in Purananuru (poem 16) which gives a graphic but conventional description of the havoc wrought by the invading Chola army on the enemy countries.

• Sangam Literature
• Early Cholas
• Legendary early Chola kings

• Mudaliar, A.S, Abithana Chintamani (1931), Reprinted 1984 Asian Educational Services, New Delhi.
• Nilakanta Sastri, K.A. (1935). The CōĻas, University of Madras, Madras (Reprinted 1984).
• Nilakanta Sastri, K.A. (1955). A History of South India, OUP, New Delhi (Reprinted 2002).
• Project Madurai – Purananuru eText - http://www.tamilnation.org/literature/ettuthokai/pm0057.pdf