Chera Kingdom | ||||||||
Monarchy | ||||||||
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Extent of Chera kingdom
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Capital |
Mahodayapuram Quilon Karuvur |
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Languages | Proto-Tamil-Malayalam, Old Tamil | |||||||
Religion |
Dravidian folk religion Hinduism: Shaivism, Vaishnavism Jainism, Buddhism minority: Christianity, Judaism, Islam |
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Political structure | Monarchy | |||||||
History | ||||||||
• | Established | unknown, c. 4th century BCE | ||||||
• | Disestablished | 12th century CE (1124) | ||||||
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Today part of | India |
The Cheras were the principal ruling dynasty of the present-day state of Kerala and to a lesser extent, parts of Tamil Nadu in South India. Along with the Ay kingdom and the Ezhimala kingdom, they formed the ruling kingdoms of Kerala in the early years of the Christian Era . The origins of the dynasty are unclear and it is understood that they were speakers of Proto-Tamil-Malayalam while some being practitioners of literary writing in Old Tamil. In fact, most of their history is reconstructed from the body of literature known as the Sangam literature written in Old Tamil around the 3rd century CE.
The earliest traveller's accounts attesting the existence of the Cheras are by the Greek ambassador Megasthenes (4th century BCE), Pliny in the 1st century CE, in the Periplus of the 1st century CE and by Ptolemy in the 2nd century CE . While Pliny and Ptolemy refer to the Cheras as 'Calobotras', the Periplus refers to them as the 'Keprobotras'. Together with the Cholas and the Pandyas in the adjacent modern-day State of Tamil Nadu, the Cheras formed one of the three most powerful warring Iron Age kingdoms of the southern-most States of South India.
By the early centuries of the Common Era, civil society and statehood under the Cheras were developed in present-day western Tamil Nadu. The location of the Chera capital is generally assumed to be at modern Karur (identified with the Korura of Ptolemy). The Chera kingdom later extended to the plains of Kerala, the Palghat gap, along the river Bharathappuzha and occupied land between the river Bharathappuzha and river Periyar, creating two harbour towns, Tondi (Tyndis) and Muciri (Muziris), where the Roman trade settlements flourished.