Mantharan Cheral Irumporai
Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use Indian English
Script error: No such module "Infobox".Template:Template otherScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Template:Chera Dynasty Mantharan Cheral Irumporai (Tamil: மாந்தரன் சேரல் இரும்பொறை, title "Yanai Katchai", fl. c. 215 CE[1][2]) was a ruler of the Chera dynasty in early historic south India (c. 1st - 4th century CE).[1][2]
He was a contemporary of the Pandya ruler Nedum Chezhian (II, early 3rd century CE[3]).[4][1] His death was famously portended by a falling star (possibly a comet or meteor).[5]
Mantharan Cheral was a member of the Irumporai/Porai line, a collateral branch of the Chera family (ruling with Karuvur/Karur as their headquarters).[1][5] He is described as the ruler of Thondi (on the Malabar Coast), the "land the mountain fence protects", and the king of Kuda Nadu.[5]
Career
Mantharan Cheral is portrayed as a warring ruler in the early Tamil literature. He was hailed as "Yanai Katchai", meaning 'the One with an Eye-sight Like an Elephant'.[1] In a battle of against the Pandya ruler Nedum Chezhian, Mantharan Cheral was defeated and made captive. He was taken as a prisoner to the Pandya capital Madurai. After his court trial at Madurai he was locked in a fort "inside a bamboo forest surrounded by the crocodile lake". The Chera later escaped, "unaided by strength and stratagem", from his cell and returned to his country and "continued to rule his loving people in peace, plenty and harmony for many more uninterrupted years".[2][5]
The Purananuru Collection also tells that a certain Chera ruler participated in the battle of Talaiyalam-Kanam allied with the Chola ruler and five small chieftains against Nedum Chezhian.[3][5]
Mantharan Cheral is said to have won a victory at location known as "Vilankil".[5] In another battle against the Pandya ruler Template:Proper name, Mantharan Cheral was again defeated.[5]
Death
Poet Kudalur Kizhar, present at the death of Mandaran Cheral, states that the king's death was portended by a falling star (possibly a comet or meteor) seven days previous to the occurrence.[5]
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"...after a bright falling star - with a leg erupting backward, appeared in the sky, amidst the Adu (Aries) constellation, from the first leg of a Karthikai starday - past midnight, through to the Anusham starday in the first fortnight of the month of Pankuni (Phalguna), neither moving north nor east, staying aput in solitude as an island, with the North star wandering, the Mulam star rising opposite and passing above it, and the Mrikasirisham star staying low over the port of Thondi, on the seventh day Mantharan Cheral Irumporai died suddenly..."[4]
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The mentioned brightly visualized meteor that appeared in the said month of March and April might have been the Halley's Comet of February–April 141 CE (under the Aries across Phalguna).[6][7][5]
Quotes from Purananuru
- <templatestyles src="Citation/styles.css"/>^ Purananuru: 20-22
- <templatestyles src="Citation/styles.css"/>^ Purananuru: 229
- <templatestyles src="Citation/styles.css"/>^ Purananuru: 229
- <templatestyles src="Citation/styles.css"/>^ Purananuru: 0,22,32,53 & 229
- <templatestyles src="Citation/styles.css"/>^ Purananuru: 20-22 & 53
- .<templatestyles src="Citation/styles.css"/>^ Purananuru: 20-22
References
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