Apart from the well known Kings of Tamil Nadu there were some other Kings in Tamil Nadu of yore.
One such is Irungovel, who ruled over the western part of Tamil Nadu not covered by the Chera Kings.
Hoysla Kingdom.
The area corresponds roughly the area surrounding Coimbatore extending to Dharmapuiri.
It is also interesting to note that King Pari who ruled around this area belongs to Velir Community.
This community was brought from Dwaraka when or after Dwaraka was sinking or a little before or a little after( with those who remained the deluge) by Sage Agastya.
Some intriguing points.
1.The time frame mentioned and the reference found in Nachinarkkiniyar , a famous Tamil commentator of Sangam Literature.
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Sangam Tamil poets composed over 2000 poems. Purananuru is an encyclopaedia of Tamil culture. It has got less than 400 verses. Purananuru verse 201 was composed by Kapilar two thousand years ago. This is a very important verse in Purananuru. It throws much light on early Indian History. Kapilar talks about 49th generation of Irungovel. Famous Tamil Commentator Nachinarkiniyar , who lived several hundred years ago, gave a very interesting story about this verse.
Nachinarkiniyar said that Agastya brought 12 tribes from Dwaraka ruled by Lord Krishna. Another city in the name of Dwaraka was founded in Karnataka (Mysore) state in the twelfth century. There is an interesting story about how and who founded this city. Hoychalas were the kings who ruled from this city.Hoychala is translated into Tamil asPulikadimal which is found in verse 201.
Chala was a king belonging to Yadu dynasty. While he was hunting in the Western Ghats, he saw a hare heroically fighting with a tiger. This made him to think that this place must have some special importance. When he followed the fighting tiger and hare, an ascetic who was doing penance ordered king Chala to kill the tiger. The ascetic’s order in Sanskrit was “Hatham Hoy Chala”. So from that day on wards the king and his descendants were called Hoychalas. If the verse 201 refers to this anecdote then it must have happened 2000 years ago.
This is reinforced by the Temples dedicated to Hindu Gods by the Hoysalas in Karnataka.
This King could have been called as Irungovel in Tamil and Hoysala in Karnataka.
The area in question is around the present border of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
2.Tamil Literature speaks of a King who was born of a Yaaga in Dwaraka and the city of Dwaraka was enclosed by Copper walls.
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We know that Dwaraka and Gujarat present a very rich archeological source for IVC. The contention of Dr Parpola and the Dravidian politicians of Tamilnadu is that Tamils have descended form the IVC locations of North India. The verse by poet Kapilar in fact traces the origins of the King IrungoveL to Dwaraka. He says that he belonged to the 49th generation of the king who was born of the Sacrificial Fire conducted by the sage of the North. This king ruled Dwaraka, so says the poet. Reserving the other details of this verse for a future post, I am now concentrating on another description in that song.
( There is another interpretation on the interpretatiion of the term Sacrificial fire
Kapilar describes Dwaraka as being surrounded by walls made of copper.
நீயே, வடபால் முனிவன் தடவினுள் தோன்றிச்,
செம்பு புனைந்து இயற்றிய சேண்நெடும் புரிசை,
உவரா ஈகைத், துவரை ஆண்டு,
நாற்பத்து ஒன்பது வழிமுறை வந்த
வேளிருள் வேளே!
This means “O king IrungoveL! you were the 49th king in the lineage of the king, who was born of the sacrificial fire conducted by the sage and ruled Dwarka which was surrounded by long / tall walls of copper.”
From the commentary that Dr U.Ve.Sa found out form the palm leaf manuscripts :-
“நீ தான் வட பக்கத்து முனிவனுடைய ஓம குண்டத்தின் கண் தோன்றிச் செம்பால் புனைத்து செய்தாலொத்த சேய்மையை உடைத்தாகிய நெடிய மதிலை உடைய துவராவதி என்னும் படை வீட்டை ஆண்டு, வெறுப்பில்லாத கொடையினை உடையராய் நாற்பத்தொன்பது தலைமுறை தொன்றுபட்டு வந்த வேள்களுள் வைத்து வேளாய்உள்ளாய்!”..
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Categories: Tamils
Sir, Thanks for providing an Informative article. I request Mr. Tamilkelvan also to share similar articles.
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The Irungovel remains mystery. As per Kannada Inscriptions Hoysalas figure only from early 10th century AD. As per Sangha literature Irungovel Kings have been despised by Kapilar as well as another poet as descendent of Nannan the female killer. As per Chola timeline Nannans are a branch from CHOLAS. As per Kannada Inscriptions the original capital of Hoysalas was Sasangapura in Malnad area honoring a pigeon fighting against an elephant resembling Kozhiyur of Cholas. The Kapilar’ S poem cannot be linked to Yaduvansin but Jain chronicle probably Nimi’ S story famous in Jain myths as arising from body. Irungovelas has not been deciphered correctly since Irungolapadi is present throughout South India as well as Irungola CHOLAS. The Hoysalas became prominent only after Bittiga captured Vanavasi from Kadambas after remaining vassal under Vikramaditya VI captured a part of Ganga kingdom from Cholas and afterwards became independent of Kalyani Chalukyas. However the Irungovels had close connection with Kodumbalur and their initial Inscriptions were in Kannada also. It is a mystery why Irungovels maintaining close relationship with early Cholas claimed descent from Yaduvamsins but they make no mention about Kapilar’ poem. Similarly there is utter confusion about Cholas and there are Kodumbalur Cholas Muchukunda CHOLAS apart from Nidavolu and Irungola Cholas of Karnataka there are many Cholas in AP. Probably Chola would have represented geographical area rather than Tribal name. Unless Tamil is shifted to Malnad area of Karnataka and analysed with reference to Prakrit terms everything will be a mere conjecture
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You are right. It needs a lot of effort to sift
through. It has to be done to bring out thecblanked out portions of Tamil History. I am ecploring Let us see what comes out.Regds.
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