MANUAL OF THE NILAaiRl DISTRICT. 261 



the Chera country, means, like Kodagu (Coorg), ci'ooked, curved, CHAP. XI. 



and is evidently a name derived from the configuration of the coun- 



try,"' History. 



Allowing that the Malayalam people speak a dialect of Tamil, 

 they are to all intents and purposes a separate Dravidian people, 

 distinguished from the Tamils and the Kanarese by marked 

 religious and social peculiarities. As regards Karnata, we are con- 

 cerned with the Kadamba and Hoysala BelMla dynasties and those 

 of Vijayanagar and of Mysore. 



Kongu seems to have been the name of the country ruled by Kongn oi 

 the Chera dynasty. Professor Wilson says : — 



" The northern limit of Chera varied at different periods, being 

 originally placed at Palani near Bliarapiira, whilst at a subsequent 

 period the capital, Dalavampur or Talcacl, above the Mysore Ghauts, 

 indicates a considerable extension of the boundary in this quarter, 

 and the Chera principality probably included the greater portion of 

 Karnata. Its eastern limits were the possessions of Chola and Fandya 

 and the western those of Kerala. In its early state, however, it 

 comprehended the extreme south of the Malabar coast or Travancore, 

 and consisted of that province, Wynad, the Nilagiri mountain district, 

 the southern portion of Coimbatore and part of Tinnevelly. In this 

 tract we have in Ptolemy the people called Carei, and not far from 

 it Carura Regia Cerebothri, in which, making allowance for inaccuracies 

 of sound and expression, we have the Cheras and Car^ir, still a city 

 in this district, and Cherapati, the sovereign of Ghei-a." ^ 



An account of these kings will be found in the Kongn-desa 

 Bdjakal, already referred to, translated by W. Taylor. Their 

 capital was at Skandapura, which is placed by Lassen near the 

 Gajalhatti Pass. In the third century after Christ their capital 

 was moved further north to Talkad on the Kaveri, near Kollegal, 

 just beyond the Coimbatore frontier, but their rule extended 

 over all South-west Mysore, including, doubtless, the Nilagiris. 

 They were a warlike race and delighted in the horse and elephant. 

 It will be remembered that numerous figures of these animals 

 caparisoned have been found in the Nilagiri cairns and cromlechs. 

 Mr. Rice enumerates twenty-eight kings from about the begin- 

 ning of the Christian era to 894 A.D. The early kings were 

 apparently Jains. The seventh (A.D. 178 to 188), Sri Vikrama, 

 joined the Siva faith. He was a great warrior, his conquests 

 extending over Chola, Pandya, Kerala, Malaysia and Mysore. 

 His successor, Kongani Varmma Dharma, was the founder of a 

 new dynasty, and removed the capital to Talkad or Delavanapura. 

 He lives in story as the divider, with one stroke of his sword, of 



' See also Preface to the Kongu-desa R&jakal, Madras, p. xiv, 1, 1647, and 

 Mr. Nelson's Manual, Part III, pp. 45-47. 



^ Descriptive Catalogxie, Vol. I, Introduction, xcii. 



