Chandra Varma Explained

Chandra Varma is the name of the legendary ancestor of the Kodavas (Kodagas, Coorgs or Coorgis).[1] [2]

Sources

The legend of Chandra Varma is found in four chapters (11 to 14) of the Kaveri Purana which is part of the Skanda Purana.[3]

Kadamba Origin

According to Col Wilks, B L Rice and B D Ganapathy, the Coorgs or Kodagus (Kodavas) were Kadambas who were led by a king named Chandra Varma.[4] [5] [6]

Legend

Chandra Varma was the fourth son of Chandravamshi Kshatriya Emperor Siddartha of Dravida Matsya desha.[2] There were a number of Matsya deshas across India, while the main one was in North India. Dravida was a name for South India. Chandra Varma had an army and settled in Kodagu (Coorg), which was called Kroda desha at that time.[7] A devotee of Parvathi, Chandra Varma went on a pilgrimage across peninsular India with his army to Jagannath, Tirupati, Kanchi, Chidambaram, Srirangam, Dhanushkoti, Rameshwaram and Ananthasayana and became the first king of Kodagu. He married a Shudra goddess, an apsara who was made by Parvathi and who worked as a peasant, and had ten sons.[8]

His sons married the daughters of the king of Vidarbha and his Shudra queen.[9] Chandra Varma was succeeded as king by his eldest son Devakanta.[2] Legend has it that it was during the lifetime of Devakanta that the river Kaveri originated in Kodagu and flowed through South India. The Kaveri Purana states that Chandra Varma's progeny levelled the land, brought it under cultivation and invited Brahmins and other castes to settle the region.[10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16]

Notes and References

  1. Book: Sathyan, B N . Mysore State Gazetteer: Coorg District . Director of Print., Stationery and Publications at the Government Press . 1965 . Mysore.
  2. Book: M P . Nitin Kushalappa . Dakshin: South Indian Myths and Fables Retold . 13 February 2023 . Penguin Random House India Private Limited . 978-93-5492-932-8 . 15 June 2023 . en.
  3. Book: Richter, G . Manual of Coorg . Stolz . 1870 . Mangalore . 216–224.
  4. 1883 . Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency . Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency . XV Part II . 79 . Government Central Press.
  5. Book: Moraes, George M. . The Kadamba Kula: A history of ancient and medieval Karnataka . 1931 . Bombay.
  6. Book: Ganapathy, B D . Kodavas (Coorgs), Their Customs and Culture . 1967 . 4.
  7. Book: Subbayya, K K . Archaeology of Coorg . Geetha Book House . 1978 . 170.
  8. Book: Belfour, Edward . The Cyclopaedia of India and of Eastern and Southern Asia. Volume 2. . Akademische Druck-u. Verlagsanstalt . 1883 . 263.
  9. Book: Mögling, Herrmann . Coorg Memoirs . Wesleyan Mission Press . 1855 . 13–26.
  10. Book: Karnataka State Gazetteer, Vol 1 . Director of Print, Stationery and Publications at the Government Press . 1965 . 40.
  11. Book: Sathyan, B N . Mysore State Gazetteer: Coorg District . Director of Print., Stationery and Publications at the Government Press . 1965 . Mysore . 39–40.
  12. Book: Rao, B. Surendra . Coorg Invented . Forum for Kodagu Studies . 1998 . 46.
  13. Book: Kamath . Karnataka State Gazetteer: Volume 20 . 1993 . 2.
  14. Book: Imperial Gazetteer of India: Mysore and Coorg . Usha . 1985 . 278.
  15. 1980 . Bulletin of the Anthropological Survey of India . Anthropological Survey of India . Director, Anthropological Survey of India, Indian Museum . 25 . 22.
  16. Book: Sreenivasa Murthy . H. V. . A History of Karnataka, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day . Ramakrishnan . R. . S. Chand . 1977 . 304.

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