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Rama Rajasekhara
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 6/15/21
For title used by Chera rulers, see Cheraman Perumal.
Rajasekhara; Sri Raja Rajadhiraja; Parameswara Bhattaraka; "Rajashekhara" Deva; Peruman Adigal
Depiction of "Cherman Perumal" Nayanar in Brihadisvara Temple, Thanjavur
Ruler of Kodungallur Chera (Perumal) Kingdom[1]
Reign: 870/71–c. 883/84 AD
Predecessor: Sthanu Ravi Kulasekhara
Successor: Vijayaraga
Names: Rama Rajashekhara[1]
Regnal name: Rajasekhara
House: Chera Perumals of Makotai
Religion: Hinduism (Shaiva)
[x]
Grantha
Rama Rajasekhara (fl. 870/71–c. 883/84 AD[2]) was a Chera Perumal ruler of medieval Kerala, south India.[3][4][5] Rajasekhara is usually identified by historians with Cheraman Perumal Nayanar, the venerated Shaiva (Nayanar) poet-musician.[5][3][1] Two temple records, from Kurumattur, Areacode and Thiruvatruvay, Vazhappally, mention king Rajasekhara.[6]
Rajasekhara probably succeeded Sthanu Ravi Kulasekhara around 870 AD.[2][7] It is also suggested that Cheraman Perumal Nayanar was on friendly terms with the Pallava dynasty.[8]
The direct authority of the Chera Perumal king was restricted to the country around capital Makotai (Mahodaya, present-day Kodungallur) in central Kerala.[9] His kingship was only ritual and remained nominal compared with the power that local chieftains (the udaiyavar) exercised politically and militarily. Nambudiri-Brahmins also possessed huge authority in religious and social subjects (the so-called ritual sovereignty combined with Brahmin oligarchy).[9][10]
Rama Rajasehara probably abdicated the throne toward the end of his reign and became a Shaiva nayanar [hounds/teachers of Siva] known as Cheraman Perumal Nayanar.[6] He was succeeded by Vijayaraga (fl. c. 883/84-c.895 AD).[2]
Sources
• Shivanandalahari, attributed to Hindu philosopher Shankara, indirectly mentions the Chera ruler as Rajasekhara.[11]
• Rajasekhara is also tentatively identified with king "Co-qua-rangon" mentioned in the Thomas of Cana copper plates.[12][/b]
Rama Deva
Laghu Bhaskariya Vyakhya, a mathematical commentary composed in the court of king Ravi Kulasekhara in 869/70 AD, mentions a Chera Perumal royal called Rama Deva, who marched out to fight the enemies on getting information from the spies.[13] A possibility identifies Rama Deva with Rama Rajasekhara.[14] Rama Deva is described as a member of the Solar Dynasty ("ravi-kula-pati") in Chapter IIII, Laghu Bhaskariya Vyakhya.[13]
Patron of Vasubhatta
Vasubhatta, a famous Yamaka poet of medieval Kerala, names his patron king as "Rama". A later commentary on a poem by Vasubhatta says that "Kulasekhara" was the regnal title of king Rama.[15] Scholars generally consider this a result of confusion on the part of the commentators (between Sthanu Ravi Kulasekhara and Rama Rajasekhara) who were separated in time from Vasubhatta.[15] Some scholars also identify king Rama Kulasekhara as the patron of poet Vasubhatta (and thus placing Vasubhatta in 11th-12 centuries AD).[16] This view is generally found unacceptable on several counts.[17]
Epigraphic records
Vazhappalli copper plate
Kurumattur inscription
References
1. Narayanan, M. G. S. Perumāḷs of Kerala. Thrissur (Kerala): CosmoBooks, 2013. 64-65.
2. 'Changes in Land Relations during the Decline of the Cera State,' In Kesavan Veluthat and Donald R. Davis Jr. (eds), Irreverent History:- Essays for M.G.S. Narayanan, Primus Books, New Delhi, 2014. 74-75.
3. Noburu Karashmia (ed.), A Concise History of South India: Issues and Interpretations. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2014. 143.
4. Narayanan, M. G. S. Perumāḷs of Kerala. Thrissur (Kerala): CosmoBooks, 2013. 64-66, 88-95, 107.
5. Veluthat, Kesavan. “The Temple and the State in Medieval South India.” Studies in People’s History, vol. 4, no. 1, June 2017, pp. 15–23.
6. 'Changes in Land Relations during the Decline of the Cera State,' In Kesavan Veluthat and Donald R. Davis Jr. (eds), Irreverent History:- Essays for M.G.S. Narayanan, Primus Books, New Delhi, 2014. 58 and 74-75.
7. Veluthat, Kesavan. 2004. 'Mahodayapuram-Kodungallur', in South-Indian Horizons, eds Jean-Luc Chevillard, Eva Wilden, and A. Murugaiyan, pp. 471–85. École Française D'Extrême-Orient.
8. Narayanan, M. G. S. Perumāḷs of Kerala. Thrissur (Kerala): CosmoBooks, 2013. 80-93.
9. Noburu Karashmia (ed.), A Concise History of South India: Issues and Interpretations. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2014. 143-44.
10. Narayanan, M. G. S. 2002. ‘The State in the Era of the Ceraman Perumals of Kerala’, in State and Society in Premodern South India, eds R. Champakalakshmi, Kesavan Veluthat, and T. R. Venugopalan, pp.111–19. Thrissur, CosmoBooks.
11. Narayanan, M. G. S. Perumāḷs of Kerala. Thrissur (Kerala): CosmoBooks, 2013. 64 and 77.
12. Narayanan, M. G. S. Perumals of Kerala: Brahmin Oligarchy and Ritual Monarchy—Political and Social Conditions of Kerala Under the Cera Perumals of Makotai (c. AD 800–AD 1124) Thrissur (Kerala): CosmoBooks, 2013. 302-303.
13. Narayanan, M. G. S. Perumāḷs of Kerala. Thrissur (Kerala): CosmoBooks, 2013. 64-66 and 78-79.
14. Narayanan, M. G. S. Perumāḷs of Kerala. Thrissur (Kerala): CosmoBooks, 2013. 79-80.
15. Veluthat, Kesavan (1982). "The Status of the Monarch". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. 43: 147–157. ISSN 2249-1937. JSTOR 44141225.
16. Vielle, Christophe (2012). "Real and Ideal Kings in Matrilineal Kerala". Religions of South Asia. 5 (1): 365–387. doi:10.1558/rosa.v5i1/2.365.
17. Devadevan, Manu V. (2020). "The Semantic Universe of the Kudiyattam Theatre". The 'Early Medieval' Origins of India. Cambridge University Press. pp. 229–30.
18. Veluthat, Kesavan (1 June 2018). "History and historiography in constituting a region: The case of Kerala". Studies in People's History. 5 (1): 13–31. [1]
19. Indian Archaeology 2010-2011 – A Review (2016) (p. 118) [2]
20. Indian Archaeology 2010-2011 – A Review (2016) (p. 118) [3]
21. Naha, Abdul Latheef. Ancient inscription throws new light on Chera history. February 11, 2011 The Hindu [4] [5]
22. Narayanan, M. G. S. Perumāḷs of Kerala. Thrissur (Kerala): CosmoBooks, 2013. 435.
23. Rao, T. A. Gopinatha. Travancore Archaeological Series (Volume II, Part II). 8-14.
External links
• Mathew, Alex - Political identities in History (2006) Unpublished Doctoral Thesis (M. G. University)
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 6/15/21
Indeed, a verse attributed to the theorist and poet Rajasekhara (fl. 920 CE) puts Dandin in a class by himself by speaking of yet another triad, that of his works, and comparing it, among other things, to the trinity of gods and the trilogy of Vedic scripture.
Dandin's celebrity notwithstanding, his actual corpus has been rather poorly preserved, so much so that it is not entirely clear what list of three books Rajasekhara actually had in mind. There is, of course, the Kavyadarsa itself, a work that seems to have reached our hands in a complete form.16 A second work by Dandin, which seems to have pioneered the genre of poems narrating the two great epics simultaneously, was lost in its entirety; we know about it from a discussion of this genre in Bhoja’s Srngaraprakasa, where one relic verse from Dandin's lost poem is given as an example.17 Then there is the Dasakumaracarita (What Ten Young Men Did), a prose work that has come to us in a highly incomplete form and whose ‘‘headless, tailless torso’’ is now ‘‘sandwiched between two secondary paraphrases of the missing sections of [Dandin's] original work.’’18 Finally, there is the Avantisundarı, or Avantisundarıkatha (The Story of the Beautiful Lady from Avanti), also in prose, whose transmission is even poorer. Only a couple of fragmentary manuscripts of this work have survived, both of which break off at a relatively early stage, after the author introduces himself, describes the context and inspiration for the work’s composition, and begins to lay out the frame of a highly expansive narrative. There exists, however, a later Sanskrit work that sums up the larger prose narrative of the Avantisundarı in verse. This Avantisundarıkathasara (Gist of the Story of the Beautiful Lady from Avanti) is also incomplete, as is a thirteenth-century Telugu translation, but both go well beyond the point where the fragmented katha manuscripts stop and significantly overlap with the main part of Dandin's other prose work, the Dasakumaracarita.
-- A Question of Priority: Revisiting the Bhamaha-Dandin Debate, by Yigal Bronner
For title used by Chera rulers, see Cheraman Perumal.
Rajasekhara; Sri Raja Rajadhiraja; Parameswara Bhattaraka; "Rajashekhara" Deva; Peruman Adigal
Depiction of "Cherman Perumal" Nayanar in Brihadisvara Temple, Thanjavur
Ruler of Kodungallur Chera (Perumal) Kingdom[1]
Reign: 870/71–c. 883/84 AD
Predecessor: Sthanu Ravi Kulasekhara
Successor: Vijayaraga
Names: Rama Rajashekhara[1]
Regnal name: Rajasekhara
House: Chera Perumals of Makotai
Religion: Hinduism (Shaiva)
[x]
Grantha
Rama Rajasekhara (fl. 870/71–c. 883/84 AD[2]) was a Chera Perumal ruler of medieval Kerala, south India.[3][4][5] Rajasekhara is usually identified by historians with Cheraman Perumal Nayanar, the venerated Shaiva (Nayanar) poet-musician.[5][3][1] Two temple records, from Kurumattur, Areacode and Thiruvatruvay, Vazhappally, mention king Rajasekhara.[6]
Rajasekhara probably succeeded Sthanu Ravi Kulasekhara around 870 AD.[2][7] It is also suggested that Cheraman Perumal Nayanar was on friendly terms with the Pallava dynasty.[8]
The direct authority of the Chera Perumal king was restricted to the country around capital Makotai (Mahodaya, present-day Kodungallur) in central Kerala.[9] His kingship was only ritual and remained nominal compared with the power that local chieftains (the udaiyavar) exercised politically and militarily. Nambudiri-Brahmins also possessed huge authority in religious and social subjects (the so-called ritual sovereignty combined with Brahmin oligarchy).[9][10]
Rama Rajasehara probably abdicated the throne toward the end of his reign and became a Shaiva nayanar [hounds/teachers of Siva] known as Cheraman Perumal Nayanar.[6] He was succeeded by Vijayaraga (fl. c. 883/84-c.895 AD).[2]
Sources
• Shivanandalahari, attributed to Hindu philosopher Shankara, indirectly mentions the Chera ruler as Rajasekhara.[11]
A biography of Sri Sankara on modern lines is an impossible for want of exact data from contemporary writings. We have therefore to depend on the type of Sanskrit works called Sankaravijayas, the traditional lives of the Acharya, to know whatever is now possible to gather about this saintly philosopher…As these Vijayas have a mythological bias, they have their obvious defect in respect of chronology and recording of facts and events.
-- Sankara-Dig-vijaya: The Traditional Life of Sri Sankaracharya, by Madhava-Vidyaranya, Translated by Swami Tapasyananda
• Rajasekhara is also tentatively identified with king "Co-qua-rangon" mentioned in the Thomas of Cana copper plates.[12][/b]
The Thomas of Cana copper plates (Malayalam: Knai Thoma Cheppedu), or Knanaya copper plates, dated variously between 345 C.E. and 811 C.E., are a lost set of copper-plate grants issued by the unidentified Chera/Perumal king of Kerala "Co-qua-rangon" to Syriac Christian merchants led by Knai Thoma (anglicized as Thomas of Cana) in the city of "Makotayar Pattinam" (present day Kodungallur), south India. The royal charters were reportedly engraved in Malayalam, Chaldean and Arabic on both sides of two copper plates (joined by a ring)...
Scholar M.G.S. Narayanan tentatively identifies king “Co-qua-rangon” with king Rama Rajasekhara (Co-qua-rangon → Ko Kotai Iraman → Rajadhiraja Rama) of the 9th century Chera Empire...
Translations of the existing Kollam [Quilon] Syrian Plates of the 9th century made by the Syrian Christian priest Ittimani [???] in 1601 as well as the French Indologist Abraham Anquetil Duperron in 1758 both note that the one of the plates mentioned a brief of the arrival of Knai Thoma. It is believed that this was a notation of the previous rights bestowed upon the Christians by Cheraman Perumal. The contemporary set however does not mention this paragraph....
The first written record of the Thomas of Cana copper plates dates to the 16th century when Portuguese officials in Kerala took notice of the plates and their later disappearance...
The final record of the plates comes from the official historian of Portuguese India Diogo do Couto in 1611. Do Couto claims to have seen the plates and makes an incomplete translation of its content.
-- Thomas of Cana copper plates, by Wikipedia
Rama Deva
Laghu Bhaskariya Vyakhya, a mathematical commentary composed in the court of king Ravi Kulasekhara in 869/70 AD, mentions a Chera Perumal royal called Rama Deva, who marched out to fight the enemies on getting information from the spies.[13] A possibility identifies Rama Deva with Rama Rajasekhara.[14] Rama Deva is described as a member of the Solar Dynasty ("ravi-kula-pati") in Chapter IIII, Laghu Bhaskariya Vyakhya.[13]
Patron of Vasubhatta
Vasubhatta, a famous Yamaka poet of medieval Kerala, names his patron king as "Rama". A later commentary on a poem by Vasubhatta says that "Kulasekhara" was the regnal title of king Rama.[15] Scholars generally consider this a result of confusion on the part of the commentators (between Sthanu Ravi Kulasekhara and Rama Rajasekhara) who were separated in time from Vasubhatta.[15] Some scholars also identify king Rama Kulasekhara as the patron of poet Vasubhatta (and thus placing Vasubhatta in 11th-12 centuries AD).[16] This view is generally found unacceptable on several counts.[17]
Epigraphic records
Date / Regnal Year / Language and Script / Location / Nature / Notes
871 AD[6] / N/A / Grantha/Southern Pallava Grantha (Sanskrit)[18] / Kurumattur Vishnu temple, Areacode. - engraved on a loose, granite slab.[18][6] / Temple inscription[19] / Date is given as a Kali Day chronogram (871 AD).[20]; Rajasekhara belonged to the illustrious Ikshvaku dynasty of god Rama.[19]; Rajasekhara ruled the country with justice and never deviated from the Laws of Manu.[19]; During Rajasekhara's righteous rule, twelve Brahmins dug a temple tank and also installed an idol of god Vishnu.[19][21]
c. 882/83 AD[6] / 13[22] / Vattezhuthu with Grantha/Southern Pallava Grantha characters (old Malayalam)[22] / Thiruvatruvay, Vazhappally.[22]; The plate is owned by Muvidathu Madham, Thiruvalla.[22]; The plate is said to belonged to and discovered from Talamana Illam or madham, near the eastern tower of Vazhappally Temple, Changanassery.[23] / Temple committee resolution[22] / Records a temple committee resolution presided over by king Rajasekhara.[7] The resolution describes Thiruvatruvay Pathinettu Nattar, Vazhappally Urar and the king deciding on land grant for muttappali (daily offering in temple).[22]; The inscription begins with the invocation "Namah Shivaya" ("Respect to Shiva") in place of the usual "Swasti Sri" ("Hail! Prosperity!").[22]; The record also mentions a coin called "dinara".[22]
Vazhappalli copper plate
Kurumattur inscription
References
1. Narayanan, M. G. S. Perumāḷs of Kerala. Thrissur (Kerala): CosmoBooks, 2013. 64-65.
2. 'Changes in Land Relations during the Decline of the Cera State,' In Kesavan Veluthat and Donald R. Davis Jr. (eds), Irreverent History:- Essays for M.G.S. Narayanan, Primus Books, New Delhi, 2014. 74-75.
3. Noburu Karashmia (ed.), A Concise History of South India: Issues and Interpretations. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2014. 143.
4. Narayanan, M. G. S. Perumāḷs of Kerala. Thrissur (Kerala): CosmoBooks, 2013. 64-66, 88-95, 107.
5. Veluthat, Kesavan. “The Temple and the State in Medieval South India.” Studies in People’s History, vol. 4, no. 1, June 2017, pp. 15–23.
6. 'Changes in Land Relations during the Decline of the Cera State,' In Kesavan Veluthat and Donald R. Davis Jr. (eds), Irreverent History:- Essays for M.G.S. Narayanan, Primus Books, New Delhi, 2014. 58 and 74-75.
7. Veluthat, Kesavan. 2004. 'Mahodayapuram-Kodungallur', in South-Indian Horizons, eds Jean-Luc Chevillard, Eva Wilden, and A. Murugaiyan, pp. 471–85. École Française D'Extrême-Orient.
8. Narayanan, M. G. S. Perumāḷs of Kerala. Thrissur (Kerala): CosmoBooks, 2013. 80-93.
9. Noburu Karashmia (ed.), A Concise History of South India: Issues and Interpretations. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2014. 143-44.
10. Narayanan, M. G. S. 2002. ‘The State in the Era of the Ceraman Perumals of Kerala’, in State and Society in Premodern South India, eds R. Champakalakshmi, Kesavan Veluthat, and T. R. Venugopalan, pp.111–19. Thrissur, CosmoBooks.
11. Narayanan, M. G. S. Perumāḷs of Kerala. Thrissur (Kerala): CosmoBooks, 2013. 64 and 77.
12. Narayanan, M. G. S. Perumals of Kerala: Brahmin Oligarchy and Ritual Monarchy—Political and Social Conditions of Kerala Under the Cera Perumals of Makotai (c. AD 800–AD 1124) Thrissur (Kerala): CosmoBooks, 2013. 302-303.
13. Narayanan, M. G. S. Perumāḷs of Kerala. Thrissur (Kerala): CosmoBooks, 2013. 64-66 and 78-79.
14. Narayanan, M. G. S. Perumāḷs of Kerala. Thrissur (Kerala): CosmoBooks, 2013. 79-80.
15. Veluthat, Kesavan (1982). "The Status of the Monarch". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. 43: 147–157. ISSN 2249-1937. JSTOR 44141225.
16. Vielle, Christophe (2012). "Real and Ideal Kings in Matrilineal Kerala". Religions of South Asia. 5 (1): 365–387. doi:10.1558/rosa.v5i1/2.365.
17. Devadevan, Manu V. (2020). "The Semantic Universe of the Kudiyattam Theatre". The 'Early Medieval' Origins of India. Cambridge University Press. pp. 229–30.
18. Veluthat, Kesavan (1 June 2018). "History and historiography in constituting a region: The case of Kerala". Studies in People's History. 5 (1): 13–31. [1]
19. Indian Archaeology 2010-2011 – A Review (2016) (p. 118) [2]
20. Indian Archaeology 2010-2011 – A Review (2016) (p. 118) [3]
21. Naha, Abdul Latheef. Ancient inscription throws new light on Chera history. February 11, 2011 The Hindu [4] [5]
22. Narayanan, M. G. S. Perumāḷs of Kerala. Thrissur (Kerala): CosmoBooks, 2013. 435.
23. Rao, T. A. Gopinatha. Travancore Archaeological Series (Volume II, Part II). 8-14.
External links
• Mathew, Alex - Political identities in History (2006) Unpublished Doctoral Thesis (M. G. University)