Chandra Varma

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

Sources[edit]

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][4]

Kadamba Origin[edit]

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.[5][6][7]

Legend[edit]

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.[8] 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.[3] He married a Shudra goddess, an apsara who was made by Parvathi and who worked as a peasant, and had ten sons.[9]

His sons married the daughters of the king of Vidarbha and his Shudra queen.[4] Chandra Varma was succeeded as king by his eldest son Devakanta.[4][2] Legend has it that it was during the lifetime of Devakanta that the river Kaveri originated in Kodagu and flowed through South India.[3][4] 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]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Sathyan, B N (1965). Mysore State Gazetteer: Coorg District. Mysore: Director of Print., Stationery and Publications at the Government Press.
  2. ^ a b c M P, Nitin Kushalappa (13 February 2023). Dakshin: South Indian Myths and Fables Retold. Penguin Random House India Private Limited. ISBN 978-93-5492-932-8. Retrieved 15 June 2023.
  3. ^ a b c Richter, G (1870). Manual of Coorg. Mangalore: Stolz. pp. 216–224.
  4. ^ a b c d Mögling, Herrmann (1855). Coorg Memoirs. Wesleyan Mission Press. pp. 13–26.
  5. ^ "Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency". Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency. XV Part II: 79. 1883 – via Government Central Press.
  6. ^ Moraes, George M. (1931). The Kadamba Kula: A history of ancient and medieval Karnataka. Bombay.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  7. ^ Ganapathy, B D (1967). Kodavas (Coorgs), Their Customs and Culture. p. 4.
  8. ^ Subbayya, K K (1978). Archaeology of Coorg. Geetha Book House. p. 170.
  9. ^ Belfour, Edward (1883). The Cyclopaedia of India and of Eastern and Southern Asia. Volume 2. Akademische Druck-u. Verlagsanstalt. p. 263.
  10. ^ Karnataka State Gazetteer, Vol 1. Director of Print, Stationery and Publications at the Government Press. 1965. p. 40.
  11. ^ Sathyan, B N (1965). Mysore State Gazetteer: Coorg District. Mysore: Director of Print., Stationery and Publications at the Government Press. pp. 39–40.
  12. ^ Rao, B. Surendra (1998). Coorg Invented. Forum for Kodagu Studies. p. 46.
  13. ^ Kamath (1993). Karnataka State Gazetteer: Volume 20. p. 2.
  14. ^ Imperial Gazetteer of India: Mysore and Coorg. Usha. 1985. p. 278.
  15. ^ "Bulletin of the Anthropological Survey of India". Anthropological Survey of India. 25. Director, Anthropological Survey of India, Indian Museum: 22. 1980.
  16. ^ Sreenivasa Murthy, H. V.; Ramakrishnan, R. (1977). A History of Karnataka, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day. S. Chand. p. 304.
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