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][4]
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.[5][6][7]
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.[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
- ↑ Mysore State Gazetteer: Coorg District{{#if:Sathyan|, Sathyan}. Director of Print., Stationery and Publications at the Government Press(1965)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Dakshin: South Indian Myths and Fables Retold{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Penguin Random House India Private Limited(13 February 2023). ISBN 978-93-5492-932-8
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Manual of Coorg{{#if:Richter|, Richter}. Stolz(1870)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Coorg Memoirs{{#if:Mögling|, Mögling}. Wesleyan Mission Press(1855)
- ↑ Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency. Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency({Template:Date).
- ↑ The Kadamba Kula: A history of ancient and medieval Karnataka{{#if:Moraes|, Moraes}(1931)
- ↑ Kodavas (Coorgs), Their Customs and Culture{{#if:Ganapathy|, Ganapathy}(1967)
- ↑ Archaeology of Coorg{{#if:Subbayya|, Subbayya}. Geetha Book House(1978)
- ↑ The Cyclopaedia of India and of Eastern and Southern Asia. Volume 2.{{#if:Belfour|, Belfour}. Akademische Druck-u. Verlagsanstalt(1883)
- ↑ Karnataka State Gazetteer, Vol 1{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Director of Print, Stationery and Publications at the Government Press(1965)
- ↑ Mysore State Gazetteer: Coorg District{{#if:Sathyan|, Sathyan}. Director of Print., Stationery and Publications at the Government Press(1965)
- ↑ Coorg Invented{{#if:Rao|, Rao}. Forum for Kodagu Studies(1998)
- ↑ Karnataka State Gazetteer: Volume 20{{#if:Kamath|, Kamath}(1993)
- ↑ Imperial Gazetteer of India: Mysore and Coorg{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Usha(1985)
- ↑ Bulletin of the Anthropological Survey of India. Anthropological Survey of India({Template:Year).
- ↑ A History of Karnataka, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. S. Chand(1977)