Second Cheras of Mahodayapuram (Kulashekhara)

Foundational patriarch of the main Sangam Chera line and father of Nedum Cheralathan. Celebrated in the Pathitruppattu and in Purananuru 2 (by Murañiyur Mudinagarayar), which credits him with the hyperbolic feat of feeding both armies of the Mahabharata war -- a poetic emblem of his generosity. Known only from Sangam literature; no epigraphic attestation. Dates are conjectural, derived from the relative chronology of the Pathitruppattu and the debated Gajabahu synchronism.

Sangam Chera king praised in the second and third decads of the Pathitruppattu. Said to have defeated the Kadambas, raided seafaring Yavana (Greco-Roman) traders and held them to ransom, and extended Chera influence northward; the epithet "Imayavaramban" (he whose boundary is the Himalaya) is poetic hyperbole. Known chiefly through Sangam literature with no surviving inscription of his own. NOTE: previously mis-dated to c. 200-150 BCE in this dataset; the Sangam Cheras belong to the early centuries CE per the Pathitruppattu chronology and the Gajabahu synchronism.

The most celebrated Sangam Chera, son of Nedum Cheralathan, praised in the fifth decad of the Pathitruppattu (by the poet Paranar) and the central royal figure of the Cilappatikaram epic frame, whose author Ilango Adigal is traditionally his younger brother. Famous for a legendary northern expedition to fetch Himalayan stone for the image of Pattini (the deified Kannagi). The conventional date rests on the synchronism with Gajabahu I of Sri Lanka, which modern scholars (Obeyesekere, Tieken) reject as circular; treat the chronology as a disputed literary anchor.

Chera king of the Irumporai branch, the most securely attested Sangam Chera ruler because the Pugalur Tamil-Brahmi cave inscription (near Karur, c. 2nd century CE) records three successive generations -- Ko Atan Cheral Irumporai, his son Perum Kadungo, and grandson Ilam Kadungo -- endowing a Jain rock shelter. The epigraphic genealogy independently corroborates the literary Chera line and anchors it to the 2nd century CE.

Prominent Kulasekhara (Second Chera) ruler of Mahodayapuram. His reign is fixed by astronomical records associated with the scholar Sankaranarayana at his court. Expanded Kulasekhara territory and maintained shifting relations -- alliance and conflict -- with the Pandyas and the rising Cholas. The Kollam Era (825 CE) calendar, still used in Kerala, dates from just before his reign.

The longest-reigning Kulasekhara Perumal. His reign issued the copper-plate grant conferring the Anjuvannam merchant-guild privileges on the Jewish trader Joseph Rabban at Muyirikkode (Kodungallur) -- among the oldest surviving documents of the Cochin Jewish community. His later years coincided with the first Chola naval pressure on the Kerala coast under Rajaraja I.

The last Kulasekhara Perumal of Mahodayapuram. Under sustained Chola and Pandya pressure the unified Chera kingdom of Kerala fragmented during and after his reign into the successor swarupams -- Venad (Travancore), Kolathunadu, and the Kochi line -- ending the second Chera state. Tradition associates the end of the Perumal line with the Cheraman Perumal legends.