The Kaveri delta and the plains south and west of it, the heartland the Chola kings take their name from.
It is divided into valanadus (large districts) and nadus (the lesser districts), each with an assembly of the landholding peasants (nattar), and in the villages by the ur (the general village assembly), the sabha (the Brahmin assembly of a brahmadeya village), the nagaram (the merchants' assembly of a town) and the temple managers. The assemblies keep the tanks and channels, assess and collect the land revenue, hold the land records, and settle disputes; the king's officers audit them and the temples hold much of the land (devadana) and act as banks.
Who holds it
- Name
- Kulottunga III Chola, through the royal officers of the mandalam; the village and temple assemblies in practice
- Title
- Whoever leads or speaks for the province
- Since
- not known
- Born
- not known
- Confidence
- low
Overlord
see allegiance
What it holds
- Nattar assemblies of the valanadus and nadus
- Ur and sabha of the villages, with committees chosen by lot (Uttiramerur is the famous record of the rule in the tenth century)
- Nagaram assemblies of merchant towns
- Temple trusts holding devadana villages
- Royal survey and land-revenue accounts
Allies and rivals
None; the Chola king is the lord. The Pandya, the Kongu chiefs and the Telugu Chodas pay him tribute, and he keeps the right to appoint and remove them.
How things stand that morning
In the 22nd regnal year the delta pays its revenue in kasu and in kind and keeps its temples and tanks in repair. The brief and board set a famine for the 23rd and 24th years from the second half of 1200 (a regnal-year statement, not a dated inscription): the likely course.
Wealth
Paddy of the Kaveri channels, cloth, temple endowments, bronze, the customs of the Bay ports.
Military
No figure is given by any source we reached.
Threats
- Failure of the north-east monsoon in the 23rd year (from about July 1200)
Places of note
- Mannargudi and the wet south delta: The rice country between the Vettar and the Mudikondan.
- Pattukkottai country: The south-eastern delta edge.
- Anbil: A brahmadeya village with a sabha, near Lalgudi.
Where the sources disagree
- The campaign board entry the-delta-paddy-country, mannargudi-wet-delta, pattukkottai-country, the-vettar-channel, the-mudikondan-channel, the-kudamurutti-channel, the-arasalar-channel, anbil-brahmadeya are the delta's districts and channels: accepted.
Evidence: The institutions are thoroughly attested (Stein, Karashima); the persons and acts of 1200 are not.
"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.
On the map: Drawn as a rough polygon snapped to land units.
Primary sources for Chola empire
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- The Lesser Chronicle (the continuation of the Mahavamsa), Dhammakitti and later monks of the Mahavihara tradition (the first continuation about the 13th century (chapters 37 to 79), carried on in stages to the 18th century). The only narrative source for Lanka in 1200. Read online
- History of Song, chapters 488 and 489: Jiaozhi, Dali, Champa, Zhenla, Pagan, Srivijaya, Java, Brunei, Chola and Tambralinga, Toqto'a (Tuotuo) and the Yuan history office, from the Song court records (1343 to 1345, from Song veritable records and court diaries). The Chinese court's record of its southern neighbours, compiled from Song archives. Read online
- The Leiden grants of Rajaraja I and Kulottunga I concerning the Srivijaya vihara at Nagapattinam, The Chola chancery (Rajaraja I, Rajendra I, Kulottunga I) (the Larger plates about 1005 to 1014 (completed under Rajendra I); the Smaller plates 1090). Background documents for the relations between the Cholas and the Malay world. Read online
- Corpus of Inscriptions in the Telingana Districts, Various (Kakatiya chancery and temple scribes), edited by P. Sreenivasachar (inscriptions of the 10th to 15th centuries; edited 1940 to 1942). The Kakatiyas of Orugallu (Warangal) are known for 1200 almost entirely from inscriptions, and this Hyderabad Archaeological Series corpus is the main printed collection. Read online
- Epigraphia Carnatica: inscriptions of the Mysore country, Various (Hoysala chancery and temple scribes), edited by B. Lewis Rice and R. Narasimhachar (inscriptions of the 4th to 19th centuries; the series ran from 1886 to 1905, revised from 1972). The Hoysala kingdom of Veera Ballala II (reigning 1173 to 1220) is documented almost wholly by the inscriptions in this series, arranged by district and taluk with full English translations. Read online
- Epigraphia Zeylanica: lithic and other inscriptions of Ceylon, Various (the Polonnaruwa kings' chanceries), edited by D. M. de Zilva Wickremasinghe, H. W. Codrington and S. Paranavitana (inscriptions of the 3rd century BC to the 18th century; the series ran from 1904). Prints with translation the stone records of the Polonnaruwa kings who held or lost the throne around 1200. Read online
- South Indian Inscriptions (Archaeological Survey of India), Various (Chola, Pandya and other chanceries and temple scribes), edited by E. Hultzsch, V. Venkayya, H. Krishna Sastri and successors (inscriptions of the 7th to 17th centuries; the series ran from 1890). The temple inscriptions printed here are the primary record of the Tamil country in 1200. Read online
- Travancore Archaeological Series, Various (Kerala chiefs, temples and merchant guilds), edited by T. A. Gopinatha Rao, K. V. Subrahmanya Aiyer and A. S. Ramanatha Ayyar (inscriptions of the 9th to 18th centuries; the series ran from 1910 to 1938). The main corpus for the Kerala coast. Read online
4 more in the sources library for Southern India and Sri Lanka.
Sources and studies
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.