An old chiefly family of the country between Tiruchirappalli, Thanjavur and the Pudukkottai rocks, once the Pallavas' men at Sendalai, who by the twelfth century survive as a Chola court title and a few local lords.
For the campaign they are a source of officers and of old stone inscriptions, not of an army.
Who he is
- Name
- not known for 1 January 1200
- Title
- Muttaraiyar (Muttaraiyan), a title used by various officials in the Chola government (English Wikipedia disambiguation) and a dynasty of chiefs
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not known
- Family
- The campaign board notes gifts at Narthamalai from the Muttaraiyar chiefs who held this ground before the Cholas rose.
- Confidence
- low
The Wikipedia page is a disambiguation and gives no names or dates; we have no more.
Overlord
Kulottunga III Chola
What it holds
- Villages and shrines round Narthamalai and the Pudukkottai rocks (as the campaign board puts it)
- The title Muttaraiyan as a court rank
How it was acquired
Ancestral.
Allies and rivals
Chola service; neighbours of the Irukkuvels.
How things stand that morning
A title, not a power.
Wealth
Small.
Places of note
- Narthamalai: Rock-cut cave temples and a ninth-century circular shrine.
Where the sources disagree
- The campaign board entry narthamalai says their inscriptions record gifts from Muttaraiyar chiefs; kept.
Evidence: A title.
"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.
On the map: A circle only.
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.