THE HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE KALINKATTUPPARANI, A 12TH CENTURY

TAMIL TEXT
Author(s): R. Mahalakshmi
Source: Proceedings of the Indian History Congress , 2013, Vol. 74 (2013), pp. 205-211
Published by: Indian History Congress

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 THE HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF
THE KALINKATTUPPARANI, A 12TH
CENTURY TAMIL TEXT
R. Mahalakshmi

There has been a debate amongst scholars about the validity of differe
kinds of historical sources, and traditionally court chronicles have
dismissed as exaggerated accounts of kings and wars. I examin
often neglected court chronicle in this paper, the Kalinkattupparan
text composed by Jayamkondar, the court poet of a Chola king, in
early 12th century with a view to interrogating its historical significan
The Kalinkattupparani , a poem in thirteen parts, describes th
Kalinga war (c. CE 1110) of Kulottunga I (CE 1070-1 122)2 and
celebrates the victory of the Chola forces led by the accomplished
general, Karunakara Tondaiman. Kulottunga's conquest of lands is
compared to Siva's conquest of the daughter of the mountain ( malai
makal), Uma: one did this for the welfare of the land, while the other
for the welfare of the world.3 The poem can be understood from two
perspectives: the importance of kingship and the centrality of war in
this conceptualization; and, the significance of traditions of goddess
worship that celebrated war and bloodshed.
The second theme is so powerful that the Tamil scholar Zvelebil
remarked, 'Kali and the devils are always present'.4 In fact, every canto
finds the presence of the goddess and her attendants. There are
invocations by the general and his armies to the goddess and then the
collectivity of mother goddesses known as Saptamatrkas, amongst other
divinities, to grant them victory before they embarked on their mission
in the ^ery first canto of the text.5 Kulottunga's tiger banner is said to
have been held aloft by the Chola general like the seven banners of the
buffalo, swan, Pey,b peacock, bull, vulture and elephant held by the
seven mothers.7

The terrain inhabited by the goddess is described in the third part

of the work entitled 'The Song of Wilderness', about the forest and
desert regions, the palai tinai of Cankam poetry.8 The goddess Kali is
praised for filling the stomachs of the Pey hordes twice over, when
they went to feast on the bodies of the Kalinga heroes, who had fallen
on the battlefield.9 The land inhabited by these hordes is then described
in great detail. The various trees and creepers that are dried up, dead
or burnt,10 the parched and broken land due to the extreme heat,M and
the lack of shelter from the scorching sun due to the absence of tree

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206 IHC.ģ Proceedings , 74th Session, 2013

foliage12 are described in graphic terms. The palai land itself was bright
red, resembling fire, while the pigeons and doves flying above it
appeared like the smoke billowing up from this blaze.13 The hot and
thirsty deer, whose mouth was boiling, out of desperation, would drink
the saliva drooling out of the dog's mouth.14 Even the gods refused to
descend to this region.15 Further, the dead and dark trees rustled as if
they were the Pey hordes of the red goddess Moti16 breathing heavily,
while the long snakes hanging from those dried trees appeared like the
Pey 's dried tongue that was hanging out.17
The construction of a temple dedicated to this goddess made of the
flesh, bones and blood of the king's enemies forms the gruesome fourth
part of the work.18 We are also told about the presence of an older
goddess temple, which was supposed to have been built a long time
ago by the brahmanas.19 The crowns and ornaments of fallen kings in
the battlefield were used for the construction of the temple.20 The
macabre details of the components of the temple follow: the dead
elephants placed as pillars;21 the silvery bones for the gopuram and
prakara ;22 the heads of the dead warriors used as big stones;23 etc.
Further, offerings of the flesh of the enemies,24 self-mutilation of
heroes,25 animal sacrifices,26 and the ravenous Pey hordes of the
goddess27 and animals of prey drawn by their blood lust28 are described
at length.
The sixth canto, Peykalai Patiyatu, describes the goddess's retinue
of Pey,29 their cavernous ever-hungry stomachs,30 their caving mouths,31
their long, branch-like legs,32 their bones bundled by nerves,33 their
hilly cheeks and sunken red eyes,34 etc. Again, Kulottunga's virtues
are extolled, this time as benefactor of the Pey, as he had filled their
empty, hungry stomachs by decimating his enemies.35 He was also
responsible for the Pey from other kingdoms losing their health.36
The seventh part is devoted to arousing the blood lust of the Pey,
by invoking partially the gastronomic attractions on offer and, more
pressingly, their fear of the goddess, who wished that they would exert
themselves on behalf of the Chola king.37
The first theme related to kingship, war, kingly attributes and
achievements peeks at us from various parts of the text. I have already
referred to the tiger banner of the king and its being compared with
various divine crests. The second Kantam entitled Katai Tirappu ,
describes the women from the royal city, who are angry and refuse to
open the door because of the imminent long absence of the men during
the war-time.38 In canto five, Teviyai Patiyatu , the goddess was invoked
by Karunakara Tondaiman to preside over the war which was being
waged against the Choda Ganga ruler Anantavarman, and she was also

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 Medieval India 207

praised for her earlier exploits. Among

accomplishments of the goddess that we
the divine hero Siva39 and the temporal on
Kulottunga is said to have supported the
due to the movement of Kali's feet.41 He
to a high and noble lineage, like the best
compassion and justice. He was born in the Candra kulam
(< Candravamsi ), the first of the two great lineages. The goddess was
like the Candra of his lineage, and the mark on her forehead like the
sun of the second foremost lineage.42 Just as he adroitly balanced the
earth when the goddess danced, he also balanced the praise showered
on him by the learned men.
The eighth canto, Ir acapar ampariyam, provides a genealogy of
Kulottunga,43 where the mutupey (leader of the peys) tells Kali about
the lineages of the Chola dynasty, which he had heard from another
demon - the most horrific of all Kali's demon devotees, when he visited
the Himalayas. The eulogy of the legendary ruler Karikala sets the
tone of the canto, and Karikala Chola's ancestors, both mythical and
historical, are then described in detail. What is distinctive in this telling
is the signification derived from the northern expedition of Karikala,
his 'overturning' of the mountain with his centu (weapon), and his
implanting the Chola tiger crest on it.44 The genealogy of Karikala was
then narrated by the celestial sage Narada,45 who compared himself
with Vyasa, the author of the great epic Mahabharata.46 Beginning from
the lord of the universe Tirumal,47 various mythical figures such as
Manu - whose sense of justice in killing his own son is extolled,48 the
ruler who made the tiger and deer drink from the same water source,49
the king who saved the dove by offering his own flesh to the predatory
eagle,50 the ruler who brought the Kaveri to water the lands,51 etc.
Historical rulers like Koccenkannan, who was reputed to have released
the Chera king on hearing Poykaiyar's poem about the horrors of war,
also figure in this list.52 Karikala's own achievements were extolled in
terms of his military conquests, his patronage to bards, his carrying
the enormous burden of the breasts of the goddess of victory, etc.53
What is very interesting is the implicating of Karikala in the
genealogical narration thereafter, akin to one who possessed divine
vision and could tell the future. Parantaka's conquest of Ilam and
Madurai, Rajaraja's achievements, and Rajendra's conquest of the
Ganges and southeast Asia are described.54 When we come to Abhaya
Kulottunga, we are told that he was born to protect the world by wielding
the scepter of the justice,55 and the young earth was fortunate to be
united with him.56 The tenth Kantam , titled Avataram or incarnation,
finds Kali proclaiming to her entourage that Kulottunga was none other

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 208 IHC: Proceedings, 74th Session, 2013
than lord Visnu. In this Kantam , she demonstrates the birth, accession,
conquest and entertainment of Kulottunga.
The terrain of the war, its casualties and its denouement form the
subject of the last part of the poem. The ninth canto marks the
preparation for war by the Peys.57 In the final parts of the poem, Kali
and her hordes are depicted inspecting the carnage and feasting at the
battlefield on the corpses of the enemies, respectively.58 The eleventh
canto, Kalikku Kuli Kuriyatu, describes the narration of events on the
battlefield to the goddess by witnesses.59 The last two cantos, Por
Patiyatu60 and Kalam Paüyatu, recount the defeat of the Kalinga army
and, from the Peys point of view, the excellence of the battlefield
respectively. The fourteenth and last canto, describes the 'mixing of
the gruel' or Kul Aiutai , which Kali orders to celebrate the feast for her
demon hosts, where the demons cook a stew consisting of blood, brains
and flesh. The poem ends with the blessing bestowed by the demons
upon their benefactor, the glorious king Kulottunga.
The Kalinkattupparani is undeniably an important text for various
reasons. It provides some interesting insights, and as Nilakanta Sastri
points out, "for all its fabulous and supernatural elements, and the
absurd hyperboles characteristic of it, the Kalinkattupparani is still
valuable to the historian as it furnishes much welcome information on
the Cola genealogy and on the details of the Kalinga campaign of
Kulottunga, including the route taken by his army."61 Daud Ali, in an
interesting reading of the text that I have discussed, looks at the "place
of war within the ideational and institutional frameworks of society,
which, in turn, helps us explain how medieval people experienced war.
One axis upon which war may be placed from a cursory reading of the
literary accounts, is, for example, that of the self-cultivation of those
at royal courts who were considered to be 'noble' or 'elevated... In
this 'chivalric' code, battles were conceived of as fights in which
individual warriors displayed their bravery, strength, discipline, loyalty,
and even magnanimity before men assembled on the field, both on
friendly and rival sides."62 Ali explores a different meaning of warfare
- the social signification of the macabre and striking imagery in
descriptions of war and the battlefield, that range from the grotesque
to the humorous.63 The foremost association that the poem makes is
between the wasteland, cremation ground and the battlefield, all three
presenting dystopia and death, and together representing an inversion
of a prosperous realm.64 The author further states that feasting, as we
see it in this text, was deliberately portrayed in a lurid manner, with
descriptions of peys gouging, chomping and mashing their food.65 For
Ali, both elements point to the disagreggation of life and death, as
understood through the Vedic sacrifice, where again death is celebrated,

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 Medieval India 209

but only because of its power of rege

"feasting and killing become the gr
generative world of pleasure. . . The incon
signified by an excessive similitude, be
world of death, generated a laughter at
important for the structure of medieval
War may have been the result of po
vengeance, but there were no celesti
waiting to be molested by the dead her
particular text!67
The Kalinkattupparani , one among ve
of the period, reveals certain concerns
of the king as legitimate ruler (his im
as benefactor (he feeds the horrific pey
decides to wage war). Also, as Ali righ
the inversion of the moral order, the
gore are celebrated. In the context
transformations in early medieval Tam
also brilliantly invokes Cankam godde
up with the Puranic/ Tantric conceptualiz
Kali,68 and as such cannot be ignored if
picture of the early medieval Chola ru

NOTES AND REFERENCES

1 . The reading of the Kalinkattupparani is based on my own work; see. T

of the Goddess: Korravai-Durga in the Tamil Traditions , Penguin, D
chapter 2. I have relied on the translation and analysis òf Ms Jeyarani f
chronicle, the Muvarula' see, Jeyarani, A., Representations of King
Political Authority: A Study of Muvarula and Kalingattuparani, Ph. D thes
for Historical Studies, JNU, New Delhi, 2012.

2. There are two Kalinga campaigns that we know of. The first possibly o
c. 1098 CE, while the second probably occurred in 1110 CE. See, Sas
Nilakanta, The Colas , p.321.
3. Kalinkattupparani , Puliyur Tecikan Telivurai, Pari Nilaiyam, 2000 (
1, verses 1-2, p. 13.
4. Zvelebil, Tamil Literature , p. 187.
5. Ibid., canto 1, verse 15, p. 19.
6. The term Pey has variously been translated as devil, ghoul and demon,
to have referred to a category of frightening and blood-thirsty semi-divi
See, Mahalakshmi, The Making of the Goddess , pp. 110-9.
7. Ibid., canto 1, verse 17, p. 20.
8. Ibid., canto 3, verses 75-96.
9. Ibid., canto 3, verse 75, p. 50.

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 210 ÌHC: Proceedings, 74th Session, 2013
1 0. Ibid., canto 3, verses 76-78, p. 5 1 .
11. Ibid., canto 3, verse 79, p. 5 1 .
12. Ibid., canto 3, verses 80-81, p. 52.
13. Ibid., canto 3, verse 82, p. 53.
14. Ibid., canto 3, verse 83, p. 53.
15. Ibid., canto 3, verse 84, p. 54.
1 6. The Madras Tamil Lexicon refers to Motu for this term Moti, which is simply said
to mean Durga. See Madras Tamil Lexicon , vol. 6, p. 3384. The meanings of Motu
relevant to us are as follows: (5) largeness, stoutness; (6) greatness; (7) high
position; (8) belly, stomach; (9) womb. See Madras Tamil Lexicon , vol. 6, p. 3385.
1 7. Ibid., canto 3, verse 85, p. 54.
18. Ibid., canto 4, verses 97-120.
19. Ibid., canto 4, verse 97, p. 60.
20. Ibid., canto 4, verse 98, p. 60.
21. Ibid., canto 4, verses 100-102, pp.6 1-62.
22. Ibid., canto 4, verse 104, p. 63.
23. Ibid., canto 4, verse 99, p. 61 .
24. Ibid., canto 4, verse 98, p. 60; verse 107, p.65.
25. Ibid., canto 4, verse 106, p. 64; verse 109, p.65; verses 110-13, pp. 66-67; verses
117-18, p. 69.
26. Ibid., canto 4, verse 108, p.65; verse 1 14, p. 68.
27. Ibid., canto 4, verse 104-05, pp.63-64; verse 112, p. 67; verse 115, p. 68; verses
119-20, p. 70.
28. Ibid., canto 4, verses 1 19-20, p. 70.
29. Ibid., canto 6, verses 135-53, pp. 79-87.
30. Ibid., canto 6, verses 136-37, pp. 79-80.
31. Ibid., canto 6, verse 137, p. 80.
32. Ibid., canto 6, verses 136-37, pp. 79-80.
33. ībĶ, canto 6, verse 138, p. 80.
34. Ibid., canto 6, verse 131, p.8 1 .
35. Ibid., canto 6, verses 143-44, p. 83.
36. Ibid., canto 6, verses 146-53, pp.84-87.
37. Ibid., canto 7, verses 154-77, pp.88-98.
38. Ibid, canto 2, verses 21-74, pp.2 1-49.
39. Ibid., canto 5, verse 124-25, p. 73. Here, the hot spray from Kali's breasts, like the
scorching palai fires, is contrasted with the cooling effect of the buttery moon rays
aloft diva's head. Ibid., verse 124. Kali is also said to have caught, pressed herself
and joined into diva, thereby liberating him from Kâma's hold.
40. Ibid., verse 123, p. 72.
4 1 . Ibid., canto 5, verse 1 3 1 , p. 76.
42. Ibid.

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 Medieval India 2 1 1

43. Ibid., canto 8, verses 179-212, pp. 99-1 15.

44. Ibid., canto 8, verse 179, p.99.
45. Ibid., canto 8, verse 180, p.100.
46. Ibid., canto 8, verse 1 82, p. 1 0 1 .
47. Ibid., canto 8, verse 187, 105.
48. Ibid., canto 8, verse 188, p.105.
49. Ibid., canto 8, verse 190, p.105.
50. Ibid., canto 8, verse 1 9 1 , p. 1 06.
5 1 . Ibid., canto 8, verse 1 93, p. 1 06.
52. Ibid., canto 8, verse 196, p.106.
53. Ibid., canto 8, verses 197-200, pp. 108-9.
54. Ibid., canto 8, verse 203, p. 1 1 0.
55. Ibid., canto 8, verse 208, p. 1 13.
56. Ibid., canto 8, verse 207.
57. Ibid., canto 9 verses 2 1 3-32, pp. 1 1 6-24.
58. Ibid., canto 13, verses 473-503, pp. 228-42; canto 14, verses 504-99; pp. 243-79.
59. Ibid., canto 1 1 , verses 3 1 3-404, pp. 1 58-96.
60. Ibid., canto 12, verses 405-72, pp. 197-227.
61. Sastri, The Colas , p. 14.
62. Ali, Daud, 'Violence, Gastronomy and the Meanings of War in Medieval South
India', The Medieval History Journal, 2000, 3, pp. 263-4.
63. Ibid., p.266.
64. Ibid., pp.279, 281.
65. Ibid., p.283.
66. Ibid., p.289.
67. See, Rao et al, Symbols of Substance , p. 1 1 .
68. See, Mahalakshmi, The Making of the Goddess , pp. 144-9.

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