Kuttuvan Kotai

Kuttuvan Kotai
Kuttuvan Kotai
	Kuttuvan Kotai. Legend in Tamil-Brahmi: "Ku-t-tu-va-n Ko-tai"
House	Chera dynasty

Kuttuvan Kotai (Tamil: குட்டுவன் கோதை), also spelled Kothai/Kodai,^[1] was a Chera ruler of early historic (pre-Pallava) south India.^[2]^[3]

Silver coins bearing a portrait facing right with Tamil-Brahmi legend "Ku-t-tu-va-n Ko-tai" have been discovered from Amaravati riverbed in Karur, central Tamil Nadu.^[2]^[4] The reverse of the coins are blank. The coin seems to be an imitation of the Roman portrait head coins.^[4] Whether these coins were used as a currency in trade transactions is not clear.^[3]

Scholars identify Kotai with "Cheraman Kuttuvan Kotai" mentioned in the early Tamil text Purananuru, 54.^[4] This Chera is mentioned as Kotai, not as Kuttuvan Kotai, in the body of the poem, but the appended colophon gives the full name "Kuttuvan Kotai".^[4]^[1] The Chera is eulogised in the Puram by Konattu Ericchalur Matalur Maturai-kumarananar.^[1]

Kuttuvan was probably an ancient title for the Chera rulers of south India. Early Tamil texts refer to "Kuttuvar" as a kingship group and "Kuttanatu" as the country of the Kuttuva people.^[5] The term Kuttanatu is indicated in the entry in Periplus Maris Erythraei, referring to "Cottonora", ‘where the pepper grows’.^[5] The estuarine region Kottayam and Alappuzha districts of Kerala is now known as Kuttanatu.^[5]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c K.G. Sesha Aiyar, Chera Kings of the Sangam Period, London, 1937. 53-54.
^ ^a ^b Champakalakshmi, R. Trade, Ideology, and Urbanization. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1996. 111 and 137.
^ ^a ^b Rajan, K. "Emergence of Early Historic Trade in Peninsular India." Early Interactions Between South and Southeast Asia, edited by Pierre-Yves Manguin, A. Mani and Geoff Wade, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS), 2011. 182-83.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Majumdar, S. B. "Money Matters: Indigenous and Foreign Coins in the Malabar Coast." Imperial Rome, Indian Ocean Regions and Muziris: New Perspectives on Maritime Trade, edited by K. S. Mathew, Routledge, 2016. 410-11.
^ ^a ^b ^c Ganesh, K. N. (2009). Historical Geography of Natu in South India with Special Reference to Kerala. Indian Historical Review, 36(1), 3–21.

[:3-1] K.G. Sesha Aiyar, Chera Kings of the Sangam Period, London, 1937. 53-54.

[:0-2] Champakalakshmi, R. Trade, Ideology, and Urbanization. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1996. 111 and 137.

[:1-3] Rajan, K. "Emergence of Early Historic Trade in Peninsular India." Early Interactions Between South and Southeast Asia, edited by Pierre-Yves Manguin, A. Mani and Geoff Wade, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS), 2011. 182-83.

[:2-4] Majumdar, S. B. "Money Matters: Indigenous and Foreign Coins in the Malabar Coast." Imperial Rome, Indian Ocean Regions and Muziris: New Perspectives on Maritime Trade, edited by K. S. Mathew, Routledge, 2016. 410-11.

[:7-5] Ganesh, K. N. (2009). Historical Geography of Natu in South India with Special Reference to Kerala. Indian Historical Review, 36(1), 3–21.

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