Kuttuvan Kotai

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

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

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
  1. K.G. Sesha Aiyar, Chera Kings of the Sangam Period, London, 1937. 53-54.
  2. Champakalakshmi, R. Trade, Ideology, and Urbanization. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1996. 111 and 137.
  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.
  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.
  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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