CHERA or Kerala, an ancient dynasty in the south of the Indian Peninsula. They seem to have risen on the fall of the Pandiya sovereignty, and to have ruled over a small state between the territory of the Pandiya and the western sea. It comprehended Travancore and parts of Malabar, Coimbatore, and Salem. It is mentioned in Ptolemy, and may have existed at the commence ment of the Christian era. It spread at one time over the greater part of Karnata, but was sub verted in the 10th century, and its lands partitioned among the surrounding states. The Chera princeE appear to have been established first at Scanda pura in the Malabar coast, and subsequently al Talcad or Dalavanpura on the Cauvery and Mudu gondapatnam, perhaps the same as the modern village of Mudugondoor, on the road from Seringa patam to Koonghul. The Carura regio Cerebothr has been supposed to indicate that Caroor in tin Coimbatore country was one of their earliest seats They were powerful in the 4th and 5th centuries Their 16th king boasts of having conquerec Andhra and Kalinga; and their 20th king, Kong.
ani Raya in., boasts of having conquered Chola Pandiya, Dravida, Andhra, Kalinga, Varada, anc Maharastra desas, as far north as the Nerbadch river. Vira Chola (A.D. 927-977) seems to hav( checked their victorious career ; and Ari Var( Deva, another Chola king (A.D. 1004), to hav( completed their destruction. He also boasts o: having carried his victorious standard to tin Nerbadda, and to have been a benefactor t( Chillambaram. After this, the Bellala of Mysore uid the Chalukya in Central India, seem to have )ecame dominant.
The Kongu Desa Rajakal is a book describing be series of the Kongu or Chera princes, from Vira Raya Chakravarti to raja Malla - deva.— Flphinstone's History of India, p. 414 ; As. Res. Ky. p. 40 ; Fergusson, p. 321 ; J. R. As. Soc. viii. p. 5. See Kerala ; Narapati; Pandiya.