page_title: Venad
section_title: Development of Venad
hierarchical_section_title: Venad / Political history / Development of Venad
caption_attribution_description: English: Mampalli copper plate records a donation from the chiefly family of Venad, present-day Kerala, to the Chengannur Temple. The inscription is the earliest record to mention the Kollam Era.
context_page_description: Venad was a medieval kingdom lying between the Western Ghat mountains and the Arabian Sea on the south-western tip of India with its headquarters at the port city of Kollam/Quilon. It was one of the major principalities of Kerala, along with kingdoms of Kannur, Kozhikode and Kochi in medieval and early modern period.
  Rulers of Venad trace their ancestry to both Chera/Perumals and Vel chieftains related to the Ay lineage of the early historic south India. Venad – ruled by hereditary "Venad Adikal" – appears as an autonomous chiefdom in the kingdom of the Chera/Perumals of Kodungallur from around 8th – 9th century CE. It came to occupy a position of pre-eminent importance in the structuring of the Perumal kingdom. The country was intermittently and partially subject to the Pandya kingdom and the Chola empire among others in the medieval period.
  Venad dynasty are descendants of Chera/Perumal kingdom, gradually developed as an independent principality, known as the Chera kingdom, and grew later into modern Travancore. Ravi Varma Kulasekhara, most ambitious ruler of Venad, carried out a successful military expedition to Pandya and Chola lands in the early 14th century CE.
context_section_description: In the middle of the 8th century CE, the Pandya sacked port Vizhinjam, and took possession the Ay Vel country. This foray brought the Chera-Perumal kings of Kodungallur (Makotai) into the conflict and a prolonged Pandya-Ay/Chera struggle followed. By the middle of the 9th century CE, as a result of the encroachment of the Pandyas and Cheras, the ancient Ay country was partitioned into two portions. Venad (Vel+natu = the country of the Vel people) with its base at Kollam came under influence of the Cheras while the Ay country, or what was left of it, came under the influence of the Pandyas. 
  A new calendar was known as the "Kollam Era", was established in 825 CE at port Kollam. The exact events that lead to the foundation of the era is still matter of scholarly debate. According to historians, it commemorated the foundation of Kollam harbour city after the liberation of Venad from the Pandya rule (and hence beginning of Chera influence). The Kollam Syrian plates (c. 849 CE and c. 883 CE) of Venad chieftain Ayyan Adikal, does mention the then Chera king Sthanu Ravi. The chief was providing land and other provisions to the Christian merchant Mar Sapir Iso at the port of Kollam. The rulers of Venad, known as "Venad Adikal", owed their importance to exchange of spices and other products with the Middle Eastern and Chinese merchants. 
  The chiefs of Venad were always determined to extend their sway into the Ay territory. There is a possibility that chieftains captured the whole region down to Kottar (Kanyakumari) by 10th century CE.  In general, the influence of the Kerala rulers spread into the ancient Ay territory in the 10th century CE.
  The region to the south of present-day Trivandrum – former Ay country – came under the control of the Cholas of Tanjore (under king Raja Raja I) during  early 11th century CE. There is a possibility that the Venad chieftains tried to recapture the old Ay region after the raids by Rajaraja I. Chola prince Rajadhiraja claims to have "confined the undaunted king of Venadu [back] to the Chera kingdom [from the Ay country]...and liberated the [Ay] king of Kupaka" (this event is dated c. 1018-19 CE). Eventually the Chera-Perumal kingdom also submitted to the Chola rule (early 11th century CE).
  Cherar ruler Rama Kulasekhara, a contemporary of Chola Kulothunga (1070 -1120 CE), is seen organising the defence against the Cholas at Kollam in early 12th century CE.
caption: Mampalli copper plate (10th century AD)
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