- published: 29 Oct 2015
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The Cheras, also known as Keralaputras, were an ancient Dravidian dynasty of Tamil origin, who ruled parts of the present-day Tamil Nadu and Kerala state in India. Together with the Chola and the Pandyas, it formed the three principal warring Iron Age kingdoms of South India, known as Three Crowned Kings of Tamilakam, in the early centuries of the Common Era.
By the early centuries of the Common Era, civil society and statehood under the Cheras were developed in present-day western Tamil Nadu. The location of the Chera capital is generally assumed to be at modern Karur (identified with the Korura of Ptolemy). The Chera kingdom later extended to the plains of Kerala, the Palghat gap, along the river Perar and occupied land between the river Perar and river Periyar, creating two harbor towns, Tondi (Tyndis) and Muciri (Muziris), where the Roman trade settlements flourished.
The Cheras were in continuous conflict with the neighbouring Cholas and Pandyas. The Cheras are said to have defeated the combined armies of the Pandyas and the Cholas and their ally states. They also made battles with the Kadambās of Banavasi and the Yavanas (the Greeks) on the Indian coast. After the 2nd century CE, the Cheras' power decayed rapidly with the decline of the lucrative trade with the Romans.