Chandra Varma

Chandra Varma is the name of the legendary ancestor of the Kodavas (Kodagas, Coorgs or Coorgis).^[1][2]

Sources

The legend of Chandra Varma is found in four chapters (11 to 14) of the Kaveri Purana which is part of the Skanda Purana.^[3][4]

Kadamba Origin

According to Col Wilks, B L Rice and B D Ganapathy, the Coorgs or Kodagus (Kodavas) were Kadambas who were led by a king named Chandra Varma.^[5][6][7]

Legend

Chandra Varma was the fourth son of Chandravamshi Kshatriya Emperor Siddartha of Dravida Matsya desha.^[2] There were a number of Matsya deshas across India, while the main one was in North India. Dravida was a name for South India. Chandra Varma had an army and settled in Kodagu (Coorg), which was called Kroda desha at that time.^[8] A devotee of Parvathi, Chandra Varma went on a pilgrimage across peninsular India with his army to Jagannath, Tirupati, Kanchi, Chidambaram, Srirangam, Dhanushkoti, Rameshwaram and Ananthasayana and became the first king of Kodagu.^[3] He married a Shudra goddess, an apsara who was made by Parvathi and who worked as a peasant, and had ten sons.^[9]

His sons married the daughters of the king of Vidarbha and his Shudra queen.^[4] Chandra Varma was succeeded as king by his eldest son Devakanta.^[4][2] Legend has it that it was during the lifetime of Devakanta that the river Kaveri originated in Kodagu and flowed through South India.^[3][4] The Kaveri Purana states that Chandra Varma's progeny levelled the land, brought it under cultivation and invited Brahmins and other castes to settle the region.^{[10][11][12][13][14][15][16]}