Female Chola Names

The Source

Karashima, Noboru, et al. A Concordance of the Names in the Cola Inscriptions (3 vols). Madurai: Sarvodaya Ilakkiya Pannai, 1978.

“A Concordance of the Names in the Cola Inscriptions” is a list of some 9500+ personal names taken from inscriptions created during the time of the Cola (the more common modern spelling/transliteration is “Chola”) Kingdom. The Cholas ruled large parts of South India (modern Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh) until the 14th century. Although some Sanskrit names can be found in the Concordance, the vast majority are Tamil or a Tamil-ized version of a Sanskrit name.

Each of the name records in the concordance has additional information encoded along with the actual name segments. Tables defining each of these codes appear in the beginning of the first of the three volumes.

A - The serial number assigned to each full name.

B - The inscription from which the name has been collected: the first coded references indicates the Epigraphical Series (in this case “South Indian Inscriptions”1), the second is the volume or year of the publication, and the third is the number of the inscription or the page on which it appears in the volume.

C - Geographic location information for the inscription in the form of District, Taluk, and Village respectively for each set of numbers (In this case Thanjavur District, Thanjavur Taluk, Thanjavur).

D - The period of Chola rule (2 - 2nd period) and the name of the ruling king if available (RJ1 - Rajaraja I).

E - The year of the inscription in the Christian (Common) Era.

F - The pattern of segments contained in the name. The numeral 1 indicates the village name, 2 the gotra (lineage or clan) or its equivalent, 3 the father’s name (in this case, kuruntan), 4 the individuals given name (in this case, kari), and 5 his/her title.

G - Gender if applicable (all Female records have an F at the beginning of this line), Title (TA , TB, and FD

groups), Status (SA, SB, CT (caste), SR (servant) and KD (kind) groups), and Role (FN)

This spreadsheet contains all of the names in the Concordance that were marked with an "F", signifying a feminine name, and that were marked as being a Given Name. It is sorted (as is the Concordance) by geographical area, and each area can be accessed by clicking on the corresponding tab at the bottom of the spreadsheet. The serial number is included for ease of reference.

The data entry on this project was an enormous undertaking, and my never ending gratitude goes out to Mistress Eleanor Catlyng, who was gracious enough to take over the bulk of it when I began to lose steam.

PLEASE NOTE: If you are looking to document a masculine Chola name, I am more than happy to help. Unfortunately there are at least 3 times as many masculine names in the Concordance, and attempting to enter them all in to a similar spreadsheet might be an exercise in insanity. I encourage anyone with questions about this project to contact me.