Those who have read Rajaraja's meikeerthis (from which we deduce much of his achievements, by the way) - will come across this term frequently: "Kanthalur chalai kalamaruthu aruli". This is his first achievement listed in the chronology of events. Rajaraja, doubtlessly, has taken great pride with this achievement because it finds a place in almost all of his meikeetthis. Historians have been having a tough time interpreting this and many have concluded that this denotes his initial victory against the chola navel fleets in a place called Kanthalur chalai (near Trivandrum, in today's kerala). K.A.Neelakanda Sastri has touched this in great detail in his book "The Cholas". T.A.Gopinath Rao has done considerable reseach in this single term. Writer Sujatha even started a historic novel called "Kanthalur Vasanthakumaran Kadhai" in the same theme and left it half way. I recently came across an article that seems to challenge this. The article is quite detailed but some of the doubts are: - While talking about destruction of "Kalams" i.e. navel fleets, it is not common to us the term "aruli" nearby (which denotes blessing in common tamil). It should be "kalam aruthu", not "kalam aruthu aruli". None of the subsequent conquests mentioned in meikeerthi (Ganga padiyum, Noolambapadiym, madiraiyum, Ezhamum etc) find this word "aruli" with them. - "Salai" generally denotes a specific place in a town. "Arach chalai", "Pandaga salai" are some examples. So "Kanthalur" is the name of the town and salai should be a place in the town and does not denote a battlefield. - "Kalam" can be interpreted as a measure for rice etc. instead of being seen as a naval fleet. Author seems to think that Rajaraja probably regulated some of the rice distribution system in this area. He substantiates this with many other evidences found in Kerala temples and other inscriptions. One last thing about this Author who is not known as a historian: he is none other than Kavimani Desika Vinayagam Pillai, a Tamil poet we all adore. A publication has come out recently titled "Kavimaniyin Varalatru Katturaigal" containing all of his interesting articles and research. Well worth reading.
Plenty of food for thought in your mail, Gokul. (especially about Kavimani!)
Apart from the navel fleet theory, there also seems to be another surmise- that there was an educational institution, a 'kadikai' of sorts- established by brahmins to teach martial arts to those worthy of it. And this was the Kanthalur Chalai 'kadikai'. Sundar Bharadwaj surmises that Ravidasan & Co retired here to plot Raja raja's downfall. Another book of BK's (Forgot the name- BK fans could help)- deals with this particular aspect itself. Arunmozhi Battan, the son of the renowned Krishnan Raaman (prime minister in the Chozha regime)- takes part in a the vicious battle that destroys the Kanthalur Kadikai.
Writer Sujatha's story was rather incoherent, actually. It contained a lot of info on terms and phrases commonly used (or probably used) a 1000 years ago. Know what? Even the character 'Vasanthakumaran' seems almost an exact xerox of VandhiyathEvan. (he also falls in love with a princess, whose palanquin he meets on the road). And on top of it, the story is incomplete, too.
Raja raja had reason to take pride in this first battle. If this was indeed a kadikai, and if it was in truth led by Ravidasan and group- well, then, that's truly a feather in his cap.