hello friends! as we know that in those olden days kings had andhapuram and also had so many wives. so naturally they must have had many children.so it is impossible that all the descendants of chola or pandyan kingdom are destroyed. i am sure their royal bloodline still exist. do you have any idea about such a royal family existing like those in the north example: jaipur royal family. if any one of u have any information please kindly share
Pardon me if i strike a discordantnote! The days of the dynasties are over. The posterity remembers persons only if they are remarkable enough to do good to the society (or bad for that matter). The various dynasties that we hear from the Mauriyan, kushan, moghul etc. or from the tamil kingdom viz., chera chola and Pandyan left behind cultures which were assimilated by the future generations. As far as Tamil nadu is concerned the last vestiges of the erstwhile rulers exist in the form of Thondimans, The Bonsles of Tanjore and The Prince of Arcot in Chennai. After the abolition of Privy Purse even the rulers who had power and money were stripped of both and eak out a poor living and have merged with the common having nothing of their own specific to remember. A case in point is the various families left in the lurch by the Nizam of Hyderabad. There are honorable exceptions in the form of Maharaja of Travancore and cochin Maharaja who are otherwise wise rulers and their lineage continues albeit in a very quiet way. The Chitri Thirunal and the present Maharaja who presented the Chitra Tirunal Award to Dr Pillai are remembered for their simplicity and munificence. In the North esp in Rajasthan the ruling families still retain some hold of their erstwhile subjects because of their contribution to the society. Many of the royal palaces have and are being converted into Luxury hotels to be maintained as there is no state support. Smt Gayathri Devi of Rajasthan, The Scindias of Madya Pradesh and Dr Karan Singh of Kashmir now in the Congress in particular are the names that are remembered not because of their dynasty but by their noteworthy contribution. Jaya chamaraja wodiyar the erstwhile governor of tamilnadu a man of many parts was perhaps the tallest of them all. I have forgotten to add a very imp. point. You have now dynasties of Political Leaders, of film stars Industrialists etc. who are dime a dozen!
there is a zamindar family in pichavaram near chidambaram which still "crowns" a king in nadaraja temple chidambaram. they claim to be descendants of the cholas.
of course we do not have lots of royal families here that claim a lineage as long as the rajputs.
the thondaimans of pudukottai and ramnad setupathis are relatively newer clans. the royal family of sangli in maharastra and tanjore descend from shivaji's family.
but then there was a series of articles on the net on the different groups claiming a lineage from the mighty mugals. one calcutta stream, one hyderabad stream and one in pakistan.
atleast one of the groups runs a tea shop for surviaval today
Venkat, we should meet this family from our yahoo groups ( call me in for joining ) and trust us and provide some evidance from the past in support of their claim - some truths might unfold...
there was an article in junior vikadan about the pichavaram family.
in which they claimed the chidambaram temple was locked every night and the key deposited at pichavaram. it was hotly refuted by the dikshithars. the dikshithars say unlike other temples the chidambaram temple is locked from inside and not outside. this is because some of the dikshitars have to take turn to sleep and guard the temple from inside.