The monarchies of the Cheras, the Cholas and the Pandyas were believed, at least in subsequent ages, to be of immemorial antiquity, and the poems of the Sangam attest the anxiety of all of them to connect themselves with the events of the Great War between the Kauravas and the Pandavas. The ﬁrst Chera monarch we hear of is Udiyanjeral (AD 130) who is said to have fed sumptuously both the armies of Kurukshetra, and thereby earned for himself the title ‘Udiyanjeral of the great feeding’.