‘one who wears a garland of களங்காய் and a crown of plantain fibre'. Nothing further is known at present about this king and the poet.
The fifth book is a production of the famous poet Paranar ; and the hero of the poem is Senguttuvan, nephew of Nedum-Cheraladan by the Chola prince Manakkilli. This Chera king was a contemporary of Gajabahu I of Ceylon, of the Chola kings Uruva-Pahrer Ilamset Senni and Vel-Pahradakkai-Perunar-killi, and of the Pandya kings Nedu-Maran and Verri Vel-Seliyan. He was an ally of the Satakarnis of the Andhra dynasty, and with his assistance he defeated a confederacy of the Aryan chiefs—Kanaka, Vijaya and others on the northern bank of the Ganges, and the nine rival princes of the Chola family at Nerivayil near Uraiyur and fought another at Viyalur with some unknown chief, and subdued Palayan of Mokur. He was the elder brother of Ilangko the reputed author of Silappadikaram and the hero of the third book of that famous work.
Paranar has contributed some 72 stanzas to the other collected works of this period. In Tamil literature his name is found invariably connected with Kapilar, another renowned poet and contemporary. The question of the age of these poets will be considered later on, and it is enough for the present to say that Senguttuvan, the Chera king flourished between 150 and 225 A.D. His reign extended to fifty-five years.
