Kongu Chera dynasty

Kongu Chera dynasty, or Cheras or Keralas of Kongu or Karur, or simply as the Chera dynasty, was a medieval royal lineage in south India that initially ruled over western Tamil Nadu and central Kerala. The headquarters of the Kongu Cheras was located at Karur-Vanchi (present-day Karur), an ancient base of the early historic Cheras in central Tamil Nadu. The Chera rulers of Kongu were subordinate to, or were conquered by, the Chalukya, Pallava, and Pandya kings. Rashtrakuta and Chola rulers are also said to have overrun the Kongu Chera country.

The Kongu Cheras claimed descent from the Cheras who flourished in pre-Pallava (early historic) south India. Present-day central Kerala likely detached from the Kongu Chera kingdom around the 8th-9th century AD to form the Chera kingdom on the western coast (fl. c. 9th – 12th century AD; modern Kerala). The exact relationship between the different branches of the Chera family — such as the one based in Karur and the other in Kodungallur — is not clearly known to scholars.

The Kongu Cheras are often described as members of the Chandra-Aditya Kula (the Luni-Solar Race) around 9th–11th centuries AD. By the 10th–11th century AD, the Kongu Cheras appear to have been absorbed into the Pandya political system. A collateral branch of the Kongu Cheras, known as the "Kongu Cholas", later ruled the Kongu country under Chola suzerainty.