Karikalan and Arulmozhi Varman’s brotherly relationship

Karikalan and Arulmozhi Varman’s brotherly relationship joins private kinship to the public fate of the Chozha dynasty: both are sons of Sundara Chozhar, and the survival, succession, and political claims of either brother affect the other. The narrative gives their bond little direct domestic description; instead, it reveals it through their shared royal lineage, the crisis surrounding Arulmozhi Varman’s presumed death, and Karikalan’s choices as heir.

Dynastic Foundation

Karikalan’s place in the family is established through the story of his birth. His maternal grandfather, Thirukkovilur Malayaman, recalls that he was born twenty-four years earlier in the palace at Thirukkovilur amid celebrations on an extraordinary scale. Kings and chieftains from Chozha Nadu and Thondai Mandalam attended, accompanied by forces said to number at least thirty thousand. The festivities lasted three days, and Malayaman remembers the royal vaults being emptied to finance them. The occasion’s political meaning was explicit: Karikalan was celebrated as the male heir on whom the Chozha dynasty’s future depended. The recollection places Karikalan and Arulmozhi Varman within a royal line whose continuity had long been a matter of state. Sundara Chozhar was described as his father’s only son, while the older generation had no other male heir to displace him. Karikalan’s name, chosen after debate, joined the legacies of Karikal Valavan and Rajadithyar, making his identity a commemoration of warrior ancestors as well as a claim to dynastic inheritance. The public adoration that greets him later at Kadambur—where crowds press forward for a glimpse of the crown prince—shows how one brother’s fame and position are made visible to the kingdom.

Brothers Within the Royal Succession

The brothers’ relationship is set against competing claims to the throne. Karikalan has already been publicly crowned heir, but he tells the assembled lords at Kadambur that Sundara Chozhar now seems to want Madhuranthakan to succeed him. The repeated invitations for Karikalan to visit Thanjavur, and his refusals, make the dispute personal as well as constitutional: he is avoiding a direct encounter with a father whose wishes appear to have changed. The brothers’ shared standing as the emperor’s sons therefore does not remove political uncertainty; it places them inside it. When a partition of the empire is proposed, Karikalan rejects it as an injury to the realm built by earlier generations. He says he would rather give up his own claim in favor of Madhuranthakan than divide the kingdom, provided he receives a vast army, supplies, and ships for a northern campaign. His proposal makes clear that he does not treat his birthright as an entitlement detached from the integrity of the dynasty. It also distinguishes his political ambition from a simple contest with his brother: he is prepared to relinquish the throne, but not to accept the kingdom’s fragmentation.

Arulmozhi Varman’s Absence and the Crisis of Belief

Arulmozhi Varman’s disappearance at sea changes the emotional and political atmosphere around the royal family. Sundara Chozhar’s fear that his younger son has drowned becomes entangled with memories of Mandhakini Devi, the woman he believes died at sea. In recounting the past, Aniruddhar reveals that he concealed Mandhakini Devi’s survival and later heard that she had given birth to twins. He had already suspected that she, rather than the river goddess, rescued the young Arulmozhi Varman when he fell into the Kaveri; Arulmozhi Varman later told Kundhavai Devi that he had encountered his rescuer in Eelam. These disclosures connect the brothers’ family history to a secret that remained hidden for years, without resolving every question about the twins’ identities. The emperor’s grief over Arulmozhi Varman’s presumed death also reaches toward Karikalan. Sundara Chozhar, in a state of panic, fears that the woman he believes is avenging herself has drowned one son and will claim the other. The brothers thus become linked not only by their father’s authority but by his fear of losing both. That fear is one reason Arulmozhi Varman’s disappearance cannot be read as a private misfortune: it destabilizes the court and intensifies the uncertainty already surrounding succession.

Political Consequences and Competing Allegiances

At Kadambur, Karikalan asks Nandhini whether the warnings against his visit also came from Azhwarkkadiyaan and Aniruddhar. Nandhini presents the Chief Minister’s supposed aim as placing Karikalan’s brother on the throne and turning the empire into a fervently Vaishnavite realm. She then ties that alleged plan to Arulmozhi Varman’s disappearance at sea. This is Nandhini’s accusation, not a neutral confirmation of Aniruddhar’s motives; its importance lies in how she uses the younger brother’s absence to recast the political dispute for Karikalan. Karikalan’s response to the danger is filtered through his conviction that destiny may be drawing him toward death. He recalls the predictions concerning Arulmozhi Varman and wonders whether fate has brought him to Kadambur to fulfill them. His suspicion that Kandamaaran may have aimed an arrow at him during the hunt shows how readily the threat around the succession enters his personal interpretation of events. Vandhiyathevan rejects the idea that Kandamaaran would betray his royal guest, but cannot erase the underlying danger. The brothers’ relationship is therefore presented amid uncertain loyalties, where Arulmozhi Varman’s absence magnifies the stakes of Karikalan’s exposure to danger.

Significance of the Relationship

The narrative defines the brothers most clearly through their shared place in the dynasty rather than through scenes of direct exchange. Karikalan’s birth was celebrated as the arrival of an heir; Arulmozhi Varman’s disappearance is mourned as the possible loss of another son and becomes a political turning point. Together, those circumstances reveal a family whose private attachments are inseparable from the question of who will inherit and preserve the Chozha realm. The bond matters not because the evidence portrays the brothers as rivals, but because their fates are repeatedly invoked by parents, ministers, and political actors seeking to shape the future of the kingdom.