Rettai Mandalam is the northern power whose threat shapes both the Chozha Kingdom’s unrealized plans for expansion and its defense against invasion. Its capital, Manyakhedam, becomes the intended object of Rajadithyar’s ambition, but the kingdom’s own southward advance turns the anticipated campaign into a struggle on Chozha territory, culminating at Thakkolam.

Position and Reputation

The narrative presents Rettai Mandalam through its relations with the Chozha Kingdom: as a formidable northern rival, a target of planned conquest, and ultimately an invading power. Its emperor is identified as Kannara Thevan, and its renowned capital is Manyakhedam. The territory’s exact boundaries are not described, but its armies approach from the north, and its power is associated with the forces of the Ganga kingdom through an alliance with King Boodhugan.

The threat is already part of Adithan’s public reputation before the military history is recounted. In the royal procession announcing his arrival, the ushers proclaim him a nightmare to Rettai Mandalam and a leader who stalks its forces. The boast presents the prince as the kingdom’s established enemy; later, the account of the campaigns gives that reputation a concrete military background. Yet the same episode reveals that hostility toward Rettai Mandalam does not mean the Chozha court is prepared to wage war whenever its prince wishes.

The Planned Northern Campaign

Rajadithyar’s long-held objective was to lead a large army north, destroy Rettai Mandalam’s power, and raze Manyakhedam. The account connects this ambition with a desire to punish the enemy for its conduct and to win military renown. Such a campaign required more than a prince’s resolve: it called for years of preparation and the assembly of forces on a massive scale. Rajadithyar believed that three or four years would suffice, while a past Pallava campaign was remembered as having required seven years of preparation.

The region between the Kedilam and Then Pennai rivers was selected as a suitable place to gather and train troops. Forces were assembled there under numerous rulers and commanders, in a concentration that included large contingents and mock battles between units. This staging ground belonged to the Chozha preparations; it was not the site of the later battle with Rettai Mandalam. The distinction matters because the plan to carry war north was interrupted before it could be carried out.

Hostilities in Ilankai led the Chozha emperor to send some regiments south and postpone the northern expedition until news of victory arrived. Paranthaka Chakravarthy also hesitated to commit the kingdom’s best commanders and soldiers to a distant invasion while enemies threatened elsewhere. Rajadithyar waited, though the delay frustrated his plans. Meanwhile, Rettai Mandalam’s emperor was assembling forces of his own. The rival preparations thus did not remain parallel for long: the northern power seized the initiative and brought the conflict to Chozha territory.

Invasion and the Battle of Thakkolam

Kannara Thevan invaded Chozha Nadu with the support of King Boodhugan. The forces of Rettai Mandalam and the Ganga kingdom are described as an immense combined host. Reports brought back by spies emphasized the scale of the advance, conveying the alarm it caused before the armies met. Paranthaka Chakravarthy, however, interpreted the invasion as a possible strategic advantage: rather than march a Chozha army across difficult country to fight on enemy soil, the kingdom could meet its opponents closer to home, where familiarity with the territory might help it surround them.

After the advancing army reached Vada Venkatam, Paranthaka authorized the Chozha forces to march. Rajadithyar led a vast army north, and, after three days of marching, it met the enemy at Thakkolam, two kaadhams north of Kanchi. The opposing force was estimated at roughly five lakh soldiers and thirty thousand elephants, around twice the size of the Chozha army. These figures establish the scale of the danger without making victory a simple matter of numbers: the narration credits Rajadithyar’s command and the confidence his presence inspired among his troops as decisive advantages during the fighting.

The battle lasted ten days. The account describes heavy losses on both sides, with the dead scattered across the field and fallen elephants heaped into dark, immovable mounds; it also says the enemy suffered more. Rajadithyar’s presence on his elephant heartened Chozha soldiers when a unit faltered, helping restore their fighting spirit. The opposing army observed this effect and devised a plot in response. Its author and executor was Boodhugan, whose role turns the battle’s military contest into a consequential act of treachery; the account stresses that the plot was understood only later, when it was too late.

Narrative Significance

Rettai Mandalam’s function in the account shifts from distant objective to immediate aggressor. The Chozha ambition to destroy Manyakhedam initially frames the northern kingdom as the destination of a future campaign. The delay imposed by events in Ilankai gives Rettai Mandalam time to assemble its own forces, and its invasion forces the Chozhas to fight on ground chosen by their enemy’s advance rather than carry out Rajadithyar’s original design.

That reversal also complicates the kingdom’s reputation as a conquered foe in waiting. Its army is large enough to outnumber the Chozha forces substantially, and its alliance with Boodhugan supplies not only military strength but also the means for the concealed plot that follows the visible contest of arms. The episode therefore makes Rettai Mandalam more than a name in Adithan’s martial acclaim: it is the power against which Chozha expansion, defense, command, and vulnerability are all brought into focus.