Udayaar

Udayaar is the eighty-year-old lord and guardian of Malai Nadu, Aditha Karikalan’s maternal grandfather, and a veteran whose memories join family history to the fortunes of the Chozha dynasty. His most revealing appearance comes beside the Kedilam River, where he draws Aditha aside to recount the prince’s birth, recall the failed northern ambitions of an earlier generation, and warn that apparent allies may conceal a threat. In his telling, the past is not remote: it is a guide to the dangers gathering around his grandson.

Identity and Family Background

Udayaar enters the narrative in a chariot following the three stallions to a ferry by the Kedilam River. The narrator presents him as a dignified and renowned figure of valour, and identifies him as the aged ruler of Thirukkovilur and guardian of Malai Nadu. Although he has come upon the same route as the younger men, he asks Aditha to pause with him beneath an Arasu tree rather than continue immediately toward Thirukkovilur. Aditha dismounts and accompanies him, treating the request with the familiarity of a grandson speaking to his grandfather.

Udayaar’s account establishes the scale of the family occasion that preceded Aditha’s birth. The prince was born twenty-four years earlier in Udayaar’s own palace at Thirukkovilur. Kings and chieftains from Chozha Nadu and Thondai Mandalam attended, each accompanied, he recalls, by forces numbering at least thirty thousand; the celebrations and banquets consumed the treasures accumulated in his vaults over a century in only three days. The event’s political importance matched its extravagance: Aditha was welcomed as the male heir on whom the Chozha ascendancy rested.

The child’s place in the dynasty was especially consequential because Udayaar says that Sundara Chozhar was Arinjayan’s only son, while the elder brothers of Aditha’s grandfather had no issue. The prince’s name commemorated two celebrated ancestors: some had proposed Karikal Valavan, others Rajadithyar, and the eventual name, Aditha Karikalan, joined both. Udayaar also recalls the splendour surrounding his daughter’s marriage to Sundara Chozhar, an alliance whose celebration, he says, was surpassed by the festivities at Aditha’s birth.

Memory of Rajadithyar and Thakkolam

When Aditha asks about the war at Thakkolam, Udayaar abandons his digression on Sambuvaraiyar’s arrogance and turns to the campaign he had witnessed. His account first evokes the preparation for war under Rajadithyar: elephants and cavalry clashed in exercises, arrows darkened the sky, and massed warriors raised the cry “Naavalo Naaval!” These displays brought crowds to watch, while the preparations and the cost of sustaining troops affected the cultivation of the surrounding regions.

Udayaar remembers Rajadithyar answering those burdens by ordering large lakes built in Thirumunaippaadi Nadu and Nadu Nadu, and arranging for water from the Kollidam River to reach Veera Narayanapuram Lake through a new river. He points out the irony that Sambuvaraiyar, who later appeared arrogant, was among those who benefited most from the increased fertility of the region. In Udayaar’s recollection, public works and military ambition sit side by side: the same campaign that trained an army also reshaped the landscape and rewarded local interests.

The northern expedition did not proceed as planned. News of hostilities in Ilankai led to the dispatch of some regiments south, while the Chozha ruler called a halt to the march until victory there could be reported. Rajadithyar accepted the order and waited, though Udayaar presents that patience as ill rewarded. Later, after Rajadithyar’s death, Udayaar says he assembled an army and launched scattered attacks against the forces that remained near the Kedilam River. Those enemies persisted in the region for years and held Kanchi until Aditha recovered the city three years before their conversation.

For Udayaar, Rajadithyar’s fate gives the history its warning. He describes his ancestor’s ambitions of extending the Chozha Empire from Ilankai to the Ganga, ambitions that ended with his death before their fulfilment. He sees Aditha as a warrior of comparable stature and says that people expect him to accomplish what Rajadithyar could not. The comparison is praise, but it also makes the earlier warrior’s death a cautionary precedent rather than merely a story of lost glory.

Counsel at the Kedilam River

Udayaar’s warning is specific to Aditha’s destination. The prince is about to visit Kadambur, where, Udayaar argues, men who present themselves as friends may be more dangerous than declared enemies. He invokes the counsel of Thiruvalluvar: a concealed foe within an apparent alliance deserves more suspicion than an opponent who confronts one openly. Aditha replies that he is not going to war and expects to meet intimate friends of his father, exposing the gap between his confidence in the visit and his grandfather’s reading of its risks.

Udayaar further reports rumours that Sambuvaraiyar’s daughter may be offered to Aditha, and that secret negotiations may seek a compromise dividing the realm between the prince and Madhuranthaka Thevar. He does not claim to know the hidden motive behind either proposal. Instead, he offers a practical response to uncertainty: he will go to Thirukkovilur, gather whatever forces he can, and station himself on the Vellaaru River. If Aditha senses danger in Sambuvaraiyar’s palace, he need only send word. The offer makes his concern tangible; this grandfather’s counsel is backed by a readiness to mobilize troops.

Later, Aditha describes Udayaar as mustering forces to restore his grandson’s rights and answer what he regards as an insult. That description comes from Aditha during a conversation with the lords at Kadambur, where he uses his grandfather’s unyielding position as part of a feigned appeal for advice. It nevertheless reinforces the political force behind Udayaar’s warning: the succession dispute has drawn family loyalty into the realm of military preparation.

Dynastic Rivalries and Narrative Role

The hostility between Udayaar’s line and the Sambuvaraiyar family has roots older than Aditha’s visit. The Sambuvaraiyars claim descent from the extended family of Valvil Ori and preserve an inherited enmity toward the descendants of Udayaar. Their reluctance to support the claim of Udayaar’s grandson is therefore presented alongside Aditha’s own conduct, which has also offended them. They increasingly support Madhuranthaka Thevar’s claim to the throne. The succession conflict is thus shaped not only by arguments over inheritance but also by accumulated family rivalries.

Udayaar’s place in the story rests on the convergence of these histories. His memories make Aditha’s birth a dynastic event; his recollection of Rajadithyar links the prince’s expected greatness to the danger of repeating an ancestor’s fate; and his warning about Kadambur turns that historical knowledge into immediate counsel. He cannot remove the uncertainty surrounding the invitation or the competing claims to the throne. He can, however, recognize how readily ambition, old hostility, and supposed friendship may conceal danger—and position himself and his forces close enough to answer a summons.