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Battle of Vellur

VictorCholasParantaka I
915vs
Pandyas with a Sinhala armyMaravarman Rajasimha II, aided by Kassapa V of Lanka

Parantaka I invaded the Pandya kingdom and beat the Pandya king and his Sinhala allies at Vellur. He took the title Maduraikonda, the taker of Madurai.

Date: c. 915 CEWhere: Vellur, in the Pandya country near MaduraiType: Battle
Photo: Paulthy · CC BY 2.0
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Cite

MLA

“Battle of Vellur.” Hindu History, 2026, https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/battle-of-vellur-915/. Accessed .

APA

Hindu History. (2026). Battle of Vellur. Retrieved , from https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/battle-of-vellur-915/

Result

Parantaka defeated the Pandya–Sinhala army; Rajasimha II fled to Lanka and the Pandya country passed under the Cholas.

01The battle

The Pandya Rajasimha II, attacked by the Cholas, appealed to Kassapa V of Anuradhapura, who sent an army. The Culavamsa says the Sinhala force crossed to help the Pandu king but was beaten, and that its commander died of sickness, after which the survivors were recalled. Chola inscriptions record the victory at Vellur over the Pandya and the army of Lanka, and give Parantaka the titles Maduraikonda and Madurai-yum-Ilamum-konda, taker of Madurai and Lanka.

02The Pandya regalia

Rajasimha II fled to Lanka, taking with him the Pandya crown and royal insignia, and left them there when he went on to Kerala. Parantaka later invaded Lanka trying to recover them and failed. The regalia stayed in the island for a century, until Rajendra Chola took them back in his own conquest of Lanka around 1017, as the Culavamsa and Chola records both note.

Kingdom of Anuradhapura
Dynasty · 437 BCE–1017 CE (traditional founding)Kingdom of AnuradhapuraThe first great kingdom of Lanka, ruled from Anuradhapura for some fourteen centuries. Its kings received the Dharma from Ashoka’s son Mahinda and built the great stupas, while the island’s Shaiva shrines stood on its coasts.Read →
Why it matters

It brought the Pandya kingdom under the Cholas for most of the next three centuries.

People 1

Rajendra Chola IRuler
Reigned 1014–1044 CE (co-regent from 1012)

Rajendra Chola I

Chola emperor who reached the Ganga and Srivijaya

Places 1

Madurai, city of the SangamStanding
Shungas, Satavahanas, Kharavela and the Sangam Kingdoms

Madurai, city of the Sangam

The Pandya capital on the Vaigai, home of the third Tamil Sangam, the assembly of poets whose work became Tamil’s classical canon. Megasthenes heard of its pearl-rich kingdom in Pataliputra.

Places near the battlefield 8

ThiruparankundramStanding
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Thiruparankundram

The first of Murugan’s six Padai Veedu, the battle camps, on a granite hill at the edge of Madurai. Here Murugan married Devasena, daughter of Indra, after slaying Surapadman, and the sanctum is cut into the living rock.

Edaganathar Temple, TiruvedagamStanding
Cholas and the Southern Seas

Edaganathar Temple, Tiruvedagam

The shrine of the palm leaf: at Madurai, Sambandar’s hymn written on a leaf swam upstream against the Vaigai and came to rest here.

Koodal Azhagar Temple, MaduraiStanding
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Koodal Azhagar Temple, Madurai

The Divya Desam in the heart of Madurai where Periyalvar sang the first Thiruppallandu, and whose three-storeyed vimana holds Vishnu seated, standing and reclining, one above the other.

Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple, MaduraiRebuilt
Sultanates, Vijayanagara and the kingdoms that stood

Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple, Madurai

The temple of the fish-eyed Devi who ruled Madurai as a Pandya princess and married Shiva. Plundered in 1311, it was raised again by the Nayaks into the city of fourteen gopurams that stands today.

Appudaiyar Temple, Tiruvappanur (Sellur, Madurai)Standing
Cholas and the Southern Seas

Appudaiyar Temple, Tiruvappanur (Sellur, Madurai)

The Tevaram shrine across the Vaigai from the Meenakshi temple, where the Lord turned river sand into rice. Sambandar sang it.

Keezhadi excavationsExcavated
Shungas, Satavahanas, Kharavela and the Sangam Kingdoms

Keezhadi excavations

A brick-built town on the Vaigai, 12 km from Madurai, where potsherds scratched with Tamil-Brahmi names have been dated to the 6th century BCE. It moved the start of urban life and writing in the Tamil country back by centuries.

Kalamegha Perumal Temple, ThirumohurStanding
Sultanates, Vijayanagara and the kingdoms that stood

Kalamegha Perumal Temple, Thirumohur

Mohanapuram: the temple says that here Vishnu took the form of Mohini at the churning of the ocean and kept the amrita from the asuras. Its Sudarshana shrine draws devotees from across the south.

Pushpavaneswarar Temple, TiruppoovanamStanding
Cholas and the Southern Seas

Pushpavaneswarar Temple, Tiruppoovanam

The flower-forest shrine on the Vaigai near Madurai, sung by all three Tevaram singers. Its utsava murti is the golden form Shiva made for the devotee Ponnanaiyal, one of his Tiruvilaiyadal leelas.