Aniruddha Brahmarayar was a leading minister in the court of the

Chola The Chola dynasty was a Tamils, Tamil thalassocratic Tamil Dynasties, empire of southern India and one of the longest-ruling dynasties in the history of the world. The earliest datable references to the Chola are from inscriptions dated ...

emperor

Parantaka II Parantaka Chola II (Tamil: இரண்டாம் பராந்தக சோழன்) (r. 958 – 973 CE) was a Chola emperor. He is also known as Sundara Chola as he was considered an epitome of male beauty.''Early Chola temples:Parantak ...

. The "Anbil plates" of

are the primary source of information about him

Family and ancestry

Aniruddha was born in a Vaishnava Brahmin family of the village of

Anbil Anbil ( ta, அன்பில்) is a Tamil male given name A given name (also known as a forename or first name) is the part of a personal name quoted in that identifies a person, potentially with a middle name as well, and differentia ...

. He belonged to Harita gotra. Aniruddha's father was a teacher of the

Vedas upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the '' Atharvaveda''. The Vedas (, , ) are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the ...

Lineage

It is believed that many of the descendants of the Rayar dynasty moved to a small town Swamimalai situated in the present day Thanjavur district. The wards of Rayar blended with the local community to avoid persecution by the Mughals and later by the British Empire.

Position

In the Anbil plates of

, Aniruddha is mentioned as ''manya sachiva''. He was given the title ''Brahmarayar'' or ''Brahmadhiraja'' meaning "Brahmin king", usually reserved for high-ranking

Brahmin Brahmin (; sa, ब्राह्मण, brāhmaṇa) is a varna as well as a caste within Hindu society. The Brahmins are designated as the priestly class as they serve as priests (purohit, pandit, or pujari) and religious teachers (guru ...

bureaucrats in the

Chola Empire The Chola dynasty was a Tamil thalassocratic empire of southern India and one of the longest-ruling dynasties in the history of the world. The earliest datable references to the Chola are from inscriptions dated to the 3rd century BC ...

. Aniruddha's family was also given a generous grant of several ''velis'' by the monarch.

In popular culture

Aniruddha Brahmarayar is one of the central characters in

Kalki Krishnamurthy , birth_name = Ramasamy Aiyer Krishnamurthy , birth_date = , birth_place = Puthamangalam, near Manalmedu , death_date = , death_place = Chennai, India , occupation = journalist, critic and writer , nationality = Indian , education = H ...

's semi-historical novel ''

Ponniyin Selvan ''Ponniyin Selvan'' () is a historical fiction novel by Indian author Kalki Krishnamurthy, written in Tamil. It was first serialized in the weekly editions of ''Kalki'', a Tamil magazine, from 29 October 1950 to 16 May 1954 and later integrat ...

''.

Notes

References

* {{cite book , author=K. A. Nilakanta Sastri, author-link=K. A. Nilakanta Sastri, orig-year= 1935, year= 2000, title= The CōĻas, page=465 , publisher= University of Madras , location= Madras Chola dynasty