Sadayavarman Kulasekaran I
Pandyan king
Sadayavarman Kulasekaran I (Tamil: முதலாம் சடையவர்மன் குலசேகரன்) was a Pandyan king from 1190 until his death in 1216.
Accession and background
Kulasekaran acceded to the Pandyan throne after his father Vikkirama Pandyan in 1190. Vikkirama Pandyan had gained the throne of Madurai with the help of Kulothunga Chola III. Kulothunga had defeated the rebellion of Vira Pandyan and his Sri Lankan allies and awarded the throne to Vikkirama Pandyan. Vikkiraman's son Kulasekaran became the ruler in 1190. He was a brother-in-law of the Chera prince Kothai Ravivarman.
War and defeat
Kulasekaran was a vassal of the Chola empire. When Kulothunga was warring with Hoysalas in the north, he refused to pay tribute to the Cholas. This led to a Chola invasion in retribution. In 1205, the Chola armies defeated the Pandyan army and sacked Madurai. The ancient coronation hall of Pandyan kings was destroyed, the remains plowed with ashes and sowed with weeds.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7397628. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1190, 1216 and 1205.
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This entry incorporates text from “Sadayavarman Kulasekaran I” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.