Aditya Karikalan Chola

Aditya Karikalan Chola was the elder son of Sundara Chola. His full name was Aditya II Parakesari Parthivendra Karikalan.

Parantaka I Chola had captured Pandia kingdom. However, in due course, Veera Pandian had started ruling his country as an independent king. As per the Leyden inscriptions and Karandai inscriptions, in a place called Chevur near Pudukkottai there was a battle between Chola and Pandya. Sundara Chola personally killed a lot of elephants in this battle. His son Aditya Chola was very young. Still, he fought bravely with Veera Pandian and got the title 'Veera Pandian Thalai Konda'. Although the inscriptions from Tiruvalankadu claim that the Pandyan king was killed, it need not to be true. It appears he was defeated by Cholas and ran away to Sahiyatri mountain. Pandian got help from Ceylong king for this battle.

Aditya Chola was killed under mysterious circumstances. It appears that Sundara Chola was broken down after his son's death and he was not successful in punishing those who were responsible for his son's murder. There is a theory that Aditya was killed by Uttama Chola, the cousin of Sundara Chola and son of Gandaraditya Chola. Uttama Chola had equal rights like Sundara Chola to become the king; hence, he would have probably killed Aditya Chola so that he could at least succeed Sundara Chola.