Explanation:

• Though the three Tamil ruling families were known to Asoka in the third century BCE itself, some individual names are known only from the Sangam poems of the first century and later.
• Known as muvendar, ‘the three crowned kings’, the Cheras, Cholas and Pandyas controlled major agrarian territories, trade routes and towns.
• But the Satiyaputra (same as Athiyaman) found in the Asokan inscription along with the above three houses is a Velir chief in the Sangam poems.

Source: Tamil Nadu state board