There is one song in Purananuru and the forty verses of Kalavazhi Narpathu by the poet Poygaiyar form the earliest evidence of the king’s life.

The references to him in the hymns of Thirugnana Sambanthar and Thirumangai Aazhvaar and Sundaramoorthy Nayanar are from a later period which emphasises the religious side of Kochchenganan.

Kochchenganan also figures in the legendary genealogy of the Chola copper-plate inscriptions of the tenth and eleventh centuries.

The legend of a spider turning into the Chola monarch is the version found in the later texts as well as in the Periyapuranam, the great compendium of the Shaiva saints.

Although there is no contemporary evidence bearing on Kochchenganan's religious persuasion, there seems little reason to suspect the crux of the later legends on his devotion towards Siva.