Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c24.3

c24.3

THE unsettled state of the Tamil country, brought about by the conflicts between the various dynasties such as the Pallavas, Cholas, Pandyas, Chalukyas, and Rastrakutas, all striving for supremacy, precluded any great cultural advance or any notable enterprises being undertaken during the last centuries of the first millennium. Out of this struggle for power the Cholas finally emerged triumphant, and proceeded in the course of time to become paramount in Southern India. Their dynastic history began about 900 A D., and their rule attained its meridian a century later, declining towards the middle of the twelfth century, when it succumbed to the rising power of the Pandyas. During the first century of this 250 years of their supremacy, the Cholas found themselves principally engaged in territorial aggrandisement, as they extended their dominion as far as the Ganges in the north, and included Ceylon in the south, while a portion of Burma also came within their influence.