South India and her Muhammadan Invaders c8.2

c8.2

DURING the period of Chola ascendancy, beginning from the days of the great Parāntaka, early in the tenth century, the Pāṇḍyas may be regarded as subordinate to the Chola power. This subordinate position was not habitually acknowledged, and punitive wars had to be undertaken in consequence. At one time under Rājarāja the Great, or his son Rājendra I, the imperial Cholas adopted the practice of appointing members of their family as viceroys of the Pāṇḍya and other kingdoms, with special designations indicating authority over the Pāṇḍya, Kongu and other kingdoms of old. This hardening of the authority of the Cholas reduced the Pāṇḍyas still further in importance so that it might justifiably be said that their power was extinct in the period of the ‘Chola Ascendancy.’ Members of the Pāṇḍya royal family, however, remained active in various places of importance in the Pāṇḍya territory and were causing considerable trouble to the administration. It was in all probability this state of things that led to the planting of military colonies by Kulottunga I, in agricultural tracts in the Pāṇḍya country along the road to Koṭṭāru throughout the whole length of the territory. The Pāṇḍyas often became fugitives in Ceylon from their own country. There are records of several wars waged by the Cholas against the Ceylon rulers for having given asylum to the Pāṇḍyas. Up to the middle of the twelfth century, the Cholas continued to be victorious and successfully asserted their authority over the Pāṇḍyan kingdom, and, to a modified extent, over parts of Ceylon also. In the latter half of the twelfth century however, those that occupied the Chola throne degenerated both in power and personal ability, and, as a consequence the tendency in the border kingdoms, was to throw off the imperial yoke. It was in this state of affairs, when the Pāṇḍya kingdom was already breaking up into a number of principalities, that a disputed succession in Madura brought on an invasion from Ceylon.