South India and her Muhammadan Invaders c8.s1.43

c8.s1.43

During the reign of Kulottunga a family of Telugu chieftains had raised themselves to importance in the region round Nellore, which was otherwise known as Vikramasimhapura. They took advantage of suitable occasions to extend their power southwards and at one time they seem to have advanced as far as Kāñchi on their own account, and when at last they were reduced to subjection by the Kākatīyas farther north. these latter essayed to keep their hold upon the northern part of the Chola dominions. In this state of affairs across the frontiers the subordinate chiefs of the Chola empire themselves proved troublesome; for, about the year A.D. 1331, the chief of Śendamangalam, Kopperunjinga, who called himself a Kāḍava, and also gave himself titles like Avaniyāḷappirandan (he that was born to rule the world) attacked Rājarāja III and kept him prisoner. Rājarāja was related to the Hoysala monarch, Narasimha II, who, on hearing the news of his captivity at Śendamangalam started from Dvārasamudra, seized the Magara kingdom on his way, and marched upon Kāñchi. As there appears to have been a Yādava invasion on his northern frontier, he sent in advance to the relief of Rājarāja the Chola, two generals of his by name Appaṇa and Samudra Gopaiya. These generals carried the war successfully against the Kāḍava chieftain to Śendamangalam marching northwards from the region of Chidambaram. In the course of these campaigns they killed four Ceylon generals, among whom was Parākrama Bāhu ‘the king of Ceylon’ (probably a prince), compelled Kopperunjinga to release the Chola monarch, from Śendamaṅgalam and restored Rājarāja to his position in the empire. Thus the first intervention against Māravarman Sundara I was at least temporarily effective, as it actually saved the empire from immediate destruction. The Pāṇḍya menace still continued real, and Kopperuñjinga prudently allied himself with the Pāṇḍya against the Chola and the Hoysala.