The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c29.134

v3.c29.134

These powerful dynasties, the Cholas and the Chālukyas, were well-matched in resources both material and personal; each had a succession of capable rulers, and used its resources with a view to the attainment of a frontier which would put an end to perpetual wars. Further wars therefore resolved themselves into a fight for the possession of the Doāb and the State of Mysore. This war was ultimately decided in favour of the Chālukyas under their greatest ruler and his equally great contemporary among the Cholas. These two rulers were both of them usurpers in a sense, and used the power that they acquired to get a final settlement of the longstanding frontier problem. Vikramāditya VI, the second son of Sōmēsvara Āhavamalla, overthrew his brother, also a Sōmēsvara, after a short reign and ascended the throne in 1076. His contemporary, the Chālukya-Chola Kulottunga, ascended the Chola throne in 1070. He was a grandson by the daughter of Rājēndra, the Gangaikonda Chola, and was the legitimate ruler of the territory of the Eastern Chālukyas. He seems to have found this too small a patrimony, and would succeed to the imperial Chola throne and not remain content with his own territory. What exactly his title to this was, except through his mother, is not made clear. He seems to have bided his time and taken advantage of the machinations of his contemporary Vikramāditya to place himself on the throne of the Chālukyas. Sōmēsvara the father died in 1069, and Sōmēsvara II, the elder son, succeeded. Vikramāditya already held the position of viceroy of Banavāsi which included in it the wardenship of the southern marches of the Chālukya territory. While still viceroy of this province he concluded a treaty with the contemporary Chola, Vīra Rājendra, whose daughter he married. Vīra Rājendra died and was succeeded by his son, the brother-in-law of Vikramāditya, and Kulottunga found an opportunity of overthrowing this new ruler and of occupying the Chola throne. Vikramāditya was baulked in his ambition by this *coup* of his contemporary, and had to wait for yet another five years before he could put his own plans into execution. Both of them ruled for about half a century, Kulottunga’s reign lasting from 1070 to 1118 at least, and that of Vikramāditya from 1076 to 1128. During the first decade of their rule Vikramāditya’s efforts were so far successful that a considerable part of the territory of Mysore passed into his hands, and this progress continued till Chola rule in Mysore was put an end to by A.D. 1117, about the end of the reign of Kulottunga Chola¹. The chieftain who was responsible for this was the feudatory of the Chālukya emperor who laid the foundations of the greatness of the Hoysalas. The eleventh century for south India may therefore be regarded as the century of struggle for the fixing of a definitive frontier between the two contending empires.