The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v1.c17.s5.12

v1.c17.s5.12

The causes that led to the revival of the Gaṅga power in Kaliṅga is at present uncertain. I have already suggested that the power of the earlier Gaṅgas may have been eclipsed by the encroachments of the Karas of Tosalī. Though there is at present no direct evidence to support our guess, it is not impossible that the renewal of Gaṅga power may have been connected with the invasions of the Coḷa kings. Rājarāja (c. 985-1016 A. D.) conquered Gaṅgavāḍi, Veṅgināḍu, and Kaliṅga sometime before 1005 A.D., while the armies of his son, Rājendra Coḷa, advanced even up to the Ganges about 1021-25 A.D.¹ From two inscriptions in Sanskrit and Tamil we learn the interesting fact that Rājendra Coḷa, having defeated his brother-in-law, the Eastern Cālukya Vimalāditya (c. A.D. 1015-1022), set up a pillar of victory on the Mahendra mountain.² Both these inscriptions with the Tiger crest of the Coḷa kings were found on the top of the Mahendragiri, where still exists the sacred shrine of Gokarṇeśvara, the tutelary deity of the Gaṅgas. As the date of the invasion of Rājendra Coḷa is only removed by about 25 years from *Śaka* 960 (A.D. 1038), the earliest known date of the later Gaṅgas, it is not unlikely that the Coḷas may have revived the power of one of the local Gaṅga rulers as their feudatory in Kaliṅga. The period of comparative weakness in Coḷa administration which followed the death of Rājendra about 1044 A.D. possibly helped Vajrahasta in asserting his complete freedom from Coḷa hegemony about 1045 A.D.