The Pandyan Kingdom from the Earliest Times to the Sixteenth Century c12.10

c12.10

It may be noted (re para 53 in the report for 1908, pp. 62–3) that the dates are doubtful in 265 of 1907 which may be a record of Āditya II; and that this and Nos. 13 of 1895 and 357 of 1907 may also be assigned to Rājēndra I who was a Parakēsari and had the name Uttama Chola (Tiruvālaṅgāḍu plates, verse 90). The same remark applies to No. 128 in S.I.I., vol. iii—the Madras Museum plates of Uttama Chola. The date A.D. 969–70 for the accession of Parakēsari, even if correct, may be accepted for Āditya II. It must be noted that this arrangement assumes that the explicit statement in the larger Leiden grant (ll. 41–42) that Rājāditya ruled as king after his hands of Vīra Pāndya has been sometimes identified with Parāntaka II Sundara Chola.¹ This Chola king fought at Chēvūr a battle which is referred to in the larger Leiden grant as follows: ‘At the town named Chēvūr, he, completely filling all the directions by the multitude of very sharp arrows sent forth from his own beautiful bow, produced manifold rivers of blood flowing from the great royal elephants of his foes, cut down with his sharp sword.’² It is remarkable that this rather forced account of the battle does not claim a victory for the Chola king; this may mean that the Chola king did not have the best of the battle in spite of his heroism. This inference becomes more certain in the light of other facts. Vīra Pāndya claims to have taken the head of a Chola and his inscriptions mentioning this achievement range from his sixth to his nineteenth year (163 of 1894 and 65 of 1896). It is not possible to identify the prince who was killed by Vīra Pāndya; but it cannot be Parāntaka himself.³ It seems a legitimate inference to make that