The Pandyan Kingdom from the Earliest Times to the Sixteenth Century c12.45

c12.45

Almost every one of the kings who reigned between Rājēndra I Gaṅgaikoṇḍa and Rājēndra II *alias* Kulōttuṅga I—he ought properly to be numbered third among Rājēndras—claims to have conquered the Pāndya country and some add also an attack on Udagai in the Kērala country to the list of their achievements. But we are not yet in a position to trace in detail any of these expeditions, the circumstances that led to them or their results. But a record of the twenty-ninth year of Rājādhirāja I corresponding to A.D. 1046 contains the names of three Pāndya kings who opposed him and suffered terribly for doing so. Their fates are recorded in an inscription in the following terms:² ‘Among the three allied kings of the south (i.e. Pāndyas), Rājādhirāja cut off on a battlefield the beautiful head of Mānabharaṇan (which was adorned with) large jewels (and) which was inseparable from the golden crown;