The Colas c13.18

c13.18

¹ Venkayya observes: ‘It is at present impossible to ascertain how these Telugu chiefs came to claim the relationship with Karikāla.’ (*ARE.* 1900, paragraph 45). Strictly, this is quite true. As I understand the matter, however, there was a somewhat live connection between the Cōḷas of the Telugu (Rēnāṇḍu) country and the Tamil Cōḷas; the Mālēpāḍu plates of Puṇyakumāra, I think, form an important link in the chain of evidence, and suggest that the Pallava dominion of the Simhaviṣṇu line may have been the medium through which the drift of Cōḷas to the north took place. The attempts to explain the origin of the Telugu-Cōḍas by supposing that the Telugu country formed part of the empire of the early Cōḷa king, Karikāla, appear to be so much wasted effort. We can hardly treat the legends of the eleventh and twelfth centuries as the history of the third or fourth. See *Studies* pp. 33-6, 61-6. Contra Venkayya-*ASI.* 1905-6. p. 175 n. 8.