The Colas c14.10

c14.10

The success of Vijayālaya meant the weakening of the Muttaraiya allies of the Pāṇḍya Varaguṇavarman, who undertook an expedition calculated to redress the balance. This began well enough, and Ịdavai, on the north bank of the Kāvērī in the Cōḷa country, was reached.¹⁵ But the Pallava ruler Aparājita who succeeded Nṛpatuṅgavarman, just before this Pāṇḍya invasion, made a great effort. He got all his allies together, most prominent among them being the Gaṅga king Pṛthivīpati I. The alliance between the Gaṅgas and the Pallavas was of ancient standing, and though there is no definite evidence to prove it, we may assume that the Cōḷa Āditya, who had succeeded his father in the meanwhile, also fought on the side of Aparājita¹⁶ in the great battle of Śrī Purambiyam. More lucky than the Gaṅga monarch, Āditya lived to share the spoils of victory. Possibly, in his gratitude to his Cōḷa ally, Aparājita not only allowed Āditya to keep what his father had taken from the Muttaraiyar, but added some new territory in the neighbourhood to the sphere of his rule.