The Colas c14.7

c14.7

This date rests on the copious and unimpeachable testimony of astronomical data drawn from his numberless stone inscriptions, and forms the sheet-anchor of Cōḷa chronology in this period. The duration of the reign of Parāntaka's father, Āditya I, was at least twenty-seven years, possibly more. A very interesting record from Tirukkalukkuṉṟam,⁹ dated in the twenty-seventh year of Rājakēsari, may for very good reasons be ascribed to Āditya; palaeographically, it certainly belongs to the time before Parāntaka; the subject-matter of the record is the renewal of the gifts of some lands to the local temple, made originally by Skandaśiṣya and continued by Pādāvikoṇḍa Narasiṅgapōttaraiyar, both well-known Pallava kings. Such a renewal is normal after a conquest, and as Āditya I is known to have conquered the Pallavas and annexed the Toṇḍaimaṇḍalam to the Cōḷa country, it is practically certain that this inscription is one of Āditya’s. It should also be observed that in the earliest copper-plate grant, so far known, of this line, Āditya I is simply called Rājakēsari,¹⁰ without any other name. How much longer Āditya ruled after the date of the Tirukkaḷuk-kuṇṛam inscription cannot now be ascertained. But an inscription from Takkōlam dated in the 24th year of Rājakesari, no doubt Āditya I, mentions a solar eclipse which occurred in A.D. 894 or 895.¹¹ This would give A.D. 870 or 871 for the accession of Āditya, and a rule of about 36 years for him till A.D. 907. We thus get 870 or thereabouts for the close of the reign of Vijayālaya, which might have begun, therefore, sometime before A.D. 850.¹²