The Colas c15.20

c15.20

Besides the friendliness of the Kēraḷa ruler and the assistance of the Paḷuvēṭṭaraiyar chieftains of Kīḻappaḷuvūr, Parāntaka was aided in his Pāṇḍyan campaigns by the Vēḷir chiefs of Koḍumbāḷūr. Records dated very early in Parāntaka's reign show that prince Arikulakēsari, one of the sons of Parāntaka, had already married Pūdi Ādicca Piḍāri, daughter of Tennavan Iḷangōvēḷār of the Koḍumbāḷūr line.¹⁷ Other evidence of the close connection in this period between the Cōḷa line and the Koḍumbāḷūr chieftains is furnished by records from Pudukottah and the Trichinopoly district.¹⁸ Their hostility to the Pāṇḍya king Rājasimha becomes clear from the Śinnamanūr plates of the sixteenth year of Rājasimha (c. A.D. 916). While giving an account of Rājasimha's relations with the Cōḷas in the early years of Parāntaka's rule, the Pāṇḍyan inscription says that Rājasimha 'defeated the king of Tañjai (Tanjore) at Naippūr, fought a battle at Koḍumbai (Koḍumbāḷūr), the seat of one of the powerful Cōḷa subordinates, burnt Vañji and destroyed the king of Southern Tañjai (perhaps another subordinate of the Cōḷas) at Nāval.'¹⁹ This rather obscure and, no doubt, highly embellished account, from the Pāṇḍyan side, of the early stages of the Cōḷa war is valuable in two respects. It confirms the impression derived from the *Mahāvaṁsa* and the inscriptions of Parāntaka that his conquest of the Madura kingdom was a gradual and difficult process which involved much fighting spread over many years. It provides, moreover, a clear idea of the alinement of the political powers in these struggles, and corroborates the view that the Cēra and the Koḍumbāḷūr chiefs²⁰ were friendly to the Cōḷa and fought on his side.