The Colas c16.s2.1

c16.s2.1

The rule of Rājakēsari Gaṇḍarāditya is attested not only by the statements of the Tiruvalāṅgāḍu and Leyden grants which, though vague, doubtless imply that he ruled in his own right as king, but by several Rājakēsari inscriptions⁴¹ from the Trichinopoly district, all dated in the eighth year and mentioning Piḷḷaiyār or Āḻvār Arikulakēsaridēva, and one from S. Arcot of year 2 of Mummuḍi Cōḷa Gaṇḍarāditya. The sphere of Cōḷa rule in his day must have been very limited and at the time of his death, about a.d. 957,⁴² Kṛṣṇa III was still perhaps in Toṇḍaimaṇḍalam consolidating his position and distributing the conquered country among his allies and servants. One of Gaṇḍarāditya’s feudatories in the mountainous country of South Arcot, Siddhavaḍavan of the lineage of Ōri of the Śaṅgam age who married Pāri’s daughters, claims victory over unnamed enemies at Viracōḷapuram in a record of the second year (a.d. 951) of Gaṇḍarāditya; he must be the same as the Milāḍa chief Narasimhavarman who owed allegiance to Kṛṣṇa III in his seventeenth year (a.d. 955). This shows that Gaṇḍarāditya could not make much progress in recovering territory lost to Kṛṣṇa III who was still aggrandising his position and power in the Cōḷa country.