The Colas c16.s2.14

c16.s2.14

In Sundara Cōḷa's reign literature, both Sanskrit and Tamil received encouragement; not only does the earliest Cōḷa copper-plate grant known so far date from his time, but a highly poetic eulogium of his reign, in the commentary of the *Vīraśōḻiyam*, bears witness to his patronage of letters.⁷¹ This eulogy, which calls Sundara Cōḷa the king of Nandipura, is addressed to the Buddha to secure the strength and prosperity of the king, and furnishes evidence of the prevalence of friendly relations between the Cōḷa monarchs and the southern Buddhist Sangha several years before the date of the larger Leyden grant which records the gift of a village to a foreign Buddhist monastery at Negapatam.