The Colas c17.9

c17.9

The Pallavas and Pāṇḍyas followed the injunctions of the Dharmaśāstras, and in their copper-plate grants, they caused a brief history of their ancestors to be engraved before recording the occasion for and the details relating to the particular gift. But Rājarārja was the first Tamil king who conceived the idea of formulating in set phrases an official record of the chief events of his reign which was to serve as an introduction to his stone inscriptions. In this he was followed by almost every one of his successors on the Cōḻa throne, and we shall see that the *praśasti* of his son Rājēndra I, which is rather brief in the early regnal years, grows in length as the reign advances and descriptions of fresh events are added on to it as they take place; these official ‘historical introductions’