The Colas c18.32

c18.32

Judging from its duration, this campaign which lasted less than two years,⁵¹ in which so many kingdoms of the north are stated to have felt the strength of Rājēndra's troops, could hardly have been more than a hurried raid across a vast stretch of country. And the Tiruvālaṅgāḍu plates state explicitly that the expedition was led by one of the king's generals and that Rājēndra met him on his return somewhere on the banks of the Gōdāvari.⁵² The events of the campaign as narrated in the same source may be summed up as follows: After crossing many streams by making the elephants in his army serve as bridges across them, the commander of Vikrama Cōḷa's⁵³ forces first fell upon the strong army of Indraratha and took possession of the territory of that ornament to the Lunar race of kings; then he captured the vast treasures of Raṇaśūra and entered the land of Dharmapāla and subdued him also; thereby, he reached the Ganges and caused the water of the river to be brought by the conquered kings to his sovereign lord Madhurāntaka, whom he met on the banks of the Gōdāvari after conquering Mahīpāla and taking away his fame together with many precious jewels. Then the valorous Rājēndra struck the evil-minded Oṭṭa king and his younger brother and forced from him a tribute of rutting elephants.⁵⁴ Thereupon, after himself killing an elephant that charged him while he was seated on the back of another, the king returned to his own splendid capital.