The Colas c18.41

c18.41

After he met his victorious general on his return from the Ganges on the banks of the Gōdāvari and after punishing the kings of Kaliṅga and Oḍḍa for their hostile demonstration, Rājēndra enabled his nephew Rājarāja Narendra to perform his long-delayed coronation (16 August, 1922), and perhaps also gave him his daughter Ammaṅgā in marriage at the same time. But Rājarāja was seldom free from trouble during his long reign of forty-one years. He had to flee the country more than once; his half-brother Vijayāditya, though vanquished in fight, never gave up his designs upon the throne and was unceasing in his efforts to bring about his downfall with the aid of the Western Cāḷukyas. Vijayāditya succeeded in driving Rājarāja out and crowning himself king of Vēṅgī on 27 June, A.D. 1031⁸² under the title Viṣṇuvardhana-Vijayāditya. It was probably on this occasion that Cāvaṇarasa, the W. Cāḷukya general, invaded Vēṅgī in force, captured the Vijayavāḍa fort and occupied most of the country.⁸³ Rājarāja once more appealed for Cōḷa help, and the sequel seems to be revealed by the undated Kalidiṇḍi plates of Rājarāja Narendra.⁸⁴ Rājēndra sent a powerful Cōḻa army under the Brāh-man general Rājarāja Brahma Mahārāja and two other officers Uttama Cōḻa Milāḍuḍaiyān and Uttama Cōḻa-Cōḻakōn; in the hotly contested battle of Kalidiṇḍi in the neighbourhood of Vēṅgī all the three Cōḻa commanders laid down their lives, and later Rājarāja built memorial temples dedicated to each of them. But the mission of the Cōḻa army seems to have been successfully accomplished, and we see Rājarāja established on his throne about A.D. 1035.⁸⁵ But this was by no means the end of Rājarāja's troubles. Towards the end of Rājēndra's reign, about 1042, a new ruler, Sōmēśvara I, of Kalyāṇi renewed the aggression, and Rājarāja once again appealed to his Cōḻa uncle and father-in-law; Rājēndra, too old to undertake the task himself, sent his son Rājādhirāja I to deal with the new situation of Vēṅgī; and once more there was a Cōḻa-Cāḷukya war on two fronts. But before we turn to the details of this struggle with Sōmēśvara, other events must receive attention.