The Colas c18.46

c18.46

No clearer measure can be required of the progress made in our knowledge of South Indian history than the difference between what was known of this expedition before and what we make of it now. The text of Rājēndra's inscription was recovered and published in 1891⁹⁸ by Hultzsch. The larger Leyden grant had been known already for some years, and Hultzsch recognised at once in Saṅgrāma-vijayōttunga-varman of Rājēndra's inscription, a successor of Māra-vijayōttunga-varman of Kaṭāha or Kaḍāram of the Leyden grant. But his search for this place extended no further than the southern districts of the Madras Presidency, and strangely enough, as it now appears, he overlooked the facts that Rājēndra’s expedition was a naval war and that the Pāṇḍya country had been conquered and subjected to the Cōḷa sway several years before the date of this expedition; and he identified Kaḍāram with the ‘headquarters of a talluqa of the Rāmnād zamindari in the Madura district.’⁹⁹ Even as late as 1903, though a great advance had been made by him from his original position, Hultzsch was still far from the mark when he said:¹⁰⁰ ‘Of the numerous places which are mentioned in connection with this expedition, Mr. Venkayya has identified two, viz., Nakkavāram and Pappālam. The former is the Tamil name of the Nicobar islands,¹⁰¹ and according to the *Mahāvaṁsa* (lxxvi, 63) Papphāla was a port in Ramañña, i.e, the Talaing country of Burma. Hence Kaḍāram will have to be looked for in farther India.’ For some years thereafter, Rājēndra’s expedition was held to have been directed against the kingdom of Pegu, and the archaeologists of Burma even announced their discovery of two octagonal granite pillars near Pegu, which were identified by them ‘with the Jayastambha or pillars of victory set up by Rājēndra Cōḷa who overran Pegu in A.D. 1025-27.’¹⁰² It was only in 1918 that Coedès brought together in his cogent and lucid paper *Le Royaume de Śrī Vijaya*¹⁰³ evidence accumulated along various lines by several years of study on the part of many scholars, discussed fully the identification of the places mentioned in connection with Rājēndra's campaign, and laid the basis for an intelligible account of it. The Archaeological Department of Burma, though at first inclined to be rather critical of Coedès' scheme,¹⁰⁴ later acknowledged its substantial accuracy by removing the celebrated granite pillars from the list of the protected monuments of Burma.¹⁰⁵