The Colas c18.66

c18.66

Another war had to be waged against the Western Cāḷukyas by Rājādhirāja as we have seen, and of this war we have several detailed accounts in his inscriptions which supplement one another and give a fair idea of the course of the campaign. This war, which was directed against Āhavamalla, must have occurred sometime after A.D. 1042, the last known date for Jayasiṁha II, ¹⁵⁵ and consequently in the last years of Rājēndra's reign. We have seen that after the battle of Muśangi (*c.* A.D. 1021), Jayasiṁha II made himself master of the Raichūr doab and reached the Tungabhadrā. In the remaining twenty years or so of his reign, he seems to have been left alone by Rājēndra who was engaged in other directions. Some inscriptions in the Bellary district¹⁵⁶ show that Jayasiṁha II even crossed the Tungabhadrā in the period and annexed parts of the Bellary district to his dominions after displacing the Cōḷa control over the tract. One of his vassals, Jagadēkamalla Udayāditya Noḷamba Pallava Perumānaḍi, claims in A.D. 1033 to have ruled the Noḷamba-vāḍi 32000 among other districts;¹⁵⁷ this seems to be an exaggeration, if it is not a mere repetition of a traditional title of the Noḷambas. But after the long interval during which the Cāḷukyas were left free to pursue their plans, and after the accession of Trailōkymalla Āhavamalla Sōmēśvara I who renewed the aggression in Vēṅgī, the Cōḷa monarch might have felt the need for a fresh assertion of his supremacy. Sōmēśvara had to face a fresh Cōḷa invasion led by Rājādhirāja for the relief of Vēṅgī. Cōḷa inscriptions state that, in the war that followed, the Cōḷa forces¹⁵⁸ overwhelmed the Cāḷukya army in the battle of Dannāḍa (Dhānyakaṭaka) and killed its leaders Gaṇḍappayya and Gaṅgādhara together with a large number of elephants; that the celebrated warriors Vikki and Vijayāditya were forced to retreat like cowards along with Saṅgamayya; and that a vast amount of treasure, horses and elephants fell into the hands of the Cōḷas, who set fire to the city of Koḷḷippākkai. Vikki and Vijayāditya were no doubt respectively the son of Sōmēśvara, who afterwards became Vikramāditya VI, and Viṣṇuvardhana-Vijayāditya. If these claims in the Cōḷa inscriptions are true, Rājarāja must have been greatly relieved and found himself once more undisputed master of his kingdom of Vēṅgī. But the success of the Cōḷas does not appear to have been so complete, and the Western Cāḷukyas seem to have held their own after offering stout' resistance at Koḷḷip-pākkai. Several records attest Someśvara's rule over Vēṅgī in this period. Sobhanarasa, a feudatory of Someśvara, styles himself *Vēṅgī-puravareśvara* in 1044, and this title is continued by others after him. An unpublished inscription dated 1047 preserved in the Hyderabad museum states that Someśvara pulverised in battle the kings of Vēṅgī and Kalinga. But it is doubtful if the whole of Vēṅgī changed hands, because Rājarāja has an inscription dated 1047 at Drākṣārāma¹⁵⁹ recording an endowment to the Bhīmeśvara temple. In fact it would seem that very soon Rājarāja had to give up his dependence on Cōḷa support, and reach an understanding with Someśvara. Accordingly we find Nārāyaṇa Bhaṭṭa, one of the *pradhānis* of Someśvara resident in Rājarāja's court and getting a grant of a village (Nandampūṇḍi) for assisting Nannayya Bhaṭṭa in composing the *Āndhra Bhārata* (1051-2), and Nārāyaṇa's daughter Kuppama makes a gift to the Bhīmeśvara temple of Drākṣārāma in 1055-6. We shall see later that Cōḷa inscriptions affirm that the immediate successors of Rājēndra neglected their hereditary interest in the Vēṅgī kingdom.¹⁶⁰