The Colas c19.10

c19.10

The *Mahāvaṃsa* shows clearly that the years following the deportation of Mahinda V by Rājēndra and the annexation of 'the whole of Īḻamaṇḍalam' to the Cōḷa empire A.D. 1017 were filled with risings on the part of the Sinhalese subjects against the new Cōḷa rulers followed by reprisals on their part. The independent testimony of the Ceylonese chronicle not only confirms the account of Rājādhirāja's records in its essential features, but furnishes much welcome assistance in fixing the chronology of events which, though spread over several years and apparently connected with more than one campaign, seem to have been grouped together to form a convenient section in the *praśasti* of Rājādhirāja. The *Mahāvaṃsa* affirms²⁹ that the first outbreak of the opposition to the Cōḷa rule in Ceylon occurred about twelve years after the capture of Mahinda V, when the Cōḷa wanted to gain control of Mahinda's son Kassapa, and that this revolt centred round Kassapa; Kassapa and his confederates succeeded in maintaining a contest for six months with the Cōḷa forces said to have been 95,000 strong; they 'killed a great number of Damiḷas' and compelled the rest to retire and take up 'their abode as before in Pulatthinagara.’ Thereupon, Kassapa began to rule the south-eastern portion of the island of Ceylon, the division known as Rohaṇa, under the title of Vikkamabāhu.³⁰ This war of six months preceding the accession of Vikkamabāhu took place about A.D. 1029, in the reign of Rājēndra I; but there is nothing to show that Rājādhirāja actually took part in it, though he might have done so.