The Colas c19.11.1

c19.11.1

The Cōḷa inscriptions affirm that Vikkamabāhu lost his life in the Cōḷa war,³¹ and that his diadem fell into the hands of Rājādhirāja; the *Mahāvaṁsa*, however, says that he suddenly died of a disease in the twelfth year of his reign A.D. 1041 in the midst of extensive preparations for a Cōḷa war. It is possible that the Cōḷa panegyric is more boastful than true, though his crown may have been among the booty of the Cōḷas.³² Despite Rājēndra’s success against Mahinda V, therefore, the whole of Ceylon was held by the Cōḷas only for a short while, a period of about a decade, after which the province of Rohaṇa asserted its independence, and kept up a perpetual war against the Cōḷa province. In Rājādhirāja’s reign this struggle became very acute as every ruler that came after Vikkamabāhu was actuated by the desire to expel the Damiḷas from Ceylon. Neglecting the eight days’ rule of Kitti (A.D. 1041)³³ the ‘mighty Mahālāna-kitti’ who became king of Rohaṇa, ‘was vanquished in his third year (A.D. 1044) in battle against the Cōḷas, and with his own hand he cut his throat and so died a sudden death.³⁴ Thereupon the Damiḷas took the chief treasures, such as the diadem and the like and sent them to the Monarch of the Cōḷa land.’ It is not easy to identify Mahālānapitti with any of the four Sinhalese rulers mentioned by name in the Cōḷa inscription quoted above. Vikkamapaṇḍu (A.D.