The Colas c19.13

c19.13

This comparison of the epigraphical account of the Ceylonese war in the records of Rājādhirāja with the events as chronicled in the *Mahāvaṃsa* thus points to the need for caution in working the two accounts into a continuous story of the relations between the Cōḷa empire and that part of Ceylon which was maintaining a vigorous struggle for its independence against great odds. Only two of the kings in the inscriptions of Rājādhirāja can be recognised in the *Mahāvaṃsa* viz., Vikramabāhu and Vikrama-Pāṇḍya. Vīra-Salāmēgha and Śrī Vallabha Madanarāja are known only to the Cōḷa inscriptions, but apparently are not mentioned in the *Mahāvaṃsa*. On the contrary, Jagatīpāla and Parakkama of the *Mahāvaṃsa*, who figured in the later stages of the war of independence and laid down their lives in that war, do not find a place in the Cōḷa inscriptions.⁴² The inscriptions of Rājādhirāja's successor Rājēndra II show that he too had a hand in the suppression of the Ceylonese risings. Records of his fourth year,⁴³ A.D. 1055, state that 'he despatched an army to Ceylon, where the king Vīra-Salāmēgha was decapitated and the two sons of the Ceylon king Mānābharaṇa were taken prisoners.' Later records of Rājēndradēva mention only Vīra-Salāmēgha.⁴⁴ Rājēndradēva's claim is proved by the presence of an inscription of his reign at Sangili-Kanadarāva in Ceylon.⁴⁵ Despite Vīra-Salāmēgha being called 'King of the Kalingas of the strong army,'⁴⁶ there is no reason to distinguish him from the '*Kannakucciyarkāvalan*' of the Rājādhirāja inscriptions. Surviving the disgrace inflicted on the members of his family, his sister and mother and wife, by the forces of Rājādhirāja, and the defeat in the 'hot battle' that followed thereafter when he sought to avenge the disgrace, this unfortunate prince apparently fell a victim to another Cōḷa inroad possibly led by Rājēndradēva some years later.⁴⁷ The identity of Mānābharaṇa, the king of the Ceylonese, whose two sons were captured by Rājēndra, is not easy to make out, though the suggestion may be offered that he was no other than the king who joined the confederacy of three southern kings whose opposition to Cōḷa rule in the Pāṇḍya country was suppressed by Rājādhirāja in the lifetime of his father, in one of his early campaigns.⁴⁸ It may be observed that Indian coins found in Ceylon include issues of Rājādhirāja and Rājēndra,⁴⁹ and that Cōḷa inscriptions found in Ceylon, though not numerous or well preserved, carry us right to the end of the period covered in this chapter.⁵⁰ We may, therefore, conclude that the bulk of the island of Ceylon constituted an administrative division of the Cōḷa empire, while the south-western part of the island, called Rohaṇa in the *Mahāvaṁsa*, kept up an incessant warfare for the restoration of Sinhalese independence. Prince Kitti who assumed the title Vijayabāhu in A.D. 1058 was the leader of this effort. The *Mahāvaṁsa* and the inscriptions of Vīrarājēndra give some account of it.⁵¹ Like all conquerors, the Cōḷas were only exasperated by the most natural desire of the Sinhalese to be rid of them, and seem often to have adopted savage methods of repression such as transportation, decapitation and mutilation, even against the women of the royal family of Ceylon. After the accession of Kulōttunga to the Cōḷa throne in A.D. 1070, Vijayabāhu I succeeded at last where so many of his predecessors had failed and restored the independence of Ceylon; a detailed account of the steps leading to the success of Vijayabāhu belongs to the reign of Kulōttunga.