The Colas c19.15

c19.15

Other records of the same period⁵⁵ give more details of this campaign. They mention the hot battle at ‘Pūṇḍi with the swelling waters’ in which Viccaya⁵⁶ fled in fear, abandoning his father and mother to the mercies of the Cōḻa army; when Āhavamalla, in his fear, sent messengers (for opening negotiations), they were rudely handled by the Cōḻa and were forced to carry on their persons inscriptions proclaiming the flight of Āhavamalla in fear; then, followed by his forces, the Cōḻa took his herd of elephants for bathing them in the three bathing ghats (*tuṟai*)—Śiṟutuṟai, Perunduṟai and Daivabhīmakasi, and engraved the emblem of the fierce tiger on hills marked by the boar sign of the enemy, and planted the pillar of victory;⁵⁷ he played games⁵⁸ with the kings who prostrated themselves at his feet, and raised aloft the banner of charity with that of the tiger distributing among the needy the ancient treasures captured from the enemy; he then defeated several leaders of enemy forces such as the Nuḷamba, Kālidāsa, Cāmuṇḍa, Kommaya and Villavarāja, beheaded the Gurjara king, sparing only those who sought his protection and restoring to them their diadems and their positions. At this point some records⁵⁹ introduce particulars not found in others. Though the gaps in the text are an obstacle to their full understanding, their trend is quite clear and they record the manner in which the messengers of Āhavamalla were rough handled. Two persons who accompanied a Peṟkaḍai, a high Cāḷukya official, were made the media of a studied and barbarous insult to the Cāḷukyas—one of them being compelled to wear a woman’s dress and the other having his head shaven so as to show five tufts; then they were named ‘the miserable Āhavamalli and Āhavamalla’ and sent adrift along with the Peṟkaḍai. The ancient city of Kalyāṇapuram was sacked soon afterwards, and its royal palace razed to the ground after its guards had been overpowered. And Rājādhirāja assumed in that city the title of Vijayarājēndra and performed a *vīrābhiṣeka*; this is confirmed by another inscription of a later date in Rājādhirāja's reign with a unique *praśasti* beginning *tirukkoḍiyoḍu*.⁶⁰ This record lays stress on the victory against Āhavamalla followed by the *vīrābhiṣeku* and the assumption of the Vijayarājēndra title. Again, at Dārāsuram in the Tanjore district can be seen even to-day a fine image of a *dvārapālaka* very different in the style of its workmanship from similar Cōḷa images, and bearing the inscription: