The Colas c19.61

c19.61

The question why Śomēśvara I failed to keep an engagement fixed by himself and thus suffered once again the imputation of cowardice at the hands of his Cōḷa enemy cannot be answered with certainty. The date of the occurrence was some time in the fifth year of Vīrarājēndra, and from the details preserved in the record the exact day which is mentioned in the Maṇimaṅgalam inscription is seen to have been Monday 10 September A.D. 1067.¹⁵² Sōmēśvara sought relief from an incurable disease by religious drowning in the Tungabhadrā and the date of this occurrence was March 29, A.D. 1068.¹⁵³ The assumption has generally been made that Sōmēśvara's absence from Kūḍal-Śaṅgamam on this occasion was due to his illness and death. It should, however, be observed that as early as 10 September A.D. 1067 we find recorded not only the absence of Sōmēśvara from Kūḍal-Śaṅgamam but the subsequent campaign of Vīrarājēndra in Vēṅgī and Cakrakūṭa which resulted in the restoration of the Vēṅgī kingdom to Vijayāditya VII. On the other hand, Bilhaṇa states distinctly that Vikramāditya VI was encamped on the banks of the Kṛṣṇā on his way back home after his conquests when the news of his father's death reached him. And his language, though we cannot be sure about it, seems to rule out the protracted illness of Sōmēśvara I, who was suddenly taken ill, in the midst of his rejoicing over his son's successes in the *digvijaya*. Unsatisfactory as it seems, we can, for the present, only assume that if Sōmēśvara's absence was due to illness, his ailment was of a rather longer duration than Bilhaṇa's account implies.