The Colas c19.92

c19.92

62. The vague phrase ‘*balavac-cōḷa-narendra-darpa-dalanam*’ at the beginning of a stereotyped Kannaḍa verse in some of his records means little; it is repeated of his son Sōmēśvara II, and as Barnett has observed of the conquests detailed in this verse, the list ‘seems to be more epic than historical’. (*EI.* xv. p. 86 n. 6; pp. 87, 97). The inscriptions noticed by Fleet (*DKD.* p. 441) are of a later date and will be considered in the proper place. I find it impossible to attach any value to the poetry of Bilhaṇa who in his *Vikramāṅkadevacarita* makes Sōmēśvara enter Kāñcīpuram in victory, (I. 114-7). It was more or less the poet’s job to do it as Sōmēśvara was the father of Bilhaṇa’s more fortunate hero Vikramāditya VI.