The Colas c20.18.3

c20.18.3

It studiously refrains from mentioning Adhirājēndra and asserts that Vīrarājēndra made Abhaya crown prince for the rule of the Earth, meaning no doubt, the Cōḷa kingdom; and it recounts details of campaigns in Wairagarh and Cakrakuṭa exactly like the early inscriptions of Kulōttunga to which attention has been drawn above. Though the poet aims, as Fleet has remarked, at treating Abhaya on the whole as a Cōḷa prince rather than as Cāḷukya, he has still not altogether suppressed the Cāḷukya connections, and in his account of the youthful achievements of Abhaya he follows the early records of the reign rather closely. Above all, his account leaves no room for doubt as to the whereabouts of Abhaya at the time when his chance arrived to seize the Cōḷa throne. It is also of some interest to note that in the account of Abhaya's *digvijaya*, and in the attempt made, in the inscriptions, to combine the *praśasti* of Vīrarājēndra with that of Kulōttunga, and thus cast a doubt on the legitimacy of Adhirājēndra's rule, the poem and the inscriptions are in perfect agreement.