The Colas c20.22

c20.22

Before concluding this discussion of the circumstances of Kulōttunga's accession, it must be pointed out that the provenance of the inscriptions of the early years of Kulōttunga now known does not confirm the views to which Hultzsch gave expression in his masterly introduction to Kulōttunga's inscriptions of these years. It shows, on the contrary, that from a.d. 1070 onwards Kulōttunga was practically master of the entire Cōḷa country, except, of course, for the hostile movement of Vikramāditya VI which remained to be dealt with, and the risings in the south, always ready to break out on every possible occasion and now favoured by the confusion following Vīrarājēndra's death. Inscriptions of Rājēndra's second year⁴⁴ with the characteristic introduction or with a verifiable date are found in Kaṇḍamangalam (South Arcot) and Vaḷuvur (Tanjore); of the third year⁴⁵ at Ālaṅguḍi, Nallūr (Tanjore), Iḍaiyār and Tribhuvani, (South Arcot). And there are records of the second and fourth years already giving him the name Kulōttunga.⁴⁶ It seems necessary therefore to give up the ideas that some years elapsed after Rājiga entered the Cōḷa kingdom and before he actually occupied the territory on the banks of the Kāvēri; and that his formal assumption of Cōḷa sovereignty in the fifth year was marked by the adoption of the name Kulōttunga.⁴⁷ The fact seems to have been that, as is implied by the *Vikramāṅkadēva Carita*, Rājiga came to the south soon after Adhirājēndra's demise⁴⁸ and appropriated to himself the whole kingdom of the Cōḷas, in so far as it was possible to do this by a single formal act. In fact, he became the Cōḷa king. It remained of course for him to hold the new position against Vikramāditya's attack and to suppress other disorders. And if it is true, as seems likely, that some other records bearing early regnal years like the second and third of Kulōttunga⁴⁹ are also really his, then it becomes quite certain that the title Kulōttunga was also assumed by him from the very commencement.