The Colas c21.24

c21.24

‘Having resolved in his mind to conquer the Pāṇḍimaṇḍalam together with great fame, he despatched his great army,—which possessed excellent horses resembling the waves of the sea, war-elephants resembling ships, and infantry resembling water,—as though the Northern ocean was overflowing the Southern ocean. He completely destroyed the forest which the five Pāṇḍyas had entered as refuge when they fled cowering with fear, from the field of battle. He subdued their country, drove them into hot jungles in hills where woodmen roamed about, and planted pillars of victory in every direction. He seized the pearl fisheries, the Podiyil mountain where the three kinds of Tamil flourished, the Śaiyya mountain in the heart of which were found furious rutting elephants, and Kanni, and fixed the boundaries of the Southern (Pāṇḍya) country. While all the *Śāvērs* in the Western hill-country ascended to the unique heaven (attained by warriors who fell