The Colas c21.37

c21.37

Śaka (a.d. 1088) from Loboe Toewa, and mentioning the name of a celebrated mercantile corporation of South India, the Tiśaiyāyirattu-Aiññūṟṟuvar,⁸⁴ a name which, from analogous forms in the Cōḷa inscriptions of the period, is best understood as ‘the Five Hundred of the thousand (districts) in the (Four) quarters.’ While there is little evidence of the political power of the Cōḷas having extended to the islands of the Malay archipelago in this period, trade relations and culture contacts established in an earlier age seem to have been actively maintained in the reign of Kulōttunga, and perhaps also under his successors.