The Colas c21.50

c21.50

The invasion of North Kalinga, called the Seven Kalingas, and the part of Karuṇākara in it are thus well attested by the inscriptions and the poem. Only the poem gives the immediate cause of the war, namely the default on the part of the Kalinga king in the payment of the annual tribute. This king, Anantavarman Cōḍaganga, was the grandson of Vīrarājēndra by his daughter Rājasundarī. Dynastic connections, however, seldom availed to stop the course of political ambition, and it would seem that Kulōttunga was the aggressor on this occasion. It is hard to believe that throughout the long and, apparently, prosperous reign of Anantavarman, the kingdom of Kalinga was a vassal state remitting a fixed tribute annually to the Cōḷa court. It may be noted that an inscription from Drākṣārāma¹⁰² dated Śaka 1003 in the reign of Viṣṇuvardhana (Kulōttunga?) records a gift by the wife of a Pradhāni of the Tri-Kalingādhipati Rājarājadēva. If this is a reference to the father of Anantavarman, it would follow that Kalinga was such a vassal state at least for a time. The real cause of the war, however, is obscure; and the darbar held by Kulōttunga at Kāñcīpuram in the historic palace of the Cōḷas in that city¹⁰³ and the report of Anantavarman's default made to the emperor by his secretary, may be, not history, but only a literary setting for the grand military enterprise described in the poem. It is clear that the expedition of Karuṇākara led to no permanent results. There is no evidence of a Cōḷa occupation of Northern Kalinga.¹⁰⁴ It may also be noted that a Kōṭa chief Bhīma is said, in an inscription of a.d. 1108,¹⁰⁵ to have assisted the Cōḷa in subduing the Kalinga country. This may be a reference to his part in the first or the second war.