The Colas c22.18

c22.18

Gangaikoṇḍa-cōḷapuram continued to be the capital of the kingdom⁵³ though Kulōttunga, as we have seen, had a partiality for Cidambaram. The king is stated to have been residing in his palace at Vikramaśōḷa-puram in the third year of his reign.⁵⁴ Two queens of Kulōttunga are mentioned in an inscription of his second year from Tirumalavāḍi: the chief queen being Tyāgavalli also called Bhuvanamuḻuduḍaiyāḷ, and the other Mukkōkkiḻān, a princess of the family of Malāḍas (Malaiyamāns).⁵⁵ Of the titles borne by the king, Anapāya is the most characteristic and occurs not only in the inscriptions and in the *ulā* on him, but is also borne by his secretary Anapāyamūvēndavēḷān who attests the king’s orders. In several places lands granted by the king were designated Anapāya-nallūr.⁵⁶ He is also called: ‘the Perumāḷ who covered the Sacred Pērambalam with gold’,⁵⁷ ‘Tirunīṟṟuccōḷa’, a title also borne by Kulōttunga I and hence the cause of some confusion in regard to the date of Śēkkiḻār,⁵⁸ Edirili-śōḷa and Kalikaḍinda-śōḷa.⁵⁹ The inscriptions of the reign of Kulōttunga, like those of Vikramacōḷa, record several gifts by his subordinates and feudatories among whom only the Kāḍavas need be noticed here. Mōhan Āḷkkolli *alias* Kulōttunga-śōḷak-kāḍavarāyan was a chieftain of Pallava extraction who had charge of the policing of a small area near Tirumāṇikuḻi in the South Arcot district about A.D. 1136.⁶⁰ In the course of the next few years this Kāḍava chieftain attained a more important position and his inscriptions appear in different places like Tirunāmanallūr, Tiruvadi and Vṛddhācalam, and in them he is given many names and titles expressive of his growing importance; and his gifts and charitable works also become more ostentatious. In 1140, he presents gold ornaments and silver vessels to Tiruttoṇḍīśvara at Tirunāmanallūr and he bears the names Kūḍalūr Paḷḷi-Āḷappirandān Mōhan and Kulōttunga-śōḻak-kacciya-rāyan.⁶¹ About the same time he presented a jewelled necklace to the deity of Tiruvadi.⁶² Five years later, he made over to the temple at Tiruvadi the *perumbāḍikāval* on some lands and properties, and he bears now the additional titles Paññāka Muttaraiyan Āḷappirandān Araśanārāyaṇaṇ,⁶³ and Kūḍalūr is stated to be situated in Perugaḷūr-nāḍu of Tirumunaippāḍi. In 1146, he made over to the Tiruvadi temple some further taxes and dues from three *dēvadāna* villages located in his beat, and on this occasion he styled himself Kuḍalūr Paññāka Muttaraiyan Āḷappirandān Ēḷiśaimōhanāna Kulōttunga-śōḻa Kāḍavarāyan.⁶⁴ Lastly in A.D. 1148, he built a maṇḍapa called Ēḷiśai-mōhan for the *mahāsnapana* of the deity at Vṛddhācalam, and in recording this act he called himself Āḷappirandān Ēḷiśaimōhan alias Kulōttunga-śōḻa Kāḍavar-Ādittan.⁶⁵ These records reveal to us the beginnings of the feudatory family from which sprang the celebrated Kōpperuñjinga whose boisterous career shook the Cōḷa empire to its foundations and hastened its downfall.