The Colas c22.25

c22.25

Another inscription from Konidena gives 28, but the Śaka date is missing.⁹² The end of Rājarāja's reign would therefore fall about A.D. 1173. The inscriptions of his successor Rājādhirāja II date the commencement of his reign from some day in the month of March A.D. 1163;⁹³ it is clear from one of these⁹⁴ that Rājādhirāja was not the son of Rājarāja, but like Rājarāja himself, a grandson of Vikramacōḷa, and that he was chosen by Rājarāja to succeed him on the Cōḷa throne as there was no one in the direct line suitable for the purpose.⁹⁵ Within a few years of the choice of Rājādhirāja for the succession, a great civil war convulsed the Pāṇḍya country in the south and the Cōḷas were compelled to take sides in the war to check the growth of Ceylonese influence on the mainland. The war had practically closed by the time of Rājarāja's death, but as its details are narrated in the records of Rājādhirāja II and Kulōttunga III, they will be considered in the next chapter.