The Colas c23.11

c23.11

A third inscription dated in the twelfth year, four years after the last one,¹² and found in the North Arcot district, carries the account of the war a stage further. The record is unfortunately much damaged and many gaps in it greatly obscure its meaning. This inscription records a gift of land to one Paḻaiyanūr-uḍaiyān Vēdavanam-uḍaiyān Ammaiyappan alias Aṇṇan Pallavarāyan, and narrates the war in recounting his services to the state.¹³ After giving a brief account of the war up to the restoration of Kulaśēkhara to the throne of Madura,—an account which follows the earlier records summarised above and ascribes to Aṇṇan Pallavarāyan a prominent part in these events,—the inscription proceeds to narrate an expedition against Ceylon, organized presumably by Aṇṇan Pallavarāyan. He heard that the Sinhalese king, Parākramabāhu, was preparing for another attack on the Cōḻa king and his *protégé* Kulaśēkhara and that, with this intent, he was concentrating his forces and building ships in Ūrattuṟai, Pulaiccēri, Mātōṭṭam, Vallikāmam, Maṭṭivāḷ¹⁴ and other places. To counteract this, Aṇṇan Pallavarāyan, acting on behalf of the Cōḻa monarch, employed Śrīvallabha, the nephew (*maru-maganār*) of the king of Ceylon and a claimant to his throne kept out of his rights¹⁵ and now on the mainland ready to make common cause with the enemies of Parākramabāhu. The expedition that was sent with Śrīvallabha at its head captured and destroyed several places in Ceylon, including Pulaiccēri and Mātōṭṭam, where Parākramabāhu was gathering his forces; it seized many elephants and set fire to a considerable area extending over twenty *kādams* from east to west and seventy *kādams* from north to south, killing some of the Sinhalese chieftains of the locality and taking others captive. The booty captured in the course of the expedition was then duly presented to the Cōḷa king by Aṇṇan Pallavarāyan who thus successfully counteracted all the machinations of the Ceylonese ruler.