The Colas c23.12

c23.12

At this stage events took quite an unexpected turn and our inscription records a defection from the Cōḷa cause on the part of Kulaśēkhara. We can only surmise the actual course of affairs. The policy adopted by Aṇṇan Pallavarāyan to defeat the plans of Parākramabāhu against the rulers of the mainland was to foment civil strife in Ceylon by supporting a rival claimant to Parākramabāhu's throne; Parākramabāhu had had enough trouble to meet at the commencement of his reign from Śrīvallabha's father, Mānābharaṇa, and had no desire for another long struggle to retain his throne. When hard pressed at home by the activity of Śrīvallabha, Parākramabāhu strengthened himself on the mainland by effecting a calculated change in his diplomatic position in relation to the Pāṇḍyan civil war. He recognised that his attempt to support Parākrama Pāṇḍya's line and keep Kulaśēkhara out of the Madura throne had not only failed in itself, but was threatening his own position with ruin. He now made up his mind not only to recognise Kulaśēkhara as the rightful Pāṇḍyan king, but to enter into a close alliance with him by sending him lavish presents and thus weaning him from his tendency to seek the Cōḷa protection. Our inscription roundly asserts that Kulaśēkhara lost all consideration for the good done to him before (by the Cōḷa king) and resolved to enter into an alliance with the king of Ceylon¹⁶ and to co-operate with him in hostilities against the Cōḷa kingdom. In pursuance of this plan, he drove to the north of the river Veḷḷāṟu the Ēḻagattār¹⁷ and the Maṟava *sāmantas* who were loyal to the Cōḷa king and were employed in his service, such as Rājarāja Karkuḍi-mārāya and Rājagambhīra Añjukōṭṭai-nāḍāḻvān, and also removed from the gates of Madura the heads of the Ceylon generals that had been nailed there by the other Pallavarāyar who had placed Kulaśēkhara on the Pāṇḍyan throne. Some letters and presents from Parākramabāhu to the generals and partisans of Kulaśēkhara fell into the hands of the Cōḷa generals, and this discovery of Kulaśēkhara's treachery brought about a volte-face in Cōḷa policy. The Cōḷa ruler issued orders to Aṇṇan Pallavarāyan that Vīra Pāṇḍya, the son of Parākrama Pāṇḍya, the original ruler of Madura, must be installed in Madura and Kulaśēkhara turned out. This the general seems to have effected successfully.¹⁸ An inscription from Śambanārkōyil dated in the sixth year of the reign of Kulōttunga III states that owing to the vicissitudes of an invasion, the images of one temple had to be removed for safe custody to another temple in the eleventh year of the reign of Rājādhirāja II. This statement makes it probable that at some stage in the war, Kulaśēkhara and Parākramabāhu led an expedition into the heart of the Cōḷa country.