The Colas c23.24

c23.24

The reign of Kulōttunga III is a remarkable example of the triumph of the personal ability of the monarch against the forces of disruption that were steadily increasing in their number and in the intensity of their action. Pāṇḍyan affairs had not reached a settlement when Kulōttunga came to the throne; and much active fighting was still needed; and though Kulōttunga succeeded for the best part of his reign in enforcing Cōḷa suzerainty over the Pāṇḍyan kingdom, it became clear by the end of his reign that the southern kingdom, after its recovery from the effects of the civil strife, was being ruled by able and ambitious monarchs who were prepared not only to assert their independence of the Cōḷa power, but to embark, in their turn, on a career of aggressive warfare and territorial aggrandisement. We shall see that Kulōttunga lived long enough to experience the first shock of the newborn imperialism of the Pāṇḍyas. Elsewhere, the numerous feudatory dynasties were preparing to break off from the centre when opportunity occurred, and some of them like the Siddharasas of Nellore caused no end of anxiety to the emperor by their restless activity directed not seldom against the central power itself. All the energy and the strength of Kulōttunga was taken up in counteracting the machinations and undoing the mischief resulting from the actions of such overgrown vassals. In spite of everything, however, until towards the close of the reign of Kulōttunga, the Cōḷa empire suffered no visible curtailment, and the period of his rule marks the last great epoch in the history of Cōḷa architecture and art. Literature did not fail to get its meed of encouragement. Kulōttunga himself must be counted as the last of the great Cōḷa monarchs. Under his weak successor, the empire went to pieces and its ruler suffered personal humiliation at the hands of one of his feudatories who was in alliance with the newly risen power of the Pāṇḍyas, and it was only the intercession of the Hoysala ruler Narasimha that restored the Cōḷa monarch to the semblance of sovereignty, though not to real power.