The Colas c23.3

c23.3

In the absence of an heir in the direct male line Rājādhirāja II, a grandson of Vikramacōḷa by a daughter, was chosen by Rājarāja II as heir-apparent towards the end of his reign, and Rājādhirāja reigned as co-regent with Rājarāja for some years.¹ Rājādhirāja's *praśastis* are found in three forms, all purely rhetorical and of no historical value. The form which begins *kadal śūḻnda pār magaḷum (mādarum)* and occurs as early as the second year² was obviously borrowed from Rājarāja's inscriptions; the other forms are: *pū maruviya tiśaimugattōn* which appears first in the fifth year³ and was adopted later by Kulōttunga III, and *kadal śūḻnda pārēḻum*,⁴ found in inscriptions of the sixth and tenth years from the Tanjore district. While the *praśastis* of the king are thus of no use to history, several inscriptions of his reign give a fairly detailed account of the incidents of the war of Pāṇḍyan succession which, on a comparison with the story of the war given in the *Mahāvaṁsa*, is seen to be quite trustworthy.