The Colas c23.69

c23.69

The inscriptions of the reign of Kulōttunga III attest the increasing power of these chieftains who claimed descent from the ancient Pallavas. The central figure among the Kāḍavas of this reign was Kūḍalūr Araśanārāyaṇaṇ Ēḻiśaimōgan alias Jananātha Kacciyarāyan.¹⁵³ He was, as his name implies, the son of that Araśanārāyaṇaṇ who flourished in the reign of Kulōttunga II, and this fact is expressly mentioned in a record of a.d. 1184.¹⁵⁴ There is an inscription found in two places, Vṛddhācalam and Tiruveṇṇainallūr,¹⁵⁵ which is a *praśasti* in Tamil verse, recounting the deeds of some members of the Kāḍava line. The chief last mentioned in this *praśasti* is called Āḷappiṟandān Vīraśēkharan alias Kāḍavarāyan, and is described as the son of Araśanārāyaṇaṇ Kacciyarāyan alias Kāḍavarāyan. This fact together with the date of the *praśasti*, Śaka 1108 (a.d. 1186), leads us to identify him with Ēḻiśaimōgan, the son of Araśanārāyaṇa.¹⁵⁶ If this is correct, he must have inherited the title Kacciyarāyan from his father. Inscriptions mentioning Vīraśēkhara and giving him the titles Āḷappiṟandān, Kāḍavarāya, etc., or mentioning his connection with Kūḍalūr occur also, as we shall see, in the later regnal years of Kulōttunga III; this fact also tells in favour of the identity proposed above. The Kāḍava *praśasti* gives the genealogy of the line for four generations. After Vīraśēkhara, however, there is a break. The next name we come to is that of Kūḍal Āḷappiṟandān Aḻagiya Pallavan Kāḍavarāyan who figures in an inscription of the thirty-third year of Kulōttunga III. The inscription says that he confirmed the gifts made by his grandfather,¹⁵⁷ whose name is unfortunately not stated. Another inscription of the thirty-fifth year mentions that the mother of Kōpperuñjiṅga, the son of Aḻagiya Pallavan, set up an image of the goddess in the temple at Tiruveṇṇainallūr.¹⁵⁸ The name of the lady is given as Śīlavatī in other records.¹⁵⁹ If we assume, what is most likely, that Aḻagiya Pallavan and his son were in the main line of the Kāḍavas, and that it is this line that is represented in the *praśasti* mentioned above, then we may assume further that Aḻagiya Pallava was the son of Vīraśēkhara, and that the grandfather whose gifts he confirmed in a.d. 1211 was no other than Araśanārāyaṇa of the time of Kulōttunga II. The genealogy of the main line of the Kāḍavas thus reached is as follows: