The Colas c24.9

c24.9

There were other conflicts going on in what was still nominally Cōḷa territory, conflicts of which we hear only faint echoes in the records of the time. An inscription dated A.D. 1223-4 from the North Arcot district,¹⁶ mentions a fight between Vīranārasingadēva Yādavarāya and the Kāḍavarāya at Uratti, perhaps Oratti of to-day in the Chingleput district. The fight is mentioned incidentally in commemorating the heroism of a soldier, who fought in the army of the Yādavarāya and lost his life in an attack on the Kāḍavarāya himself. Both these chieftains acknowledged the supremacy of the Cōḷa ruler. We have no information concerning the occasion for the conflict and we cannot say if the Kāḍavarāya was Kopperuñjinga himself or, what is perhaps more likely, his father.¹⁷ The Kāḍavarāya also came into conflict with the Hoysaḷa about the same time if not earlier. In an inscription which from its cyclic year may be dated about A.D. 1218,¹⁸ Vīra Narasimha styles himself *Kāñcī-Kāñcana Kāḍavakulāntaka* and *Kāḍavarāyadiśāpaṭṭa*. If the date of the inscription were not uncertain, we may even suppose that the Kāḍava had taken advantage of the invasion of the Cōḷa country by the Pāṇḍya king or entered into league with him, and that, in order to save the Cōḷa kingdom, the Hoysaḷas had to deal with the Kāḍava as well as the Pāṇḍya himself.¹⁹ Whatever that may be, there are other inscriptions which bring Narasimha into definite relation with Kāñcī in this period. One of them, A.D. 1230,²⁰ states that Vīra Narasimha was ruling from Kāñcī, and another inscription, undated, mentions that some of his troops (*bhēruṇḍas*) were stationed at Kāñcī.²¹ These references to local disturbances and wars among feudatories and to the supervening of Hoysaḷa influence in different directions give a measure of the disintegration of the Cōḷa Kingdom and the helplessness of its ruler in the midst of growing difficulties. This impression is strengthened by the unusually large number of trials for treason reported in the inscriptions of the reign.