The Colas c25.18

c25.18

Sometimes individuals still in service adopted the same course. And we come to know the names of these regiments and individuals from the records of such transactions. In fact we learn more of the part taken by the forces of the king in the civil life of the country than of the details of their military life and organisation. The names of over thirty regiments mentioned in Rājarāja's inscriptions have been collected by Venkayya and the list can easily be extended to about seventy by adding to it names that can be drawn from the records of other reigns before and after Rājarāja. Each of these names clearly commemorated the time when the regiment was constituted, and it possibly recalled, to the minds of contemporaries, the exact occasion for it; many surnames otherwise unknown of the kings of the period are preserved in this manner—Pārthivaśēkhara, Samarakēsari, Vikramaśinga, Tāyatonga, Dānatonga, Caṇḍaparākrama, Rājakuñjara and so on. These names of regiments constitute evidence of the gradual growth of the army in the early days of Cōḷa expansion and to some extent also of the nature of the different sections of it. We hear for instance of the elephant corps (*ānaiyāṭkaḷ*, *kuñjiramallar* etc.), the cavalry (*kudiraiccēvagar*), and several divisions among the infantry. The *Kaikkōḷapperumbaḍai*,³⁰ 'the great troops of kaikkōḷas', included all the regiments known as Kaikkōḷar. This name has sometimes been interpreted in its modern meaning of 'weavers';³¹ but the term has a more literal meaning in the contexts in which it occurs in the Cōḷa inscriptions; it indicates '(a class of) men distinguished by the strength of their arms', or 'the strong men of the wings (of the army),' that is, soldiers of the infantry division in the army. Then there were regiments of bowmen (*villigaḷ*) and swordsmen (*vāḷperṟa kaikkōḷar*). The *vēḷaikkārar* of the *valangai* (Right-hand),—we hear of Iḍangai (Left-hand) also in the Polonnaruva inscription of Vijayabāhu,—were another large section comprising several regiments. The conjecture has been made that these were volunteers enlisted on particular occasions (*vēḷai*).³² This seems to be, however, wide of the mark. In fact, the *vēḷaikkārar* were the most permanent and dependable troops in the royal service, and their designation implies that they were ever ready to defend the king and his cause with their lives when occasion (*vēḷai*) arose. This view is supported by some literary references of a somewhat later date.³³ Perhaps closely analogous to the *vēḷaikkārar* in organisation and purpose were the *tennavan-āpattudavigaḷ* found in the service of the later Pāṇḍya kings of whom Marco Polo says that they kept always near the king and had great authority in the kingdom.³⁴ The distinction between Śiṟudanam and Perundanam seems to have cut across the other divisions so far mentioned. Sometimes, regiments were distinguished by territorial names like Pāṇḍip-paḍai.³⁵