The Colas c25.24

c25.24

The idyllic view of war which makes it a joust among professionals interfering little with the normal life of the neighbourhood gains no support from our sources. From them war is seen to be a grim business of fire and sword; and, to judge from the inscriptions of the Cōḷas themselves, no less than of their enemies, the Cāḷukyas, life was made an intolerable burden for many generations to the people on either side of the Tungabhadrā by the bitterness of warfare. Even the common rules of fair fighting and chivalry seem often to have been ignored and much wanton injury inflicted on non-combatant populations, and women subjected to cruel disgrace and mutilation. The evidence from Ceylon and the Karnatak is too glaring to be set aside or glossed over. The destruction of temples of which Rājēndra I is accused in a Cāḷukya inscription was no doubt due in part to religious differences and in part to cupidity; Rājēndra was a Śaiva and the temples were richly endowed Jaina *bastis* in the enemy country and were fair game. The amount of booty that fell into the hands of the Cōḷas as a result of foreign war must have been enormous, and the Cōḷa inscriptions make no secret of the benefactions of the monarchs being often only the bestowal of plundered wealth on public institutions.⁵⁰ The booty captured in war belonged to the king who disposed of it at his will. In his sixth year, Rājarāja I ordered that nine hundred sheep captured from Śippuli and Pāki *nāḍus* were to be employed in endowing ten lamps in his own name in the temple of Durgā at Kāñcīpuram.⁵¹ Again, we find an officer petitioning the king for the gift of one of the icons brought after the conquest of Malanāḍ, and obtaining, as a result, an image of Marakatadēvar which he installed at Tiruppalanam soon after.⁵²