The Colas c4: Preface to the First Edition
The Cōḷas c4
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- English
Preface to the First Edition
c4.1
In the age of the Cōḷas, the most creative period of South Indian History, the whole of South India was for the first time brought under the sway of a single government, and a serious attempt made to face and solve the problems of public administration arising from the new conditions. In local government, in art, religion and letters, the Tamil country reached heights of excellence never reached again in succeeding ages; in all these spheres, as in that of foreign trade and maritime activity, the Cōḷa period marked the culmination of movements that began in an earlier age, under the Pallavas.
c4.2
This history of the Cōḷas, the first systematic study of a great epoch, has been rendered possible only by the work carried on steadily from year to year for half a century by the Archaeological Survey of India. My indebtedness to the scholars who, in the various publications of this department, have laid the foundations of Cōḷa history will be evident on almost every one of the following pages. I have based my account, however, on an independent study of the originals, for which the most ample facilities were afforded to me by the Director-General of Archaeology and the officers in charge of the Madras office.
c4.3
Inscriptions come to our aid only from the accession of Vijayālaya in the ninth century, and even then their distribution in time and space is naturally very uneven; for the early period, and we do not know of a time when there were no Cōḷas, we depend altogether on extant Tamil Literature surviving for the most part only in fragments and anthologies of uncertain date. At certain points I have had to undertake, in the course of the work, that preliminary discussion of the sources which must necessarily precede any attempt to interpret them satisfactorily. To topics treated more elaborately in my *Studies on Cōḷa History and Administration* I have made only a passing reference in this book.
c4.4
The first part now issued takes the story up to the accession of Kulōttunga I. The second part will complete the political history and give an account of the administration and social life of the Cōḷa empire. I have generally indicated the position of all the subsidiary dynasties with the exception of the Kongu Cōḷas. The study of Cōḷa art has not found a place in this book; this needs a word of explanation. I found that so little work had been done on this fascinating subject and that the material at my disposal was so rich and diverse that what I had to say on the subject could not well be compressed into one chapter of a somewhat overgrown book. I hope to treat of it in a separate monograph.
c4.5
The Appendix provides a select list of the inscriptions on which the history is based; the summaries, especially of the unpublished inscriptions, furnish, as far as possible, all significant matters of detail not available in other publications.
c4.6
Department of Indian History, University of Madras, 22nd July, 1934.
c4.7
K. A. N.