The Colas c4.3

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.