The Colas c9.6

c9.6

The dynasty of Vijayālaya has left behind a large number of stone inscriptions and a few copper-plate grants of great value to the historian. The illustrious Rājarāja I, under whom South Indian monarchy attained a sweep and splendour till then unknown, conceived the idea of prefixing to his inscriptions a set historical introduction recounting, in an ornate and poetic style of Tamil, the main achievements of his reign and kept up-to-date by additions made to it from time to time. The narration of the descent of a king and, incidentally, of some salient facts relating to himself and his ancestors was for centuries before Rājarāja's accession the more or less universal practice of kings and chiefs who followed the norm set before them by the *Smṛti* and *Dharmaśāstra* of the country for the drawing up of charters (*Śāsanam*) setting forth gifts (*dāna*) of various kinds. But such narration formed part, generally speaking, only of copper-plate grants (*tāmraśāsana*) and was composed *de novo* on each separate occasion; and this practice, while it gave full scope for the fancy of the poet-composer of the *praśasti*, sometimes resulted in contradictory and confusing statements made about the same king in different grants. In ordering, therefore, the writing, on stone, in set form and in the language of the people, of an official and authorised account of the leading events of his reign, Rājarāja initiated a practice which, as it was kept up by his successors, not only satisfied the boundless vanity of this race of kings, but furnishes to the historian a formal record of exceptional value of the transactions of each reign.⁶ Most of these historical introductions have been the subjects of scholarly discussion and elucidation by Hultzsch and Venkayya in the earlier volumes of the *South Indian Inscriptions*, and though these *mey-kkīrttikaḷ* occasionally merit the waggish description of them as *poy-kkīrttikaḷ*, still, as a rule, they furnish invaluable guidance to the internal chronology and general history of the reign, besides providing picturesque and trustworthy accounts of particular events.