A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c14.11

c14.11

We must now turn once more to Rāṣṭrakūṭa history. Krishna II was succeeded by his grandson Indra III about 915. Even as yuvarāja, Indra had checked an invasion from the North by the Paramāra ruler Upendra of Malwa. Upendra sought to take advantage of the preoccupation of Krishna II in the Chola war and invaded the Rāṣṭrakūṭa kingdom. Indra defeated him, and compelled him to acknowledge Rāṣṭrakūṭa suzerainty. After his accession, Indra waged successful war against the Pratihāra ruler, Mahipāla I of Kanauj (913-43). Mahipāla lost his kingdom for a while though he recovered it later, with the aid of the Chandela ruler, Harshadeva. Towards Vengi, Indra followed the usual policy of setting up opposition to the ruling king Amma I who, however, held his own and ruled the kingdom for seven years till 926. But his death was followed by a period of confused succession disputes which gave Indra III occasion to bring the bulk of the Vengi country under the occupation of his officers and nobles for a period of seven years. Indra was succeeded by his son Amoghavarsha II in 927. After a reign of only three years, he fell a victim to the foul play of his ambitious younger brother Govinda IV, a dissolute and incompetent ruler, who in his turn was removed from the throne by his feudatories who bestowed the kingdom on Baddega Amoghavarsha III, a half-brother of Indra III. Amoghavarsha III was a gentle and peaceful monarch, but not so his young and energetic son Krishna III, whom he made yuvarāja. By waging war against Rācamalla, Krishna enabled his brother-in-law, Būtuga II, to attain the Ganga throne. He became king at the death of his father in 939. Within a few years thereafter he naturally thought of paying off old scores against the Chola power and was urged to the task by the insistence of the Bāṇas and Vaidumbas and perhaps also of Būtuga II. With Būtuga he invaded the Chola kingdom and won a decisive victory (949) in a battle at Takkōlam, six miles to the south-east of Arkonam, in which Būtuga killed Rājāditya with a well-aimed arrow when he was on elephant-back. Even this decisive battle did not mean the collapse of all resistance to Krishna's advance, however, and he still had some years of hard fighting before he could establish himself in the South. Eventually he succeeded in occupying a large part of the northern half of the Chola empire and established his own men in the rule of that country. He assumed the title ‘Conqueror of Kacci (Kāñchī) and Tanjai (Tanjore)’, and thus caused the Chola empire a rude shock at the close of Parāntaka's reign. Indeed, it almost ceased to exist as its vassals in the south took advantage of its disasters in the north and proclaimed their independence.