A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c14.22

c14.22

Rājendra I was a worthy son of his father, and raised the Chola empire to the position of being the most extensive and most respected Hindu state of his time. Early in his reign (1018) he installed his son Rājādhirāja I as yuvarāja. He invaded Ceylon and completed the conquest of the island begun by his father. Mahinda V was taken prisoner and transported to the Chola country where he died twelve years later. Thereafter his son Kassapa became the centre of Sinhalese resistance against the Tamil power, and after a war of six months in which a great number of Tamils were killed by the Sinhalese forces, he made himself king of the southern half of the island, Rohana, and ruled as Vikrama-bāhu I for twelve years from 1029.