A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c14.24

c14.24

Satyāśraya was succeeded in 1008 by his nephew Vikramāditya V who after a short and uneventful reign was followed by his brother Jayasimha II in 1015. Jayasimha had to fight on many fronts. The Paramāra Bhoja of Malwa, wanting to avenge the fate of Munja, invaded the Chālukya kingdom from the north and for some years occupied Lāta and portions of Konkan. After hard fighting Jayasimha succeeded with the aid of his loyal feudatories in recovering the territory occupied by Bhoja. But it was the Chola Rājendra who was his most formidable enemy. Soon after his accession, Jayasimha tried to retrieve the losses sustained in the wars of Satyāśraya and for a time circumstances seemed to favour him, Rājendra being busy with the conquest of Ceylon and the settlement of Pāndya and Kerala. In Vengi, Vimalāditya, who had succeeded his brother Śaktivarman I in 1011, either retired from the throne or died in 1018. Jayasimha II supported the claims of Vijayāditya VII to succeed him against those of Rājarāja, another of Vimalāditya's sons by his Chola queen Kundavai. In the pursuit of this plan Jayasimha crossed the Tungabhadra and occupied Bellary and possibly even a part of Gangavādi. In Vengi, Vijayāditya captured Vijayavāda (Bezwada) and made it impossible for his rival Rājarāja to celebrate his coronation. But then Rājendra soon turned his attention actively against Jayasimha and put two forces simultaneously in the field, one marching into the Raichur doab and the other into Vengi for the relief of Rājarāja. In the west Jayasimha was defeated in a battle at Maski, but this led to no further aggression on the part of Rājendra, the Tungabhadra being recognized tacitly as the boundary between the two kingdoms. In Vengi the Chola forces defeated Vijayāditya in several battles, took possession of the country on behalf of Rājarāja and proceeded farther north into Kalinga, probably because the Eastern Ganga ruler of that country, Madhukāmārnava (1019-38), had sided with Jayasimha. After punishing him the army went still farther north for a grand military display in the form of an expedition to the valley of the Ganges. But with the departure of the Chola army to the north, trouble broke out in the rear and threatened its communications. To meet the situation Rājendra I marched towards the north and encamped on the banks of the Godāvari. He tried to secure the line of return for his army which had advanced to the Ganges, and celebrated the coronation of his nephew Rājarāja with due pomp on 16 August 1022. The victorious army from the north joined him soon after, and he returned to the new capital that was rising in the wilds of the Tiruchirāpalli district—Gangaikondaśōlapuram.