A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c14.51

c14.51

Vikrama Chola dates his rule from 1118 though his father Kulottunga I continued to live four years longer. The seventeen years of his reign were on the whole a period of peace. He made extensive additions to the temple at Chidambaram to which the Chola monarchs were particularly attached—at least from the days of Parāntaka I—and to the shrine of Ranganātha at Śrīrangam. The death of Chālukya Vikramāditya VI (1126) and the accession of his son, the mild Someśvara III, enabled Vikrama Chola to re-establish Chola power in Vengi. It was a gradual process which began about 1127 and reached its completion in a battle on the banks of the Godāvari about 1133 at which Someśvara was present. Fighting on the Chola side, Velanānti Choda Gonka II routed the army of the Western Chālukyas and their Eastern Ganga ally Anantavarman Choda Ganga, taking captive some prominent generals and capturing much booty in gold, horses, and camels. In Gangavādi Vikrama Chola's attempt to restore Chola power was not so successful, though he did recover parts of the Kolar district.