A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c14.69

c14.69

In this age as in the last the form of government was hereditary monarchy. But there was little in common between the simple, personal rule of the earlier time and the Byzantine royalty of this age with its numerous palaces, officials, and ceremonials, and its majestic display of the concentrated resources of extensive empires. The coronation was an important and impressive ceremony and the occasion of great liberality. The Chālukyas held the ceremony usually at Pattadakal (literally ‘the coronation-stone’), the Cholas at different places—Tanjore, Gangaikondaśōlapuram, Chidambaram and sometimes Kāñchipuram. Succession disputes were not unknown, but generally the rule of succession in the eldest male line was respected, and the choice of the yuvarāja during the lifetime of the reigning monarch diminished the chances of dispute. The murder of Chola Āditya II by his uncle Uttama Chola was an extreme and unusual assertion of political ambition, viewed with more leniency than it deserved by the ruling king Parāntaka II and his son Rājarāja I. Vikramāditya VI, whose ability was equal to his ambition, trumped up charges of misrule against his elder brother before waging war on him and deposing him. Chola Rājarāja I initiated the system of prefacing the stone inscriptions of the reign with an account in set terms of its chief events kept up to date by additions from time to time. The relations between the emperor and the feudatories varied with time and circumstance. The administration of the Chola empire was stricter and more centralized than that of the Chālukyas, who employed a staff of highly trained diplomats (sandhivigrahis) to serve as liaison officers between the emperor and the feudatories in the various parts of the empire. Princes of the royal family were often employed as viceroys over important sections of the empire.