A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c6.12

c6.12

His great Chālukya opponent was Vikramāditya VI. Their rivalry filled the annals of South India for about half a century and made for the weakening of their respective empires under their less competent successors. The Hoysalas of Dvā(ō)rasamudra, the Yādavas of Devagiri and the Kākatīyas of Wārangal, all feudatory powers nurtured on the breast of the Chālukyan empire of Kalyāṇi, come up in the latter half of the twelfth century and partition among themselves the territories of the parent empire. Ruling territory contiguous to the Chola empire, the Hoysalas not only aggrandize themselves partly at its expense, but intercede with effect in the politics of the far South; they protect the Chola monarchs from the aggressions of their overgrown vassals. At the beginning of the thirteenth century the Pāndya line begins to throw up a succession of able and powerful monarchs, and the northern half of the Chola empire is dominated by the ambition and turbulence of Kōp-perunjinga, a chieftain who claimed descent from the Pallavas. The help of the Hoysalas secures a brief respite for the Chola kingdom, but the inevitable end soon overtakes it and by the middle of the century the whole of the Tamil country and the east coast right up to Nellore passes under the Pāndyas. Hoysala efforts to check the growth of Pāndyan power were not attended by any conspicuous success, nor did the Telugu-Chodas fare better in the enterprise.