The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c35.s3.39

c35.s3.39

During the earlier years of his reign Rājendra-Choladeva had occupied himself with a succession of wars against the northern powers. About A. D. 1023 he came into collision even with Mahīpāla, king of Bihār and Bengal, and brought his army to the banks of the Ganges. In memory of this exploit he assumed the title of Gangaikonda,² and built a new capital city, which he called Gangaikonda-Cholapuram. Near the city he constructed a vast artificial lake, with an embankment 16 miles long, fully provided with the necessary sluices and channels for the irrigation of a large area. The city was adorned by a magnificent palace and a gigantic temple, enshrining a *lingam* formed of a black granite monolith 30 feet high. The ruins of these structures, sadly defaced by the ravages of modern utilitarians in search of building material, still stand in lonely grandeur in a desolate region of the Trichinopoly District. The sculptures in the temples are of singular excellence.³ The Pāndya dominions continued to be subject to the Chola domination during the reign of Rājendra Gangaikonda, and were administered by his son as Viceroy, with the title of Chola-Pāndya.⁴