History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v3.c35.s1.18

v3.c35.s1.18

Of such forceful men, Rājarāja Chola was not the least. He was the successor of Āditya Chola who had already done much to raise the Chola power by freeing it from Pallava dominion. Rājarāja I by his energy and valour raised the Tamil land or South India as we may call it, to the position of a South Indian empire and the Cholas enjoyed this position for nearly a century not only in South India but over a large portion of the adjoining territory. The history of this Chola kingdom (which properly falls within the period treated of in this volume) is well told by Mr. K. V. Subrahmanya Aiyar as also by Dr. Smith in his Early History of India and we give here a short summary of it from these authors, with a few remarks of our own, especially because the records of these Chola kings, numerous as they are, are solely in Tamil and Kanarese and thus are beyond our personal study of them.