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The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v2.c13.s2: II. The Telugu Chōḍa Interregnum and the Post-Restoration Period

The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v2.c13.s2

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II. The Telugu Chōḍa Interregnum and the Post-Restoration Period

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THE death of Dānārṇava marks an important stage in the history of the Eastern Chāḷukyas. Their rule was definitely overthrown for the first time since the establishment of their family in Vengi by Kubja Viṣṇuvardhana in the first half of the seventh century A.D. There had no doubt been civil wars in the past, and the country had even been occupied by foreign invaders on several occasions; but a Chāḷukya had always remained upon the throne and ruled the country either independently or in subordination to some foreign power. After the death of Dānārṇava, however, his sons were driven into exile and the empire of the Chāḷukyas came to an end. A member of the alien Telugu Chōḍa family from the land beyond their frontier seized their throne and established himself firmly in their ancestral kingdom.

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Jaṭā Chōḍa Bhīma ruled Vengi for twenty-seven years from A.D. 973 to 1000, a period which is usually described in the later Eastern Chāḷukya inscriptions as an interregnum. Bhīma compares himself, in the only record of his reign which has yet come to light,¹ with Guṇaga Vijayāditya, from whom he proudly traces his descent. The comparison is not entirely without significance. None among the kings of Vengi excepting Guṇaga either fought with so many enemies or bore sway over such an extensive territory as did Bhīma. He defeated the kings of Aṅga, Kaliṅga, Vaidumba, and Drāviḍa and in the heyday of his glory exercised authority over the entire coastal region from Mahendragiri to Conjeevaram and from the Bay of Bengal to the frontiers of Karnatak.

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¹ EI, xxi, 32.

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Bhīma also invaded Toṇḍaimaṇḍalam in the south in A.D. 1001. Though the reasons for this incursion are not definitely recorded, yet a study of the contemporary Chōḷa and Eastern Chāḷukya inscriptions makes it quite clear that it was provoked by the aggressive attitude of the Chōḷa king, Rājarāja I, who in pursuance of imperialistic ambitions espoused the cause of the sons of Dānārṇava, and having given his daughter Kundavai in marriage to Vimalāditya, the younger of the two princes, invaded Vengi in A.D. 999-1000 with the object of restoring the elder brother Śaktivarman I to his ancestral throne. Although the inscriptions dated in Rājarāja’s 14th regnal year (A.D. 999-1000) state clearly that he conquered Vengi, he was apparently in reality not completely successful. Jaṭā Chōḍa Bhīma was a formidable enemy supported by powerful allies. He was not so easily overthrown as the Chōla inscriptions would have us believe. The epigraphs of the reign of Śaktivarman I,¹ which curiously enough are completely silent about the help given by the Chōlas, and attribute the entire credit of victory to his unrivalled valour, envisage, as a matter of fact, two or even three campaigns against Bhīma. (1) When Śaktivarman I, accompanied, of course, by his Chōla ally, advanced on Vengi, he was at first opposed by a famous warrior called Ekavīra who was sent to arrest the progress of his invasion by Bhīma; but Ekavīra, able and experienced as he was, proved unequal to the situation. He himself was killed in battle and his followers were dispersed. (2) Śaktivarman was next attacked by Mahārāja and Baddema, probably Telugu Chōḍa princes ruling in the south-western Telugu country; but they also suffered defeat and were obliged to seek safety in flight. These reverses appear to have brought home to Bhīma the seriousness of the danger threatening him. He was obliged to leave Vengi and to retire into the hills and jungles of Kalinga. Śaktivarman I occupied the country and proclaimed himself king. The Chōla army having effected their purpose returned to their native country, believing that he was now securely established on his ancestral throne. However, they were soon undeceived. Bhīma did not lose courage. He gathered fresh forces and proceeded at their head towards Vengi. It is not known whether Śaktivarman I adopted any measures to oppose him. If he really offered any resistance, it cannot have been effective, for Bhīma passed through Vengi triumphantly, and succeeded, as already stated, in penetrating into the heart of Toṇḍaimandalam. He laid siege to Kāñchī, the second city in the Chōla kingdom, and captured it in A.D. 1001-2. But he was not permitted to remain there long. Rājarāja I soon expelled him from his dominions, and devised means for his final defeat. Rājarāja invaded the coastal Telugu country once again in A.D. 1002-3, advanced as far north as Kalinga, and having slain Bhīma in battle established Śaktivarman I firmly in Vengi.

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¹ Madras Govt. Or. MSS. Library, 15-2-26, pp. 348 ff.; *Journal of the Telugu Academy*, ii, 349-411; CP, 13 of 1917-18.

Śaktivarman I

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The accession of Śaktivarman I opens a new epoch in the history of Vengi. Though he succeeded in regaining his ancestral kingdom he had had to pay a heavy price to attain his object. The alliance with the Chōla monarch through whose help he managed to overthrow his enemies involved the sacrifice of national independence. He had to submit to Chōla authority, and acknowledge the Chōla as his overlord and sovereign. Vengi ceased to be an independent kingdom and became a protectorate of the Chōla empire. The formation of the Chōla-Chālukya alliance and the establishment of Chōla ascendancy over the entire coastal Telugu country upset the political equilibrium of the Southern Deccan and plunged the land into interminable dynastic wars. The Chāḷukyas of Kalyāṇī who succeeded to the power of the Rāṣṭrakūṭas in the Deccan challenged the Chōḷa supremacy over the Telugu country of the maritime plain, and Vengi became the theatre of a long war which lasted, with a few brief intervals, for the next 135 years; the history of Vengi during this period is a history of this war; the Eastern Chāḷukyas, the rulers of the country, recede into the background, leaving the Chōḷas and the Kalyāṇī Chāḷukyas to dispute the field.

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The rule of Śaktivarman I lasted, according to the later Eastern Chāḷukya charters, for a period of twelve years; but very little is known about the internal affairs of Vengi during his reign. His inscriptions, no doubt, furnish ample information about his struggle with Jaṭā Chōḍa Bhima and his allies; but regarding the events which happened after his accession they have no evidence to offer. Śaktivarman’s reign was not, however, without disturbances. The first of the series of Karnatak invasions which was to devastate Vengi during the next century and a quarter occurred during the early years of his rule. Sattiga or Satyāśraya, the son of Tailapa II, sent an army to invade the Eastern Chāḷukya kingdom in A.D. 1006, probably with the object of overthrowing the Chōḷa-Chāḷukya alliance and bringing the east coast under his control. Bayal Nambi, one of his generals, marching at the head of an army, entered Vengi from the south, reduced the forts of Dharaṇikōṭa and Yanamadala to ashes, and established himself at Chebrolu in the Guntur District. How Śaktivarman I faced the invasion it is not possible to ascertain, as we have no information on the subject from any sources. But his ally the Chola emperor, Rājarāja I, appears to have bestirred himself and made plans for the protection of Vengi. The invasion of Karnatak by Rājēndra Chōḷa I in A.D. 1007 was probably undertaken to divert the attention of Satyāśraya, and compel him to withdraw his army from Vengi for the defence of his realm. However this may be, we know that the Western Chāḷukya army retired from the east coast and that Śaktivarman was left in possession of his kingdom. During the last years of his reign he seems to have devoted his attention to the internal administration of his realm. He expelled people who were not favourably disposed towards him from their estates and bestowed these on his followers as a reward for their loyal service. Very little is known of his family life; it is not even known whether he was married. He died without issue in A.D. 1011, and was succeeded by his younger brother Vimalāditya.

Vimalāditya

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Vimalāditya ascended the throne in A.D. 1011 and ruled until 1018 for a period of seven years. He was a colourless king, quite satisfied with the conditions of life as he found them. The only facts really known about him are his apparent conversion, either temporary or permanent, to Jainism, and his marriage with two princesses of the Chōḷa family. His first wife was Kundavai, the daughter of the great Chōḷa emperor Rājarāja I, by whom he had a son named after his maternal grandfather Rājarāja; Rājarāja was appointed crown prince and succeeded his father on the throne of Vengi. Melama, the second wife of Vimalāditya, was probably a daughter of Jaṭā Choḍa Bhīma, and by her he had also a son called Vijayāditya. Though he is styled like his predecessors a *parama-brahmanya* and *parama-māheśvara* in the Raṇasthipūṇḍi grant, Vimalāditya appears at one time to have favoured Jainism. An undated epigraph at Rāmatirtham in the Vizagapatam District refers to a Jaina monk named Trikālayogi Siddhāntadeva as his *guru*,¹ and it is not unlikely that Vimalāditya received religious instruction from him, possibly after first relinquishing the throne.

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¹ 831 of 1917, *SII*, ix (i), 403.

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At the close of the reign of Vimalāditya in A.D. 1018, the succession to the throne was in dispute. Vijayāditya, his son by Melama, seized power with the help of Jayasiṃha II Jagadekamalla, king of Kalyāṇi, and kept his brother Rājarāja out of the kingdom.² Rājarāja appealed to his maternal uncle and overlord the Choḷa emperor, Rājendra Choḷa, for help, and the latter promptly dispatched forces to his aid. To divert the attention of Jayasiṃha II, and prevent him from sending effective help to Vijayāditya, he sent against Raṭṭapāḍi a powerful army which devastated the country and compelled him to take steps for the defence of his kingdom. At the same time Rājendra ordered his general Śōliyavaraśan to march at the head of another army into Vengi and restore to his nephew his ancestral kingdom. Śōliyavaraśan advanced, accordingly, with his forces into Vengi, defeated Vijayāditya and his allies in several battles, took possession of the country on behalf of Rājarāja, and proceeded afterwards at the command of his master on a grand military expedition to the Gangetic valley. On the departure of the Choḷa army from their country, the Utkalas whom Śōliyavaraśan had subdued rose again, probably incited by Jayasiṃha II, and threatened the line of communications. To put down the Utkalas and protect the rear of his army campaigning in the Gangetic valley, Rājendra Choḷa I marched with his troops towards the north and arrived on the banks of the Godavarī where he established himself in a fortified camp. He sent troops to chastise the Utkalas and meanwhile awaited the arrival of his general from the Gangetic valley. During his sojourn on the banks of the Godavarī he enthroned his nephew Rājarāja as the ruler of Vengi, celebrated the latter's coronation on 16 August A.D. 1022, and returned home with the victorious army from the north which had joined him soon afterwards.³

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² See the chapter on Western Chālukyas of Kalyāṇi for detailed treatment of events more summarily described here, pp. 327 ff.

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³ *Cōḷas* (second edn.), 204-11.

Rājarāja Narendra

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The reign of Rājarāja, which had thus begun inauspiciously with a civil war, was throughout a period of continuous political unrest. During his long rule of forty-one years he was constantly beset with difficulties and had more than once to flee the country, unable to withstand the opposition of his enemies. His half-brother Vijayāditya, though vanquished in fight, never gave up his designs upon the throne, and was unceasing in his efforts to bring about the downfall of his rival. The first few years of Rājarāja’s reign after his coronation appear to have been peaceful; but he became involved once again about A.D. 1030 in a struggle with Vijayāditya who drove him out of the kingdom and crowned himself king on 27 June A.D. 1031, assuming the official name of Viṣṇuvardhana Vijayāditya.¹ The circumstances under which Vijayāditya managed to oust his brother and seize the throne are shrouded in mystery. He had probably received help from the Western Chālukya court, where he later found asylum. How long after his coronation Vijayāditya managed to keep himself in power, it is not possible to discover; but an inscription at Bhīmavaram in the Cocanada tāluk of the East Godavari district which is dated in Rājarāja’s 16th regnal year (A.D. 1035) shows clearly that some time before that year he returned from exile and recovered his kingdom.²

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¹ JAHRS, ii, 287, l. 63.

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² 482 K of 1893, SII, v, no. 82.

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But Rājarāja was not allowed to remain long in undisturbed possession of his realm. In the last years of the reign of Rājēndra Chōḷa, about the year A.D. 1042, the Western Chālukyas invaded Vengi. The circumstances under which this invasion took place are not quite clear, but we may suppose that the new ruler of Kalyāṇī, Somēśvara I, had begun to pursue an aggressive policy. The news of this Western Chālukya invasion quickly reached the Chōḷa capital Gaṅgāpurī. Rājarāja very probably went in person to his uncle’s court to seek help. Rājēndra was then too old to take the field himself, and his sons were in the extreme south of his dominions with the greater part of the army. Nevertheless, he gathered together such forces as were available and dispatched them to Vengi under his Brāhman general Rājarāja Brahmamahārāja, accompanied by two other commanders, Uttama Chōḍa Milāḍuḍaiyān and Uttama Chōḍa Chōḍakōn. The Chōḷa army soon reached Vengi and immediately engaged the enemy. A sanguinary battle took place at Kaliḍinḍi in the neighbourhood of the city of Vengi in which the commanding officers on both sides perished.³ The issue of the battle was indecisive.

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³ CP, no. 5 of 1937-8; ARE, 1937-8, pt. ii, para. 14; Bhārati, xx, 439.

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There was perhaps a lull in the warfare after the battle of Kaliḍinḍi, and during this time Rājēndra Chōḷa died, being succeeded by Rājādhirāja I. Rājādhirāja I, who was eager to restore the Chōḷa power over Vengi to its former absolute state, led an expedition into the coastal Telugu country as soon as he was firmly established as supreme ruler of the Chōḷa empire. Inscriptions dated in his 27th regnal year (A.D. 1045) refer for the first time to the earliest of his wars with Āhavamalla Sōmēśvara I. It is there stated that Rājādhirāja advanced at the head of his army, slew the Western Chālukya commanders, Gandappayyayan and Gangādharan, in a battle fought at Dhannāḍa (Dhānyakaṭaka) on the Kṛṣṇa, and compelled Vikki (Vikramāditya) and Vijayāditya (the rival and half-brother of Rājarāja) to retreat in disorder. He then penetrated into the Western Chāḷukya dominions and set fire to the important fort of Koḷippākai (Kulpak in the Hyderabad State) which stood on the frontier between the territories of Kalyāṇi and Vengi.

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This victorious expedition of Rājādhirāja must have cleared the Western Chāḷukya armies from Vengi and enabled Rājarāja to reaffirm his power over the entire kingdom. The relief, however, was only temporary, for the Western Chāḷukyas soon reappeared on the scene and compelled him to submit to their authority. Several Western Chāḷukya records of the time refer to Āhavamalla Sōmēśvara’s rule over Vengi. In an inscription dated A.D. 1047 he is said to have subdued the kings of Vengi and Kalinga; his eldest son Bhuvanaikamalla Sōmēśvara II is spoken of as Vengīpuravarēśvara in a new series of records ranging in date from A.D. 1049 to 1054,¹ and Kuppama, the daughter of Nārāyaṇabhaṭṭa, one of his pradhānis resident in the Eastern Chāḷukya court, makes a gift in A.D. 1055-6 to the temple of Śiva at Drākshārāma in the East Godavari District.² This record is corroborated by the evidence of the Kanyākumārī and Chārla inscriptions of Vīrarājēndra in which it is explicitly stated that ‘the countries of Vengi and Kalinga which had been in the possession of his family, being abandoned by his two elder brothers, were in the occupation of the enemy.’³ It is evident that Vengi and Kalinga were lost by the Chōḷas during the reign of Rājādhirāja I, and that they passed into the hands of the Chāḷukyas who held them almost up to the closing years of Vīrarājēndra’s reign. Nevertheless Rājarāja was not driven from his kingdom, but continued to rule, excepting perhaps for a short interval of two or three years, until the end of his reign in A.D. 1061.⁴ He probably left his kingdom for a little while immediately after the Western Chāḷukya conquest and repaired to the Chōḷa court in search of help;⁵ but being unsuccessful in his mission, he appears to have gone back to Vengi and made peace with the Western Chāḷukyas. It is difficult to understand why Rājādhirāja suddenly lost interest in the affairs of Vengi and thus allowed that country to fall an easy prey to the hereditary enemy of his family. He was no doubt engaged in intermittent warfare with the Western Chāḷukyas during the remaining years of his reign, but it is yet strange that he never seems to have made any attempt to re-establish his authority in the Telugu country.

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¹ BK, xi, pt. i, no. 84; EI, xvi, no. 9 A, pp. 55-7; BK, xi, pt. i, no. 90.

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² SII, iv, no. 1010.

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³ EI, xxv, 262.

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⁴ 183 of 1893; EI, iv, 300; 663 of 1920, 468 of 1893, 671 of 1920.

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⁵ An epigraph in the Siva shrine at Tiruvaiyāru in the Tanjore Dt. (221 of 1894; SII, v, 520) refers to two gifts of money by him to the temple in the 31st (A.D. 1049), and 32nd (A.D. 1050) regnal years of Rājādhirāja I. Such gifts to distant temples are usually made on the occasion of the visit of the donors.

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Rājarāja reconciled himself to the new situation, and accepted the Western Chālukyas instead of the Chōḷas as his overlords. He appears to have maintained friendly relations with the court of Kalyāṇi. Nārāyaṇabhaṭṭa, one of the Pradhānis of Āhavamalla Someśvara I, was a permanent resident in his capital. He was a distinguished scholar and he assisted Rājarāja’s court poet and *purohit* Nannaya Bhaṭṭa in the composition of his Telugu *Mahābhārata*, for which the king rewarded him by the grant of the village of Nandampūṇḍi as *agrahāra* in A.D. 1051.¹

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¹ 183 of 1893; *SII*, iv, no. 1010.

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The reign of Rājarāja came to an end with his death in A.D. 1061. Vijayāditya thereupon seized the throne and established himself permanently in the kingdom.² Vijayāditya, it may be noted, was a feudatory vassal of Āhavamalla Sōmēśvara I, whom he had served loyally for several years since the time of his accession. He would obviously not have made any attempt to seize Vengi without the consent of his suzerain, and the death of Rājarāja offered thus another opportunity to the Kalyāṇi court of strengthening its hold on Vengi.

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² *CP*, 8 of 1924-5; *JAHRS*, ix, pt. i, pp. 24 ff.

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During his long reign of forty-one years Rājarāja rarely enjoyed peace. The sinister designs of his half-brother coupled with the conflicting ambitions of the rival imperial powers converted his fertile kingdom into a cockpit. Rājarāja was indeed the helpless victim of a capricious fate. He lost and regained his kingdom only to lose it finally; he became the dependent by turns of the Chōḷas and the Chālukyas of Kalyāṇi; and he perhaps ended his long and chequered career in exile and relative obscurity. Though subjected to the buffets of misfortune, he seems to have borne his lot with patient resignation, and to have submitted to the inevitable when it proved no longer possible for him to hold his own. Rājarāja was an enlightened and tolerant monarch. Though himself ardently devoted to the worship of Śiva, he yet extended his patronage to the followers of all sects. He was fond of learning, and encouraged poets and scholars with munificent gifts. At his instance his chief court poet Nannaya Bhaṭṭa began to compose the *Andhra Mahābhārata* based on Vyāsa’s great epic, which he, however, left incomplete owing perhaps to the sudden termination of his master’s reign and the consequent loss of his patronage.

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Rājarāja married his cousin Ammangai, the daughter of his maternal uncle Rājēndra Chōḷa I, and had by her a son, Rājēndra, named after the great Chōḷa emperor.

Saktivarman II

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Though Vijayāditya seized the throne, he did not immediately begin to rule the kingdom. He placed on the throne his only son Śaktivarman II whom he loved devotedly, and himself retired into the background. But his paternal affection for Śaktivarman was perhaps not the only reason for this procedure. The services of Vijayāditya were required elsewhere. The Chōḷas were persistently attacking Noḷambavāḍi, which guarded the frontiers of Raṭṭapāḍi, the homeland of the Western Chāḷukyas, and it was necessary that its defence should be entrusted to capable hands. Vijayāditya was a veteran warrior and an experienced general, and Āhavamalla had appointed him as the governor of Noḷambavāḍi and charged him with the task of organizing the defence of the District.

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Śaktivarman II ruled only for a short time. His reign, according to the Ryāli copper plates, lasted for but one year, at the end of which he is said to have gone to heaven like Abhimanyu, the heroic son of Arjuna, who lost his life while fighting against heavy odds in the Mahābhārata war.¹ The comparison of Śaktivarman’s death with that of Abhimanyu seems to suggest that he was killed in battle. He probably lost his life in the Chōḷa invasion which swept over Vengi at this time. Inscriptions dated in the 2nd year of Virarājēndra (A.D. 1063) refer to a defeat which he inflicted on a Western Chāḷukya army sent to Vengi by Vikramāditya.² This points clearly to a Chōḷa attack upon Vengi some time earlier, probably at the end of A.D. 1062. As this was actually the time when Śaktivarman II appears to have died in battle, it is not unlikely that he lost his life in fighting the Chōḷas on this occasion. Though Virarājēndra claims to have defeated the army of Vikramāditya, killed his general Chāmuṇḍarāyan, and cut off the nose of his daughter, the beautiful Nāgalai, he yet failed to gain a foothold in Vengi and was compelled to withdraw from the country. Sōmēśvara I thereupon retaliated by sending an expedition under Vijayāditya into the Chōḷa dominions,³ and advanced at the head of a large army towards Kūḍal-Saṅgam, at the confluence of the Tuṅgā and Bhadrā in the Mysore country. This movement of the Western Chāḷukya armies compelled Virarājēndra to abandon his campaign in Vengi and fall back on his own territories.

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¹ CP, 8 of 1924-5; JAHRS, ix, pt. i, p. 24.

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² Cōḷas, i, 318-19.

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³ EC, vii, Ci. 18.

Vijayāditya VII

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Vijayāditya, or to give him his full name, Viṣṇuvardhana Vijayāditya, was absent from Vengi at the time of his son’s death. Like his Purāṇic ancestor Arjuna, with whom he compares himself, he was engaged with the enemy elsewhere. Despite his bereavement, he was persuaded by his friends and well-wishers to undertake the task of governing the kingdom.

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The political career of Vijayāditya VII began with the death of his father in A.D. 1018. His early attempts to seize the throne and oust his half-brother Rājarāja from the kingdom have been dealt with above. Unable to maintain his authority after his coronation in A.D. 1031, he left his native country and retired to the Western Chāḷukya court at Kalyāṇi, where he distinguished himself in the service of Sōmēśvara I who accepted him as his aṅkakāra or champion warrior, and conferred on him the rank of a *kumāra* or prince.¹ He was appointed governor of Noḷambavāḍi in A.D. 1063 and was charged with the defence of the province against the Chōḷa invasions. At the time of the death of his son, Vijayāditya was conducting a campaign in the Chōḷa dominions, from which he returned victorious soon afterwards according to an epigraph found at Mudukakere in Mysore State.² The Chōḷas did not, however, abandon their imperialistic designs. It was expected that Virarājendra, who had succeeded his elder brother Rājendra II on the throne of Gaṅgāpuri, and who was eager to restore the prestige of his family, would shortly make a fresh attempt to subjugate Vengi. Sōmēśvara I therefore took the necessary precautions to safeguard his possessions. He stationed a strong army under Jananātha of Dhārā, probably a Paramāra prince in his service, in the neighbourhood of Bezwada, and sent Vijayāditya in A.D. 1064 to the south with an army³ to forestall the designs of the enemy by carrying war into his own territory.⁴

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¹ There is now no doubt about the identity of Vijayāditya of the Western Chāḷukya records with the half-brother of Rājarāja; he is called *maga* (son) of Sōmēśvara I in some Western Chāḷukya records as several feudatories are, but this is not enough to warrant the postulation of another son of Sōmēśvara, otherwise unknown.

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² EC, vii, Ci, 18.

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³ SII, ix (i), 127.

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⁴ The campaigns that followed have been described in the section on the Chāḷukyas of Kalyāṇi.

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While Virarājendra was engaged in the north, Sōmēśvara I died of the illness which had prevented him meeting the Chōḷa enemy on the appointed day, and Vikramāditya began to pursue his plans for securing the throne for himself. Accordingly he first got Vijayāditya to make his submission to Virarājendra and make his peace with him, and soon after followed the same course himself. Thus Vijayāditya became the ruler of Vengi as a feudatory of the Chōḷa monarch.

Rājendra and Vijayāditya VII

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On the death of Virarājendra early in A.D. 1070, and the assassination of his son and successor Adhirājendra a few months later, Rājendra, who was descended through his mother from Rājendra Chōḷa I, left Vengi and went to the south where he established himself on the Chōḷa throne; what happened in Vengi and the northern part of the Chōḷa empire during this period is not quite clear. The following facts, however, may be noted at this point: (1) A study of Vijayāditya’s inscriptions reveals the existence of a break in his rule over Vengi between A.D. 1068 and 1072. His inscriptions run in a series from A.D. 1063 to 1068; then there is a break; and no record of his reign is found again until A.D. 1072.

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(2) In some of the Eastern Ganga inscriptions of the time of Anantavarman Chōḍa Gaṅgadeva, it is said that Rājarāja-Dēvendravarman ‘first became the husband of the Goddess of Victory in a battle with the Dramilas and then wedded Rājasundarī, the daughter of the Chōḷa king, and when Vijayāditya, beginning to grow old, left (the country of) Vengi, as if he were a sun leaving the sky, and was about to sink in the great ocean of the Chōḷas, he, Rājarāja, the refuge of the distressed, caused him to enjoy prosperity for a long time in the Western horizon.¹ The name of the Chōḷa king whose daughter, Rājasundarī, Rājarāja thus married was, according to another record, Rājendra Chōḷa.² (3) Some of the copper-plate charters of Kulōttunga I, a name which Rājendra assumed after he ascended the Chōḷa throne, state that he first became king of Vengi after his father had ruled for a period of forty-one years, and that being desirous of the Chōḷa kingdom, he bestowed his ancestral kingdom on his paternal uncle Vijayāditya and departed to the south.³ It may be deduced from a comparison of these records that after Virarājendra had bestowed Vengi on Vijayāditya, his nephew Rājendra made an attempt to capture the country for himself, and that Vijayāditya thereupon fled from Vengi and took refuge in the Eastern Ganga court, where he appears to have remained during Rājendra’s rule.

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As soon, however, as the usurper left Vengi with the bulk of his army for the Chōḷa country, Rājarāja Dēvēndravarman, the King of Kalinga, invaded that province with the object of restoring Vijayāditya VII to the throne and attacked the small army which Rājendra had left there for the defence of the country. The reason for Rājarāja’s solicitude for the restoration of Vijayāditya is not far to seek. It was not so much due to his sympathy with the distressed monarch as to his desire to further his own interests under the pretext of offering him help. Rājarāja was a Chōḷa feudatory who was anxious to shake off his allegiance and assert his independence. He studied the political situation carefully, and finding that the time was suitable for the prosecution of his designs, he sent an army to invade Vengi. Rājendra (Kulōttunga I) was then fully engaged in counteracting Vikramāditya’s designs against him, and was in no position to send any strong force to Vengi. Banapati, the Brāhman general of Kalinga, marched to the west, and engaged the Chōḷa forces which had been left by Rājendra for the defence of the country. The Chōḷa army, owing probably to its reduced strength, suffered a defeat. The disaster was not perhaps serious, but Rajendra was unable to spare reinforcements.

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He must have realized that in the circumstances in which he was placed it was not wise to entangle himself in a war with Kalinga, and that peace, though it involved some sacrifice of prestige, had at the moment its advantages. The recognition to some extent at least of the rights of an inconvenient enemy like Rājarāja Dēvēndravarman would convert him into a valuable ally, and the restoration of his old uncle, who was not likely to live long and had no surviving male issue to succeed him, would not involve any permanent loss. Rājendra therefore concluded a treaty of peace with Rājarāja Dēvēndravarman according to the terms of which he agreed to allow Vijayāditya to rule Vengi during the remaining years of his life; he also recognized Rājarāja as an independent ally, and cemented the alliance by bestowing on him the hand of his own daughter Rājasundari in marriage.

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¹ *IA*, xviii, 171.

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² Ibid., p. 164.

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³ *EI*, vi, 344; *SII*, i, 60; *IA*, xix, 427; *EI*, v, 77.

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The rule of Vijayāditya after his reinstatement did not last long. Inscriptions dated in his 12th (A.D. 1072) and 13th (A.D. 1073) regnal years show that he was ruling the kingdom at that time.¹ The total absence of any record of his reign in Vengi in the succeeding years seems to indicate that he perhaps lost his throne once again. Two important facts deserve notice in this connexion. For some reason unknown at present, Yaśaḥkarṇadēva, the Chedi king of Ḍāhala, invaded Vengi about A.D. 1073. He claims to have destroyed ‘with ease the ruler of the Andhra country (even though) the play of (that king’s) arms disclosed no flaw’, and to have honoured with munificent gifts the holy Bhīmēśvara of Drākshārāma.² Similarly Banapati, the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Ganga king, Rājarāja Dēvēndravarman, declares in an epigraph found at Dirghasi and dated A.D. 1075 that he defeated the King of Vengi again and again and became possessed of all his wealth.³ It is not known whether the invasions of Vengi referred to in these records were interconnected or independent events; nor is it possible to find out why Rājarāja Dēvēndravarman, who had himself re-established Vijayāditya on the throne of Vengi three years earlier, had thus to take up arms against him. It is, however, certain that as a consequence of these invasions Vijayāditya lost his kingdom and had to spend the remaining years of his life in exile. He figures in a Western Chālukya record dated A.D. 1074-5 as a vassal of Bhuvanikamalla Sōmēśvara II.⁴ The well-known Noḷamba titles such as Pallavānvayam Kāñchīpuravarēśvaram and Pallava-permāṇaḍi with which his name is associated in the record indicate that he was then governing the province of Noḷambavāḍi, and had adopted, following the Western Chālukya practice, the titles of the Noḷamba-Pallavas whose hereditary dominions had been placed under his rule. It is clear that Vijayāditya after his defeat retired to the Western Chālukya court, where he was cordially received and treated with respect and consideration. He did not, however, long survive the loss of his kingdom. As he is said in the Ṭēki, Chellūr, and Piṭhāpuram grants to have ruled only for a period of fifteen years,⁵ he must have died in A.D. 1075. With the death of Vijayāditya, the Eastern Chālukya dynasty came to an end. Though Vengi had lost her independence under the descendants of Dānārṇava, she enjoyed a certain amount of autonomy, and was treated throughout as a separate kingdom; but after Vijayāditya’s death she lost her distinctive character and became completely absorbed in the Chōḷa empire. The descendants of Rājarāja did in fact still control her destinies for another half a century; but they no longer lived in the country. They abandoned their native home, relinquished their family name and traditions, and gloried in the name and prestige of the Chōḷas which they adopted as their own on succeeding to the throne of the Chōḷa empire.

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¹ CP, 8 and 9 of 1924-5; JAHRS, ix, 177-80.

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² EI, xii, 216.

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³ EI, iv, 316.

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⁴ EI, xvi, 68-73.

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⁵ EI, vi, no. 35; SII, i, 39; IA, xix, 427; EI, v, no. 10.

Vijayāditya's Family

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Vijayāditya married two wives. His chief queen, the mother of his only son Śaktivarman II, was Mādava, a princess of the Haihaya family.¹ Another queen, Revala by name, is mentioned in a Drākshārāma epigraph dated in A.D. 1065, and she bore him a daughter called Somala who made a gift to the temple of the God Bhīmeśvara in that year.² Beside his two children, Vijayāditya brought up a foster-son called Mummaḍi Bhīma, a prince of the solar race, whom he treated ‘almost like his own son’.³ Bhīma rose to prominence under Rājarāja II, the first Chōḷa viceroy of Vengi under Kulōttunga I, and rendered him valuable assistance in his wars against the Ganga, Kalinga, and Kuntala kings.⁴

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¹ *JAHRS*, v, 47.

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² 182 of 1893; *SII*, iv, 1007.

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³ *ARE*, 1922, pt. ii, para. 6.

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⁴ Ibid.

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