The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v2.c13.s2.t3.7

v2.c13.s2.t3.7

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.