Studies in Cola History and Administration c7.117

c7.117

If Karikāla conquered Kāñcī, is it not strange that we should hear nothing of it in the whole range of early Tamil literature and have to wait till we come to the late epigraphs of the Tamil and Telugu countries and the vague tradition of his having settled colonists imported from outside into the Toṇḍaināḍ that is narrated by Śēkkilār and other late writers? Except for the lines in the *Śilappadikāram* which give a high-flown account of Karikāla's northern campaign up to the Himalayas and the presents secured by him from the kings of Magadha, Vajra and Avanti, there is nothing whatever in the early literary references to Karikāla to suggest that his conquests extended beyond the area indicated by the lines of the *Paṭṭiṉappālai* summarised above under II*(b)*