Studies in Cola History and Administration c7.136

c7.136

Now the inscriptions to which we are referred bear dates in Śaka 10 (7) 9 and 1146 corresponding roughly to A. D. 1157 and 1224. In these inscriptions the history of the early Cōḷas has become a full-blown legend. Karikāla’s father Jaṭā-Cōḍa was a ruler in Ayōdhyā. One of the three grandsons of Karikāla bears the name Toṇḍamāna. This name does not include Iḷandiraiyan the distinctive part of the name of the early ruler of Toṇḍaimaṇḍalâm. The Telugu name Toṇḍamāna is a late attempt to explain the name of the country by connecting it with that of an early ruler; similar attempts regarding Pāṇḍya, Cōḷa and Cēra being three brothers who partitioned the Tamil land among themselves must serve as sufficient guides to the proper treatment to be accorded to such tales. That a statement is made in an inscription, although it be a