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AUGUST, 1891.J
THE EASTERN CHALUKYA CHRONOLOGY.
at first a Yuvaraja; and in the second place, that W. does not say exactly that Rajaraja I. reigned for forty-one years, but that he reigned "for forty years and again for one." The passage in W. is in verse. Still, there is no apparent reason why forty-one years should not have been specified in it in a plain and ordinary manner, if that was the real unbroken length of his reign. And the facts are somewhat suggestive of a break in the full period. For the present, however, we may as well take it that Rajaraja I. reigned for forty-one years, and KulôttungaChôdadêva I. for forty-nine years; and so, reckoning forward from the established actual date of the coronation of Rajaraja I., the accession of Kulottunga-Chodadêva I. is to be placed in A. D. 1063.
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We have as yet no inscriptions which can be with certainty allotted to this king. But W. belongs to his time; and from it we gather some facts of leading importance. We have seen that there was an intermarriage of the Eastern Chalukyas with the Cholas two generations earlier; when Vimalâditya took to wife Kûndavâmahâdêvî, the daughter of Rajaraja, and the younger sister of Râjêndra-Chôda. It is plainly from this, that his son was named Rajaraja I. The latter, again, found a Chôla wife, in Ammangadêvi, the daughter of Rajendra-Chôda; i. e. of his maternal uncle, just mentioned. And in a similar way, his son, Kulôttunga-Chôdadêva I., was first named Rajêndra-Chôda. He, again, did as his immediate ancestors had done, and married Madhurântakidôvi, the daughter of Râjêndradôva. As the result of these intermarriages, the members of this family were, from this time, plainly Cholas at heart, far more than Chalukyas. Not only is this indicated by their names; but it is proved by their personal history. Kulottunga-Chodadeva I. was first anointed, like his ancestors, to the sovereignty of Vengi, "which was the cause of the rising of his splendour;" and this, as we have just seen, is to be placed in A. D. 1083. But subsequently he assumed the Chôda crown, and had Vengî governed for him by viceroys. In W. no clear statement is made as to the circumstances under which this happened; it is simply said that "wishing for, being desirous of, or preferring, the Chola sovereignty (Ohôda-rajy-dbhilashin)," ho transferred the sovereignty of Veigi to his paternal uncle Vijayaditya. A more definite statement, however, is made in the grant of the twenty-third year of Vira-Chôdadêva, which states that he transferred the sovereignty of Vong to Vijayaditya because he himself was "desirous of subjugating various countries (dig-vijay-aishin)." Putting the two statements together, it seems clear that Kulottunga-Chodadeva I. acquired the Chola crown by hostile invasion and conquest; not, at any rate entirely, by a failure of the Chôla succession. And, as we shall seo further on, there are indications that what really gave him the opportunity, was the death of the Chôla king in a rebellion which entailed a state of anarchy. Now, W. names three viceroys of Voigt, appointed by Kulôttanga-Chôdadêva I.; one was Vira-Chodadêva, the actual date of whose installation was the 23rd August, A. D. 1078; his predecessor was Rajaraja II., for ono yoar only (A. D. 1077-78); and his predecessor was Vijayaditya VII., for fifteen years (A. D. 1063 to 1077). Therefore, as he assumed the Chôla crown at the time when he appointed Vijayaditya as viceroy of Vong, it follows that KulottungaChodadeva I. attacked and annexed the Chola kingdom in A. D. 1083, in the very first year of his reign. The statement quoted above, connecting Rajaraja of Kalinganagara with Vijayaditya VII., and another remark in the same passage to the effect that he was victorious in battle against the Dramilas, i. e. against the Chôlas properly so-called, and a further statement, in the same record, that Rajaraja's son and successor, Auantavarma-Chôdagaigadeva (A. D. 1078 to at least 1135) "replaced the waning lord of Vengî in the western region, and propped up his failing fortunes," - -seem to indicate that this annexation of the Chôla kingdom was not effected quite at once, and was not finally completed without extraneous assistance.
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To this period belongs the only epigraphical evidence known to me, indicative of either a settlement of the Eastern Chalukyas in Western India, or an intermarriage between them and the Western Chalukyas. It is contained in an inscription at Davangere in Maisûr
