Kulothunga Chola I.html



Kulothunga Chola
முதலாம் குலோத்துங்க சோழன்

Chola Territories c. 1070 C.E.
Reign	1070 C.E. - 1120 C.E.
Title	Rajakesari
Capital	Gangaikonda Cholapuram
Queen	Madurantaki Thyagavalli Elisai Vallabhi Trilokya Mahadevi Kadavan Mahadevi Kampamadevi Adittan Adakuttiyar.
Children	Rajaraja Mummudi Chola Rajaraja Chodaganga Vikrama Chola four other sons Suttamalli Pillayar Amanangai Alvar
Predecessor	Athirajendra Chola
Successor	Vikrama Chola
Father	Rajaraja Narendra (Chalukya)
Born	Unknown
Died	1122 C.E.

Kulothunga Chola reigned from 1070 until 1120 C.E. over the vast Chola Empire. His accession marked the beginning of the Chalukya Chola era, a culmination of the decades of close alliances based on marriages between the Chola and the Eastern Chalukya dynasty based in Vengi.

He ascended the Chola throne at a time when the Chola Empire was under mortal danger from internal as well as external troubles. Kulothunga established himself on the Chola throne soon overcoming the threats to the Chola Empire and had a long reign characterised by unparalleled success and prosperity. He avoided unnecessary wars and earned the true admiration of his subjects. His successes resulted in the wellbeing of the empire for the next 100 years.

Cholas and the Eastern Chalukyas

Main article: Chalukya Cholas

Chalukyas of Kalyani or the Western Chalukyas were the great rivals of the Cholas during the medieval times. The spread of the Chola Empire was checked by the Western Chalukyas and the frontier between the Cholas and the Western Chalukyas never varied much beyond the river Tungabhadra.

Chola -Chalukya wars

The Chola-Chalukya conflict witnessed recurrent battles for the latter's completion of the conquest of Chalukyan homeland (the Kunthala region in the Balaghat Range). The Chalukya king Someshwara I, also known as Ahavamalla, killed the Chola king Rajadhiraja Chola in 1054 C.E. in the battle or Koppam. Rajendra Chola II crowned himself Chola emperor on the battlefield, then led the Cholas to victory against the Chalukyan army.

Kulothunga's early life

There is more than an element of doubt in the story of kulothunga's relationship with the "chalukyan family" of vengi. This is because the chola lineage itself seems to have had enough scions to succeed athirajendra. The assassination story of athirajendra itself does not stand in strong grounds, because his inscriptions have been found in ponnalaruwa in srilanka. Besides that all chola kings like rajendra, rajadhiraja and rajamahendra did have sons who were incharge of various parts of the huge empire. Certainly one of them would have succeeded athirajendra. while it is possible that kulothunga may have descended from a chola viceroy to vengi it is absolutely ruled out that he could have been a part of the telugu/kannada chalukyan people who were enemies of cholas.The throne name rajakesarivarman distinct to chola race taken by kulothunga confirms this. Several historians have propogated the falseful story of chola marital relationship with that family using fabricated grants and literature. Several grants and literature of ancient dynasties like cholas,pallavas, mauryas etc have been reported to have been spurios documents which were not original and were later extrapolations.

Controversial accession

Virarajendra Chola died in 1070 C.E. and Athirajendra Chola became the Chola king. Soon after the coronation trouble erupted in the Chola kingdom.

Military campaigns

Kulothunga spent the first few years of his reign fighting the war and rebellion that had sprung up in the various parts of the empire. Apart from the residues of the rebellion that caused Athirajendra's death, there was trouble in Lanka where the southern provinces had declared independence.

Kulothunga also had to deal with the Chalukya Vikramaditya who never reconciled Kulothunga's accessiont to the Chola throne.

Kulothunga devoted the first few years of his reign to deal with these troubles and made preparations for war.

War with Vikramaditya VI

The first enemy to be dealt with was the Western Chalukya Vikramaditya VI, who now found that Kulothunga stood in the way of his ambitions to unite his kingdom with the Vengi kingdom. With Kulothunga's accession to the Chola throne, the two kingdoms had become more closely united than evern before. Vikramaditya therefore led an expedition against Kulothunga in 1075 C.E.

The war began with Vikramaditya's incursion into the Chola territories and encountered the Chola army at Kolar. Vikramaditya was pursued by the Chola forces up to the banks of Tungabhadra and there was heavy fighting and Vikramaditya's armies were repulsed.

Kulothunga appealed to Somesvara II, the Western Chalukya king for help. There was no love lost between Somesvara and his younger brother Vikramaditya as Vikramaditya had made Somesvara part with the southern half of his kingdom. Somesvara agreed to assist Kulothunga and attacked Vikramaditya's rear.

Vikramaditya then concentrated all his efforts in saving his kingdom and attacked the forces of Somesvara and defeated them. Somesvara was imprisoned and Vikramaditya made himself the Western Chalukyan emperor. However, it appears that the combined forces of both Somesvara II and Kulothunga had made sufficient inroads and on seeing the retreat Vikramaditya VI, they declared victory. The cunning Vikramaditya VI seemed to wait for Kulothunga to go back to Chola country and at the first opportunity, he waged a separate war and defeated Somesvara II, imprisoned him and became unified northern and southern parts of the Chalukya Kingdom.

Loss of Lanka

While the wars with Vikramaditya were ongoing, Vijayabahu, the Sinhala leader proclaimed himself ruler of the entire island. In 1070 C.E. he attacked the Chola forces from his enclave in the Rohana district and defeated them. Vijayabahu then occupied the territories close to Anuradhapura. Kulothunga sent reinforcements and there was a bloody fighting near Anuradhapura and repulsed Vijayabahu.

The tirukkalukunram and tirunidur inscriptions of kulothunga say that he dispatched many expeditions to lanka. In one case some of the lankan emissaries actually sent to help of chola enemies in deccan were intercepted,captured , insulted , disfigured and sent back dressed in women's clothes.

This apart the inscriptions like the tiruvalangadu grant of Rajadhiraja II and kulothunga III testify well to chola involvement in lanka.

The ponnalaruwa inscription of vijayabahu is of much later date and does not first of all make any mention of any war or its out comes. It simply says that vijayabahu fought many chieftains before consecrating the temple of buddha's tooth relic in ponnalaruwa. It neither mentions the names of the chiefs whom he fought with nor the outcomes. However, this alone cannot be taken as an evidence for the lankan ruler not having fought cholas. But since we have the grants of tiruvalangadu which appears not to have been a forgery, we may safely conclude that the chola involvement in the region continued till very late in their rule.

Pandyan conflicts

At the close of his wars with Vikramaditya VI, Kulothunga turned his attention to the south. The Pandya country never reconciled to the Chola overlordship and its rulers were a source of constant trouble for the Chola emperors. Pandya made use of the troubles in the Chola country during the controversial accession of Kulothunga and tried to reassert their independence.

Kulothunga could not take this situation lightly as the loss of the Pandya territories meant a serious threat to the existence of the Chola kingdom itself. As soon the Chalukyan war ended, Kulothunga turned all his energy to the suppression of the revolts in the Pandya and the Kerala territories.

The record at the innermost prakaram of ancient Chidambaram temple says that “King kulothungan vanquished the extremely dense army of cheras and pandyas and also burnt down the korkai(tirunelveli) fort, the same way as son of pandu(arjuna) burnt khandava forest . “ The inscription also informs us of the war in Karnataka and kulothunga’s subsequent placing of victory pillar in sahyadri hills.

Kulothunga’s inscription at the sriranganathaswamy temple in srirangam say that “ King neriyan (kulothunga I), had been happy to appropriate from the vanquished pandyas, the magnificent pearl fisheries at tiruananthapuram(tivandrum) and also occupy militarily the potiyil hills where the great seer agastya was blessed with the knowledge of language of tamil by lord sivan.”. These records illustrate that during kulothunga’s time the cholas had crushed the rebellions of pandyans and were in complete control of south. The smaller leyden grant of kulothunga as well as his suchidram(in kanyakumari dt.) temple inscription testify to this.

Kalinga Wars

The inscriptions Kulothunga contain descriptions of two Kalinga wars. From the brief nature of the description regarding the first war, we may conclude that this perhaps occurred during Kulothunga's youth. The second and later invasion happened after the fortieth regnal year of Kulothunga and was the subject of the celebrated Kalingathupparani by the poet Jayangondar.

The first Kalinga war seems to have been brought about by Kalinga aggression against Vengi. The war resulted in the annexation of the southern part of Kalinga to the Chola kingdom.

The second invasion took place about 1110 C.E. and is described in detail in the inscriptions of Kulothunga. Kalingathupparani describes the reason for was as a response to the default of Kalinga in its payment of annual tributes to Kulothunga. It is ironic to note that the Kalinga king was Anantavarman Chodaganga, a grandson of Virarajendra Chola by his daughter Rajasundari. Dynastic connections did not stop political ambition on the part of Kulothunga.

The real cause of the war is obscure. The reason cited by the literary work of Kalingathupparani may be taken as a literary setting for an epic poem. There was no permanent political results of this invasion. There is no evidence to suggest that Chola territories included the northern Kalinga.

Overseas contacts

Kulothunga sent an embassy to China in 1077 C.E. This 'embassy' was a trading venture and seems to have ended profitably for the Cholas. The Cholas returned with over 81,000 strings of copper cash and many more valuables.

There is also evidence to suggest that Kulothunga in his youth (1063 C.E.)was in Srivijaya restoring order and maintaining Chola influence in that area. While there is little evidence of the political power of the Cholas having extended to the Malay Archipelago, trade relations and cultural contacts established during the reigns of Rajaraja Chola and Rajendra Chola I seem to had been actively maintained by Kulothunga and his successors. It seemed that even during these times, the Cholas would successfully pursue diplomacy with the far-east by having trade relations and cultural contacts. But it appears that at least two Chola commanders had their battalions stationed at Srivijaya and Kamboja.

Kulothunga also maintained friendly relations with the Khmer kingdom of Kampuchea (Kambhoja). The Khmer king sent a peculiar stone to the emperor in c. 1114 C.E.

According to Burmese accounts, Kyanzittha, the ruler of Pagan (Burma) could have met with the Chola royal family.

Vengi administration

While Kulothunga was busy in Lanka, the Vengi kingdom was raided by Yakshakanaradeva, the ruler of Tripura. However this was merely a raid in search of booty rather than an invasion for territorial gains. Vijayaditya, the Vengi king soon repulsed these intruders. Kulothunga left the administration of Vengi with Vijayaditya. After Vijayaditya died, Kulotunga took over the administration of Vengi under direct Chola rule and appointed his son Rajaraja Mummudi Chola viceroy of the province in 1076 C.E. He however did not enjoy the rigours of the viceroyalty and relinquished his position the next year. His younger brother, Vira Choda, was then chosen as Viceroy until 1084 C.E.

Vira Choda was succeeded by another son of Kulothunga Rajaraja Chodaganga ruled between 1084 and 1089 as the Vengi Vieceroy. He was then succeeded by Vikrama Chola as the Viceroy.

Extent of the Empire

The Chola kingdom was at its greatest extent under Kulothunga in his forty-fifth regnal year. Except for the loss of Lanka, the rest of the empire remained intact. The boundary between the Cholas and the Western Chalukyas was as always the Tungabhadra river. The hold over Vengi was quite firm and the southern Kalinga was under the Chola rule.

Reduction of the Empire

Chola territories at the end of Kulothunga Chila I's reign (c. 1120 C.E.

Towards the end his reign, Kulottunga lost the province of Gangavadi to the rising power of the Hoysalas. Hoysala Vishnuvardhana attacked the Chola provinces (c. 1116 C.E.)and defeated the Chola Viceroy there.

Kulothunga also lost much of his territories in Vengi. The northern half of the Vengi kingdom if not the whole of it seems to have slipped from his hands and gone to the Western Chalukyan empire under Vikramaditya VI. Encouraged by the successes of Hoysala, Vikaramaditya invaded Vengi in 1118 C.E. The aging Kulotunga summoned the Viceroy of Vengi Vikrama Chola and installed him as heir apparent to the Chola throne. Lacking any meaningful leadership in Vengi, it soon fell to Vikramaditya and remained in his hands until his death in 1126 C.E. However, overall for the Cholas the loss of Vengi was a purely temporary one for they would regain Vengi under Vikrama Chola with him routing the Chalukyas in 1124-25 and Vengi would remain in the Chola-fold till rule of Kulothunga-III (1176-1218). In fact, Kulothunga-I's able successor Vikrama Chola would also re-conquer Kalinga along with Vengi, eastern parts of Gangavadi from the Hoysalas and re-establish links with Kadaram, Kataha, Srivijaya etc. for trading purposes.

Therefore, towards the end iof Kulothunga's reign the extent of the empire became marginally reduceed than it was during his accession.

Family and personal life

Kulothunga married Madurantakai, the daughter of Rajendra Chola I long before he ascended the Chola throne. Madurantaki had seven sons, of which Vikrama Chola, the successor of Kulothunga was perhaps fourth. She seems to have died sometime before the thirtieth year of Kulothunga (1110 C.E.) Another queen Thyagavalli took the place of the chief queen. Kalingathupparani mentions her and Elisai Vallabhi (also known as Elulagudayal) . It also states that Thyagavalli enjoyed equal authority with the king.

Other queens mentioned in inscriptions are Trilokya Mahadevi, Kadavan Mahadevi, a pallava princess, Kampamadevi and Adittan Adakuttiyar.

Besides his seven sons through Madurantaki, Kulothungan also had a daughter Suttamalli who married into the royal house of Lanka, and Pillayar Amanangai Alvar.

Administration

Kulothunga's long reign was for the best part characterised by unparalleled success. However his kingdom was confined to the Tamil country at the end of his reign, which was indeed a setback, but because of capable leaders following him right up to Kulothunga-III (1176-1218), the fortunes of the Chola imperial power revived in no time with Vikrama Chola regaining Vengi, eastern Gangavadi and Kalinga and thus restoring the size of the empire to almost what it was at the time of Raja Raja I's accession. In fact, after almost a hundred years after Kulothunga I, Kulothunga-III would record victories over Kalinga, crush the Chera kings and Pandiyans of Madurai and re-establish the Cholas as a force to reckon with even in times of dwindling fortunes. In comparison by 1180 AD their rivals the Western Chalukyas were to receive inept rulers after Vikramaditya VI with the result that they rapidly hurtled towards extinction between 1130-1170 AD and finally not remaining in existence by 1189 AD due to the rise of the Kakatiyas, Kalucharis, Kadambas and their one-time feudatories the Hoysalas.

Religious attitude

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Kulothunga-I's regin was, however, witness due to rumours of his religious fanaticism and his persecution of the Vaishnavites. The Vaishnavite saint, Ramanuja, was forced to flee Thanjavur after the Chola authorities murdered a few of his followers. However, while certainly Ramanuja visited Hoysala country and stayed there for around 12 years, there is no evidence that it was due to any persecution by Kulothunga I. It may well be possible that Ramanuja who clearly was a subversive agent involved in spreading duplicitous faiths and creating confusion,was a contemporary of kulothunga III, from the insriptions of whom we learn that the last days of the emperor were consumed in civil war.

Kulothunga's relations with the northern kingdoms of Gahadaval resulted in his increased emphasis on Sun worship. Kulothunga built the Suryanar Koil - Temple of the sun near Pudukkottai.

References

• Nilakanta Sastri, K.A. (1935). The CōĻas, University of Madras, Madras (Reprinted 1984).
• Nilakanta Sastri, K.A. (1955). A History of South India, OUP, New Delhi (Reprinted 2002).
• South Indian Inscriptions - http://www.whatisindia.com/inscriptions/
• http://www.whatisindia.com/inscriptions/south_indian_inscriptions/volume_24/kulottunga_1.html