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Rajaraja III (Chola)

Rajaraja III was a Chola king from 1216 to about 1246, in years when Chola power was falling apart. In the southern Telugu country the Telugu Choda chiefs of Pottapi and Nellore still dated their records by his reign, and the Cuddapah gazetteer credits the Nellore chief Tikka with saving his throne. Records of his reign survive at Nandalur and Lebaka in the Kadapa country. Meanwhile the Kakatiya Ganapati seized the northern part of his empire.

Rajaraja III was a king of the Cholas from 1216 to about 1246.12 In his reign the Chola empire began to break up.13 In the southern Telugu country the Telugu Choda chiefs of Pottapi and Nellore still served him and dated their records by his reign.45 Further north, the Kakatiya king Ganapatideva took over his lands.3

A reign of troubles

Robert Sewell and S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar (1932) called his reign “a series of disasters”.1 The Kakatiya king, from his capital at Warangal, had taken large parts of the Telugu country and was pressing south.1 South of the Krishna, a Telugu Choda chief grew stronger as Chola power weakened.1 The Pandyas and the Hoysalas threatened him too, and so did the great Tamil chiefs.1

One of those chiefs, the Pallava Kopperunjinga, captured the king in 1231 or a little earlier.6 He kept him prisoner at Sendamangalam, and the Hoysala king Narasimha II sent an army to rescue him.6 The Nellore gazetteer of 1942 also tells how Kopperunjinga “seized the person of the emperor himself”.3

The Telugu Chodas

The Telugu Choda family of Pottapi and Nellore stayed loyal.34 C. F. Brackenbury, in the Cuddapah gazetteer (1915), called Rajaraja III a “weak monarch”.4 He wrote that the Cholas survived the Pandya attacks “chiefly” because of the “prowess and loyalty” of Tikka, who then governed the Paka-nadu.4 Tikka helped the king at Kanchi (then Conjeeveram) against the Pandyas and their ally, the Hoysala Vira-Somesvara.4

The Nellore gazetteer says that Tikka pushed his conquests into South Arcot and held Kanchi.3 For his fight against the Hoysala and the Sambuvaraya he won the title Cholarajyasthapanacharya, “the restorer of the Chola kingdom”.3 Sewell and Aiyangar noted a gift made in November 1232 by an officer of the Telugu Choda chief Tirukalatti Ganda-Gopala.5 It is dated in the 17th year of Rajaraja III, which shows, they wrote, that the chief was the Chola king’s vassal.5 Brackenbury wrote that Tikka was also known as Gandagopala.4

Records in the Kadapa country

Brackenbury noted the name of Rajarajadeva III on an inscription at Nandalur.7 V. Rangacharya (1919) listed three Tamil records of his reign at Lebaka (Lepaka), in the Pullampet taluk:78

  • in his 6th year, a goldsmith of Nenpakkai gave money for a lamp to the Siva temple
  • in his 10th year, a man of Pottappi gave paddy for three lamps
  • in his 24th year, there was a gift of lamps to the same temple8

At Nandalur, a record of his 23rd and 24th years tells of a gift by a man from Valluva-nadu, in the Malai-mandalam.9

The Kakatiyas take the north

The Nellore gazetteer wrote that the Pandyas and Hoysalas took over the centre and south of the Chola lands.3 The northern districts, Tondaimandalam and Nellore, seem to have fallen to the Kakatiya Ganapati.3 Sewell and Aiyangar noted three records in Nellore that begin the reign of his son Rajendra III in 1244.2 They thought father and son ruled jointly from that year.2

Where the sources disagree

  • The end of his reign. Brackenbury gives 1243.4 The Nellore gazetteer gives 1245.3 Rangacharya gives 1248.8 Sewell and Aiyangar date Rajendra III’s accession to 1246, with a joint rule from 1244.2

Footnotes

  1. Robert Sewell and S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 133 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  2. Sewell and Aiyangar, Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 146 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  3. Gazetteer of the Nellore District, brought up to 1938 (1942), p. 44 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9

  4. Brackenbury, Cuddapah (1915), p. 32 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  5. Sewell and Aiyangar, Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 141 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  6. Sewell and Aiyangar, Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 140 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2

  7. C. F. Brackenbury, Madras District Gazetteers: Cuddapah (1915), p. 31 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  8. V. Rangacharya, A Topographical List of the Inscriptions of the Madras Presidency, Vol. I (1919), p. 640, Cuddapah Nos. 690, 693, 694 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  9. Rangacharya, Topographical List, Vol. I (1919), p. 647, Cuddapah No. 810 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

Dynasties

Cholas of Tanjore

c. 985–1268 CE

The Cholas ruled an empire from Tanjore (Thanjavur) and Gangaikondacholapuram in the Tamil country. From about 1000 to the 12th century, much of the Telugu country was under their authority. Rajaraja I restored the Eastern Chalukya Saktivarman I to the Vengi throne about 999 and married his daughter to Saktivarman's brother Vimaladitya. Rajendra I waited on the Godavari while his general led an army to the Ganges. Virarajendra fought the Western Chalukyas at Bezwada. In 1070 the Eastern Chalukya heir became the Chola emperor Kulottunga I, whose sons governed Vengi until 1118. Vikrama-Chola recovered the coast after a Western Chalukya occupation, but by the mid-12th century Chola rule north of the Krishna existed in name only. In the south, the Telugu Choda chiefs of Nellore and Pottappi accepted the Chola king's authority until the dynasty ended in the 1260s.

References

Sources (4)
  1. C. F. Brackenbury, Madras District Gazetteers: Cuddapah, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1915, pp. 31–32. [Public domain]
  2. W. E. Johns, Gazetteer of the Nellore District, brought up to 1938, Vol. A (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1942, pp. 44. Paraphrased. [Public domain in India]
  3. V. Rangacharya, A Topographical List of the Inscriptions of the Madras Presidency (collected till 1915), with Notes and References, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1919, pp. 640, 647. [Public domain]
  4. Robert Sewell (ed. S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar), The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (Collected till 1923) and Outlines of Political History (opens in a new tab), University of Madras, 1932, pp. 133, 140–141, 146. Paraphrased. [Public domain in India]

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