Hello Guys, In today's article, i am going to list the thoughts of Dr.SRB over some views put by other historians. His thoughts are about 2 things, Mahendragiri & Kandalur-salai-kalam-aruttaruli. For sake of content consistency i will put Mahendragiri in this posting & will post his thoughts about Kandalur-salai-kalam-aruttaruli in the next article.
Mahendragiri
Mahendragiri is in the modern Ganjam district of Orissa. It lay on the border between the medieval kingdoms of Vengi and Kalinga. On this hill, there is a temple of
Gokarnesvarar, with shrines of Kunti & Yudishthirar. There are four undated inscriptions in the place. One of them is the Tamil version, in three fragments, of another in
Telugu. The texts are fragmentary and no safe deductions could be drawn from them. They describe the setting up of two jayastambhas on Mahendragiri by SOME Rajendra
after he had defeated one Vimaladitya of the Kulutas. Venkayya, and following him, others, identified this Vimaladitya with the Vengi price (son of Vishnuvardhana of the Eastern Chalukyas) and concluded that he was defeated by Rajendra Chola in battle and taken prisoner to the Chola court.
Recently, B. Venkatakrishna Rao, in his 'History of the Eastern Chalukyas of Vengi' (written with a touch of chauvinisim), has challenged the usual identification of the victor Rajendra and has postulated that the Mahendragiri battle should be ascribed to the period of Kulottunga I and as part of the Kalinga expedition (A.D 1093-96) and that the victor was Rajendra Chola, the Velannati viceroy of Vengi and a vassal of Kulotunga I. This identification seems far-fetched. My own view is that the victor at Mahendragiri was indeed Rajendra Chola I and that the vanquished was Vimaladitya of Kulutas (ruling to the north of Vengi) and not Vimaladitya of the Eastern Chalukyas who presumably went to the Chola court of his own free will - and not as a prisoner of war - after being driven out of Vengi. The last-mentioned (Vimaladitya of Eastern Chalukyas), figures in an inscription of the 29th year of Rajaraja I as the donor of the eight silver kalasams weighing 1,148 kalanjus to the Loga-Mahadevi Isvaram built at Tiruvaiyaru by Rajaraja I's queen of that name. We know that he married Kundavai, and was restored to the rulership of Vengi, of which he was overlord. Another fragmentary inscription in the neighborhood mentions Rajendra and Madhurantaka (surname of Rajendra I), thus confirming the control of this region by Rajendra I.
As the Chola victory at Mahendragiri is not found included in the description of the Gangetic campaign of Rajendra I's, it seems likely that it took place independently of and before it, in an effort to re-establish the Chola protege Vimaladitya on the Vengi throne and to help overcome the enemies on his borders. It seems safe to conclude that, at the close of Rajendra I's reign, Mahendragiri formed part of Vengi and of the Chola empire.