The Chola raid on Donur

01The Hottur inscription

The Hottur inscription of Satyashraya, dated 1007, is one of the rare records written by the victims of a Chola campaign. It says that Rajendra, the son of Rajaraja, came with a very large army and encamped at Donur in Bijapur district, and that his soldiers plundered the whole country, killing women, children and Brahmins and carrying off girls. It then says Satyashraya fought back and drove the invaders out.

02Two versions of one war

Chola inscriptions list Rattapadi seven and a half lakh country among Rajaraja’s conquests, and Rajendra’s own records claim it too. The Chalukya side insists the invaders were thrown back. Both may be true at different moments: the Cholas raided far and returned, and the Tungabhadra stayed the frontier. The raid opened a war between the Cholas and the Chalukyas of Kalyani that ran, with breaks, for more than a century.

Person · Reigned 985–1014 CERajaraja Chola IArulmozhi Varman took the name Rajaraja when he was crowned in 985, and in twenty-nine years turned the Chola kingdom of the Kaveri delta into the greatest power of the south, with a navy that reached Lanka and the Maldives. In 1010 he completed the Rajarajeshvaram at Thanjavur, the Brihadeeswara temple.Read →