The Kadava capture of Rajaraja III

01The emperor in prison

The Tiruvendipuram inscription of 1231–32 tells the story from the rescuers’ side. Rajaraja III had been defeated and taken prisoner by the Kadava Kopperunchinga and kept at Sendamangalam. When the Hoysala Vira Narasimha II heard of it he swore to free him, marched into the Tamil country, defeated the Kadava’s forces and those of his allies, and restored the Chola to his throne. Kopperunchinga’s own inscriptions, at temples such as Chidambaram, boast of his power over the Cholas.

02The end of an empire

The Cholas now survived only because their neighbours balanced each other. The Hoysalas propped them up against the Pandyas, while the Pandyas under Maravarman Sundara had already sacked Thanjavur. Kopperunchinga recovered and went on to rule much of the old Pallava country in his own name. Within fifty years Rajendra III, the last Chola, was a vassal of the Pandyas, and the line disappears from the records after 1279.

Dynasty · c. 4th century BCE – late 16th century CEPandya dynastyThe Pandyas ruled from Madurai for close to two thousand years, longer than almost any house in the world. Megasthenes and Ashoka knew them; they broke the Kalabhras in the 6th century, lost Madurai to the Cholas in the 10th, and under Jatavarman Sundara Pandya in the 13th century became the strongest power in the south.Read →