Vikramaditya VI takes Vengi

01The evidence

Kulottunga I had held Vengi as part of the Chola state since 1070, through viceroys who were his sons. As he aged, the Chola grip slackened. From about 1118 inscriptions in the Andhra delta, including at Draksharama, are dated in the years of Vikramaditya VI and name his minister and general Anantapala as governor. The Chola records of these years are silent about Vengi, which historians read as an admission of the loss.

02The Chola return

Vikramaditya VI died in 1126, and his successor Someshvara III could not keep what his father had won. Vikrama Chola, Kulottunga’s son, recovered most of Vengi in the 1130s. But the long struggle had worn down both empires, and in Vengi itself local houses, the Velanati Chodas and soon the Kakatiyas of Warangal, were becoming the real powers on the ground. Within a century the Kakatiya kings would rule the whole delta from Warangal.

Person · Reigned 1070–1122 CEKulottunga Chola IBorn Rajendra Chalukya, prince of Vengi and grandson of Rajendra Chola through his mother, Kulottunga took the Chola throne in 1070 and joined the two houses. In a reign of over fifty years he gave up Lanka, held the mainland, abolished transit tolls and sent an embassy to China.Read →