Vijayalaya takes Thanjavur: the rise of the Cholas

For centuries after the Sangam age the Cholas had been an obscure family; the Tamil country was divided between the Pallavas of Kanchi and the Pandyas of Madurai, and the Muttarayar chiefs who held Thanjavur had transferred their allegiance from the Pallavas to the Pandyas. In K. A. Nilakanta Sastri’s view Vijayalaya, perhaps a Pallava feudatory, may have taken the city quietly while the two great kingdoms were preoccupied with their own wars. The capture and the temple of Nishumbhasudini are known from the Tiruvalangadu plates of Rajendra I, issued in the 11th century; a later inscription from Kanyakumari says that he restored the city. The Vijayalaya-Choleshvaram at Narttamalai, a temple with a circular sanctum inside a square enclosure, was most likely built in his time and shows how late Pallava architecture grew into the Chola style.

The Pandya Varaguna II, a subordinate ally of the Pallava king Nripatunga, invaded the Chola country and reached Idavai on the Kaveri. The decisive battle came about 885 at Sripurambiyam near Kumbakonam, in the war between Nripatunga and his half-brother Aparajita: Aparajita, helped by the Ganga Prithvipati I, who fell in the battle, and most probably by Vijayalaya’s son Aditya I (who had succeeded in 871), defeated Nripatunga’s ally Varaguna. The real gain went to Aditya I, who later killed Aparajita in battle and annexed the Pallava kingdom of Tondaimandalam.