‘Valourous Chola Prince Rajaditya was killed right in front of my eyes by a poisioned arrow’

A great city grew on my banks, but did you know that they have been sites of the clash of civilisations?

The location was close to what you now know as the spot where the dam was constructed across me at Keshavaram, where Kosasthalayar splits to do her own thing. It was near the location of this modern dam that I witnessed a bloody war of much importance, many moons ago.

In 949 AD, the combined armies of the Cholas and Cheras were led by the Chola crown prince Rajaditya, son of King Parantaka-I. The army met a fierce enemy in King Krishna III of the Rashtrakuta kingdom at Thakkolam (now technically placed in Vellore, but quite close to Kancheepuram), to whose aid came the forces of Ganga dynasty.

On a fateful afternoon, Rajaditya, the valorous Chola prince, was killed right in front of my eyes by a poisoned arrow, altering forever the history of the Tamil kingdom. Owing to the death of the prince, the crown later moved to his younger brother Arinjaya Chola and thus paved the way for the ascension of his descendants Raja Raja-I and Rajendra-I, two of the greatest Chola emperors, at a later point.

Imagine this: If not for the Thakkolam battle on my banks, you may not see the iconic Brihadeeshwarar temple today in Thanjavur since Raja Raja Chola would not have become a king.

A few kilometres down Thakkolam, the Polilore battlefield (Pullalur), again near my waters, was where the British forces faced tremendous losses in the Carnatic wars.

In 1780, Tipu Sultan faced off with British East India Company commander Colonel William Baille, inflicting deeps wounds to the British ego. As I watched the guns and canons blaze on either side, Baille was captured along with many of his troops and taken to Srirengapattna in Mysore.

But a year later in 1781, they returned to the same spot for another encounter.

The British side, now reinforced with better fire power, defeated Hyder Ali under the leadership of Eyre Coote. I remember that the Polilore field had witnessed another ancient but less decisive war as well, when Chalukyas led by Pulakesin II and Pallava King Mahendraverma-I took on each other. The former won.

Source: Venkatesh Ramakrishnan, Chennai Cooum group

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by SruthiSagar Yamunan / August 17th, 2015