Page:History of India Vol 2.djvu/411

 THE CHOLAS AND CHALUKYAS 357 of Dhara, who claimed the victory in sixteen conflicts. But toward the close of his reign Taila enjoyed the luxury of revenge. His enemy, having crossed the Godavari, which then formed the boundary between the two kingdoms, was defeated, taken captive, and for a time treated with the courtesy due to his rank. But an attempt to escape was visited with cruel indignities to the captive raja, who was ultimately beheaded, 995 A. D. Two years later Taila died, and transmitted the crown to his son Satyasraya, during whose reign the Chalukya kingdom suffered severely from invasion by the Chola king, Rajaraja the Great, who overran the country with a vast host, said to number nine hundred thousand men, pillaging and slaughtering in so merci- less a fashion that even the women, children, and Brah- mans'were not spared. In 1059 A. D., Somesvara I, who was called Ahava- malla, fought a battle at Koppam in Mysore, in which Rajadhiraja, the then reigning Chola king, lost his life. Somesvara also claims the honour of having stormed both Dhara in Malwa and Kanchi in the south, and of having defeated Kama, the valiant King of Chedi. In 1068 A. D., Somesvara, seized by an incurable fever, put an end to his sufferings by drowning himself in the Tungabhadra River, while reciting his faith in Siva. Suicide in such circumstances is authorized by Hindu custom, and more than one instance is on record of rajas having terminated their existence in -a similar manner.