Page:History of India Vol 2.djvu/434

 376 THE KINGDOMS OF THE SOUTH deva the Great, put an end to dynastic intrigue, and placed at the head of the state a man qualified to make it the leading power in the south. In the course of a busy reign of some twenty-seven years, Rajaraja passed from victory to victory, and, when he died, was beyond dispute the lord paramount of Southern India, ruling a realm which included nearly the whole of the Madras Presidency, Ceylon, and a large part of Mysore. His earliest recorded conquests were won on the mainland toward the north and west between the twelfth and fourteenth years of his reign, and com- prised the Eastern Chalukya kingdom of Vengi, for- merly held by the Pallavas, Coorg, and extensive regions in the table-land of the Deccan. During the next three years, Quilon (Kollam), on the Malabar coast, and the northern kingdom of Kalinga were added to his dominions. Protracted campaigns in Ceylon next occupied Rajaraja, and resulted in the annexation of the island in the twentieth year of his reign. The ancient enmity between the Chalukyas and the Pallavas was inherited by the Chola power, and led to a four years' war which ended in the defeat of the Chalukyas, who had not long been freed from subjection to the Rashtrakutas. Rajaraja, moreover, did not con- fine his operations to the land.- He possessed a power- ful navy, and his last martial exploit was the acquisition of a large number of unspecified islands, meaning, per- haps, the Laccadives and Maldives. The magnificent temple at his capital, Tan j ore (Tan- juvur), built by his command, the walls of which are