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106 puram inscriptions of Kampana Udaiyar will show, the Pallava temples were closed for a long period of nearly three centuries, and their lands alienated by a Choliyan edict About the ninth century A. D. the Pallavas were defeated by the Chola and Chalukyan kings in a series of battles, after which the vast empire was broken up into small principalities such as Gangai padi, Nulambapadi, Tadigaipadai, &c.

Again, in the first quarter of the eleventh century Rajaraja Chola, the richest and one of the mightiest of the Chola sovereigns, invaded and conquered Vengi Nadu, Rettaipadi, Gangaipadi, Kollam, Kalingam, Ilam (Ceylon), Madura and other countries. Towards the close of his prosperous reign he seemed to have marshalled his extensive armies, which he had posted at different quarters to defend his newly conquered dominions, into two grand divisions—the one consisting of those men who had won for him victories in all his foreign campaigns, and the other composed of new soldiers from the Pandya, the Telugu and Canarese countries, who had formerly fought against him from his enemies' camps. The former, recruited chiefly from the Vedan, Nattaman, Malayanan and Paraiya castes, he called the right-hand army (வலங்கை வேளைக்காரர்—right-hand infantry), while the latter made up of the Pallans, Pallis, Madigas and Bedars was called the left-hand army. This alone, we think, could account for the anamolous grouping of the Bedars (Canarese hunters) in the left, while their Tamil brethren, the Vedans, were placed in