Kulottunga III

Who he is

Name

Kulottunga III

Title

King, Chola emperor (Tribhuvana Chakravartin; styled Tribhuvanaviradeva after his new temple)

Since

7 July 1178 by computation; 22nd regnal year on 1 January 1200

Born

not known

Family

Of the later Chola line; the pages we reached do not agree whether Rajadhiraja II was his brother or an older kinsman who acted as his guardian and made him co-regent while he was very young.

Confidence

high for the reign, medium for the family

Reign to 1218 by the standard reckoning. The English Wikipedia lists his wars by regnal year and gives no ministers or generals by name.

What it holds

• The royal demesne round Gangaikonda Cholapuram: the palace mound (Maligaimedu), the Brihadisvara, and the Chola Gangam tank fed by the Vadavaru channel
• Palaiyarai with Darasuram, the working palace residence; Kumbakonam with its merchant assembly
• Thanjavur and the Rajarajesvaram, with the temple treasury
• Uraiyur and the Rock of Tiruchirappalli, the Srirangam island and the Grand Anicut below it
• Kanchipuram as the northern headquarters of Tondaimandalam
• Nagapattinam and the crown's share of the Bay trade and the tolls on the roads and ferries
• The Tribhuvanam temple under construction (the king's own foundation)

How it was acquired

By succession on 7 July 1178; confirmed in war against the Pandya rival Vira Pandya (1180s), the Hoysala in Kongu (1187 to 1188 and about 1193) and the Telugu Chodas at Kanchi (1192 to 1196).

Allies and rivals

See the realm record. Closest personal ties: Veera Ballala II of the Hoysalas (a marriage tie in the sources, direction undated), the Saiva guru Isvarasiva, and the Kadava, Sambuvaraya and Malayaman houses who hold his north.

How things stand that morning

In his 22nd year, at the height of a quiet decade. A wife from the Hoysala house (Somaladevi, per the English Wikipedia on Veera Ballala II), a son Rajaraja III (king from 1216; his age and whether he is yet named heir are not known), no wars in hand. He is building: the Kampaharesvara temple at Tribhuvanam near Kumbakonam, the hall of Sabhapati and a gopura for Sivakami at Chidambaram, enlargements at Tiruvidaimarudur, Tiruvarur, Kanchipuram and Madurai (a hall of Halahalasya) and renovations at Srirangam, all named in the English Wikipedia.

A famine in his 23rd and 24th years, from about July 1200, is reported only in the brief and the campaign board's calendar (no page read confirms it); it is set out below as the likely course.

Wealth

The land revenue of the delta in paddy and gold, tolls, the temple deposits the crown can call on, a share of the Nagapattinam trade; gold kasu.

Military

The royal household troops and the chiefs' contingents; he fought and won at Karuvur, drove the Telugu Chodas out of Kanchipuram in 1196 and made a Pandya king twice. No numbers are given by any source we reached.

Threats

• Famine from July 1200
• Feudatories growing hereditary
• A Pandya refusal
• Hoysala or Kakatiya movement on the north

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

In 1200

1. about 7 July 1200Start of his 23rd regnal year; the famine reported for the 23rd and 24th years begins.Depends on: A regnal-year statement found only in the brief and the campaign board's calendar (no page read confirms it); needs failed rains or channel damage. Stopped by: Good monsoons; relief works.

Later, on the likely course

1. 1196 onward, peaceful yearsThe temple-building programme continues (Tribhuvanam, Chidambaram, Tiruvidaimarudur, Tiruvarur, Kanchi, Srirangam).Depends on: No war breaks the peace and revenue keeps coming. Stopped by: A new war or a famine that diverts the treasury.

Places of note

• Tribhuvanam, Kampaharesvara temple: The king's own foundation, consecrated by Isvarasiva.
• Gangaikonda Cholapuram palace mound: Maligaimedu, the brick palace site.
• Palaiyarai: Working residence.
• Thanjavur: Treasury city.

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign board entry thanjavur-tanjore says his court moves between Thanjavur, Palaiyarai and Gangaikonda Cholapuram: plausible and we keep it, but none of the pages we reached dates the court to one of them in the winter of 1199-1200.
• The campaign board entry tribhuvanam-kampaharesvarar says it is 'going up on this date'; the English Wikipedia says he began it 'around the peaceful period after 1196'. Agreed.
• The English Wikipedia names the queen as a Hoysala princess (Somaladevi); older accounts name Chola queens whose names we could not confirm here (so we name none).

Evidence: Reign thick, household thin.

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

On the map: The royal demesne is drawn as the delta core round the three court seats; the crown also takes revenue from the temple and brahmadeya villages inside it, drawn separately under the assemblies and the temples.

Primary sources for Chola empire

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• The Lesser Chronicle (the continuation of the Mahavamsa), Dhammakitti and later monks of the Mahavihara tradition (the first continuation about the 13th century (chapters 37 to 79), carried on in stages to the 18th century). The only narrative source for Lanka in 1200. Read online
• History of Song, chapters 488 and 489: Jiaozhi, Dali, Champa, Zhenla, Pagan, Srivijaya, Java, Brunei, Chola and Tambralinga, Toqto'a (Tuotuo) and the Yuan history office, from the Song court records (1343 to 1345, from Song veritable records and court diaries). The Chinese court's record of its southern neighbours, compiled from Song archives. Read online
• The Leiden grants of Rajaraja I and Kulottunga I concerning the Srivijaya vihara at Nagapattinam, The Chola chancery (Rajaraja I, Rajendra I, Kulottunga I) (the Larger plates about 1005 to 1014 (completed under Rajendra I); the Smaller plates 1090). Background documents for the relations between the Cholas and the Malay world. Read online
• Corpus of Inscriptions in the Telingana Districts, Various (Kakatiya chancery and temple scribes), edited by P. Sreenivasachar (inscriptions of the 10th to 15th centuries; edited 1940 to 1942). The Kakatiyas of Orugallu (Warangal) are known for 1200 almost entirely from inscriptions, and this Hyderabad Archaeological Series corpus is the main printed collection. Read online
• Epigraphia Carnatica: inscriptions of the Mysore country, Various (Hoysala chancery and temple scribes), edited by B. Lewis Rice and R. Narasimhachar (inscriptions of the 4th to 19th centuries; the series ran from 1886 to 1905, revised from 1972). The Hoysala kingdom of Veera Ballala II (reigning 1173 to 1220) is documented almost wholly by the inscriptions in this series, arranged by district and taluk with full English translations. Read online
• Epigraphia Zeylanica: lithic and other inscriptions of Ceylon, Various (the Polonnaruwa kings' chanceries), edited by D. M. de Zilva Wickremasinghe, H. W. Codrington and S. Paranavitana (inscriptions of the 3rd century BC to the 18th century; the series ran from 1904). Prints with translation the stone records of the Polonnaruwa kings who held or lost the throne around 1200. Read online
• South Indian Inscriptions (Archaeological Survey of India), Various (Chola, Pandya and other chanceries and temple scribes), edited by E. Hultzsch, V. Venkayya, H. Krishna Sastri and successors (inscriptions of the 7th to 17th centuries; the series ran from 1890). The temple inscriptions printed here are the primary record of the Tamil country in 1200. Read online
• Travancore Archaeological Series, Various (Kerala chiefs, temples and merchant guilds), edited by T. A. Gopinatha Rao, K. V. Subrahmanya Aiyer and A. S. Ramanatha Ayyar (inscriptions of the 9th to 18th centuries; the series ran from 1910 to 1938). The main corpus for the Kerala coast. Read online

4 more in the sources library for Southern India and Sri Lanka.