Epilogue

After a long period of splendour, the Chola sun set in a.d. 1279-80. Vijayalaya was the founder of this illustrious line which lasted for four hundred and thirty years (a.d. 850-1280). Their deeds of valour, their magnificent achievements in administration, and their great contributions to art and culture will continue to compel the admiration of generations yet unborn. The Chola ethos is very much a part of our cultural heritage. Not the least of their achievements was the smoothness of transition from one reign to another, unmarred by wars of succession, and the early nomination and association of the heir-apparent with the running of the empire.

The Pandyas who were instrumental in the decline of the Chola empire were themselves overrun by the Muslim invasion from the north, and the struggle for regional independence and religious freedom was carried on by the Vijayanagara empire for about three centuries from a.d. 1336. When the last of their dynasties, the Aravidu, declined, the mantle of the struggle against the invader-rulers fell on the Marathas under Chhatrapati Sivaji, who crowned himself king in a.d. 1674. The kingdom passed from his weak successors into the hands of their powerful ministers, the Peshwas, who became hereditary rulers and made gallant efforts to enlarge the kingdom at the expense of the Later Mughal emperors, but their ambitions received a rude Mow at the third battle of Panipat in a.d. 1761.

Meanwhile, the English merchants who had come to trade under the name of the East India Company stayed on to rule, and gradually extended their sway over a large part of India. The angry Chiefs and princes rose in arms in the name of the nominal Mughal Emperor in the first great struggle for independence of 1857—58; this was crushed and India was brought directly under the British Crown. The seeds of Indian independence unsuccessfully sown earlier sprouted not much later, with the formation of the Indian National Congress in a.d. 1885 under the inspiration of Indian and British Liberals who, however, envisioned for India nothing more radical than gradual self-government under the Crown.

After a protracted struggle over several decades, India finally attained freedom (albeit in an attenuated form) in a.d. 1947.