Part 8 - Protector Image (of the Kaveri Delta and the Cholas)

Scholars put more importance to another major aspect of kingship that is the protector image. In lieu of mere taxes (raksabhoga) the ruler has obligation to protect his subjects. But apart from this physical protection, the protection of the ideal social order is more significant in view of Brajadulal Chottopadhyaya.^[1] The ruler is claiming of the establisher and protector of the ideology of varnasramadharma, an ideal social order, beneficial for the office of kingship to maintain the social hierarchy. This ideal social order granted the Ksatriyas to enjoy the office of kingship. King is equally represented as the protector against the mixing of the social structures or varnasamkara and the evils of the Kali age.^[2] King is represented in records as by stating that he held the kingdom or holding (dharana) the social order. Similar ideas represented by expressions like sasana (to rule), palana (to protect), bharana (to govern), ctc. The mixing up of the physical protection with the ideal social order is discussed in detail by J.D.M. Derrett.^[3] The Pallava inscriptions portrayed the king as wielder of danda and also justified him as a tax (raksabhoga) collector by equating the king with the sun whose rays or ‘kara’ (means tax in Sanskrit) is also unbearable and beneficent for all.^[4] By depicting Kalidasa’s description of Dilipa in Raghuvamsa, praised for prosperity of his subjects only he collected tax from them. In another issuance of Vira Chola’s inscription, we found prasasti, that equally mentioning Kalidasa’s lines. Showing manu as he was born as the earliest king like pranava in all chandas, ‘Asitksitibhrtam adyah pranavah chandasamiva’.^[5] Several Chola epigraphs, like the Larger Leiden Plates, Tiruvalangadu Plates, Karandai, Kanyakumari plates, mansions Manu as son of Surya, and Kanyakumari Plates describes Manu as the expounder of the dharma.^[6] Tiruvalangadu Plates describes that the inhabitants of the Chola country considered their ruler Parantaka I as Manu himself reborn to be establish his own laws which had degenerated in the age of Kali.^[7] The Karandai plates eulogised Rajaraja I, as manuvamsa-ketuh, the banner of the race of Manu.^[8] Rajendra Chola I, in the same manner described in this inscription as manukulabharanam, the ornament of the race of manu.^[9]

The numerous Chola epigraphs endeavoured to build an image of their rulers adhered to the laws given in the dharmasastrs. In Tiruvalangadu Plates, Aditya I, has been described as ‘one who was always bent upon removing evil, adhering himself to the path of the righteous and protecting the earth’, - dosapanitau satatam pravrttah sanmarga-vartti ksitim=anvaraksat.^[10] Parantaka Chola mentioned in Larger Leiden Plates as the follower of the dharma -dharmanuyate.^[11] The Karandai inscription of Rajendra Chola I, praised the ruler as having reached the eminence of dharma–labdha dharmmodaya.^[12] In his reign, it is added that, the people were devoted to dharma and to their own duties–loko dharmaparah-sva-karma-niratah.^[13] Apropos to Kanyakumari inscription, Vira Rajendra, ruled his country according to the prescribed laws–rajyam vyadhita vidhivat.^[14]