Note 2d: Chola Feudatories, the Adigaimans

While dealing with the period of Kulottunga I, we had occasion to mention that the region of Gangavadi, which was conquered and made a province of the Chola empire by Rajaraja I, was being administered on behalf of the emperor by the ancient line of Chiefs known as the Adigaimans with their capital at Tagadur, identified with modern Dharmapuri in the Salem district. The Adigaimans were traditional rulers of the region known as the Kongu nadu, and it was an Adigaiman or Adiyaman Chief, who, on his refusing to surrender the region to the growing power of the Hoysalas under Bittiga Vishnuvardhana (a.d. 1100-52), was challenged to battle at Talekkad by the Hoysala Dandanayaka Gangaraja and defeated in a.d. 1116. With that the Gangavadi region passed out of the hands of the Cholas for a while. It would however be seen that during the early years of Kulottunga I’s successor, Vikrama Chola, the Adigaiman Chiefs succeeded in taking back, if not all the portions, at least a sizable part of the Gangavadi region. During the middle of the 1 2th century, we hear of a Rajarajadeva ruling this region, in which were included portions of the Kolar and Chittoor districts as well. This Adigaiman Chief must have been a contemporary of Rajaraja II, not only on the basis of his name but also from the fact that Vidugadalagiya Perumal, who was his successor, was a contemporary of Kulottunga III. The later Chief boasts of being the Lord of Ten (southern) Tagadai and the conqueror of the land of the Kadava, the Magada and the Ganga. There is likely to be some truth in this tall claim, as we find that Laddigam, which was a part of the Ganga region, has a number of his inscriptions. In an inscription dated in the 22nd year of Kulottunga III, this Chief claims to be the Lord of the three rivers, the Palar, the Pennai and the Kaveri and to have built a temple of stone at Sirukottai on the banks of the Pennai (vide Kambayanallur, ARE 8 of 1900).