Gandaraditya - Reluctant Ruler

Reluctant Ruler

As noted earlier, the eldest son of Parantaka I, prince Rajaditya lost his life in the battle of Takkolam (c. 949 CE). Takkalom is identified with the area around present day Arakonam in the North Arcot district. Parantaka I must have made his second son Gandaraditya as heir apparent.

Gandaraditya was a reluctant monarch and focussed more on religious work and not on empire building. The Tondaimandalam continued to be occupied by the Rashtrakutas and Gandaratitya did not seem to have made any attempt to retrieve it. It is not clear if this is because he was uninterested in war or that he was assimilating his position south of the Paalar River and cutting his loses to keep Eelam (which was fast slipping out of Chola control) and to keep a resurgent Pandya Kingdom at bay.

For the time being, the martial Chola power seem to have been toned down but trade (especially maritime) continued to flourish. There are only very few inscriptions to be found that could be directly attributed to him and this may be because earlier inscriptions were consciously deleted by later Uttama Chola who undertook the task of converting South Indian temples into granite from brick-and-mortar under the "Kalpani" scheme. The conscious decision by Uttama Chola is mentioned in his inscriptions at Kanchipuram.

He spent more time in religious discourse. He is credited with writing a Tamil hymn on Siva of the Chidambaram Temple.