enhance their religious importance Stala-puranas in Sanskrit were written by learned Brahmans, some of which were deftly interpolated in one or the other of the Eighteen Puranas.
It was also the period of the Chola ascendancy. From about the seventh to the beginning of the tenth century the Pandyas and the Pallavas were powerful in Southern India. With the decline of these dynasties the Chola kings from Aditya I (A. D. 895) downwards not only regained their strength, but also became aggressive and carried on wars with the neighbouring sovereigns. These formed the subject matter of a class of war-chants called parani and ula. 'Parani' is a poem descriptive of a campaign the hero whereof being supposed to have killed at least one thousand elephants on the battle-field. 'Ula' is a poem depicting the procession of a royal personage, his country, flag, war-drum, &c. The finest poem of the former class is the Kalingattupparani. It was written by Jayamkondan in honour of one Karunakara Tondaiman, who was probably the general of Kulottunga Chola I (1069-1118) that waged war successfully with the Kalingas towards the close of his long reign. The rhythm of the poem is rapid and stirring and best suited to the subject. We subjoin a stanza from that work as a specimen :
எடுமெடு மெடு மென வெடுத்ததோ
ரிகலொலி கடலொலி யிகக்கவே,
விடுவிடு விடு பரி கரிக்குழாம்
விடும்விடு மெனு மொலி மிகைக்கவே.
