Uttama Chola

Parantaka II’s last days appear to have been clouded by a personal tragedy, as the heir-apparent to the Chola throne, Aditya II, is assassinated by a group of conspirators.

A competing theory claims that Pandyan spies were involved in the death of Aditya II and he had been assassinated to avenge the death of Veerapandiyan in the battle of Chevur.

There is, however, no direct evidence to support this theory.

One of the inscriptions found at Udayarpatti temple in Tamil Nadu of Rajaraja notes that the property of some persons wad confiscated as punishment for their involvement in the plot.

After the assassination of Aditya II, it seems that Uttama forced Phi father Parantaka II to make him the heir-apparent.

Arulmozhivarman (or Rajaraja I), Parantaka II’s second son, does not protest, anxious to avoid a civil war.

It is apparently part of the compromise that Uttama is to succeed the throne only if he accepts to be succeeded not by his own children but by Arulmolivarman.

The Thiruvalangadu copperplate inscription states that Madhurantaka Uttama Chola made Arulmoli the heir-apparent.

The Eastern Chalukyas under Tailapa II, having in 973 initiated a military campaign against the Rashtrakutas, based at Ellora (near Hyderabad), reduce them to vassalage after two years of warfare and establish a second western Chalukya dynasty; …

…the Chalukyas begin in 975 to fight the Cholas for control over India’s prosperous east coast.