I am not a historian and I havent done any PhDs on these works..
Pallavas Vs Cholas
Pallavas are not mentioned in the early sangam age ...There is widespread debate as to their origins from pahlavi to eastern islands to north as a remnants of the satavahanas...
Pallavas did become a mighty force to recon with they created nagaresu Kanji.....but their script till later was in sanskrit, prakrit and bramhi....I take your point about nadi kalambagam but that was later...
They did patronise Jains and later changed faith to Saivism....
they were routed by Chalukyas and had their vengence....it was then their motiff changed from Nandi to Lion.....Kalki dwells on this quite nicely in SS
They were unique in bringing the stone temples and bass reilefs and paintings in the line of ajanta...
Their main friends and foes were the Pandyas in the south and Chalukyas in the north...Mamallapuram was a primeport in their times....The cholas had become a small kingdom...Mangayarkarasi weds nedumaran.....
Imperial Cholas....I did read a mail stating imperial pallavas in one of the mails I think of the south Indian kingdoms no one deserves Imperial than the Cholas...
Vijayalaya and descendants may not be a direct descendants but part of the sect ....There is no evidence that any of the mediaval Tamil kings were direct descendants without break in bloodlinee due to lack of evidence but we have a continous lineage of cholas from Vijayalaya....to their demise....
I cannot understand the arguement of recognition and building temples?
The pallavas built stone temples the cholas took to the next level or even the eternal level....Please read the desription of their masonary by plastics Chandra in the archives....
they were collosal in their time...
Cholas did subdue the whole of lanka transiently during RJC period, their control of Pandyas and Cheras is well document from RRC and RJC period. Vengi was an ally and they fought the Chalukyas and Rashtrakudas....Kalinga was a business maritime competetor hence RJC invaded Kalinga and led to his Digvijayam or venture to Ganga...
Can I be devils advocate and state it was the marching RJC army which detered the Afghans to venture southwards and not the otherway around.
Kadaram campaign again was for trade reasons as Kalinga and Srivijaya hampered the chola trade with combodia and china...there is inscriptional evidence that a Chola prince was an ambassadaor in the Chinese Court and there is speculation this may be Kulothunga....
Imagine a campaign of that nature which the Guptas did not attempt Asokha did not attempt Harsha did not attempt even the mughals did not attempt .....But the cholas did it twice...once in the period of RJC and again during the realm of Virarajedra and Sandilyan uses this asa a backdrop to his Kadal Pura....
The cholas changed the way local administration works the model is still used by the UK govt. Their irrigation system was beyond compare...
Its very easy to accuse anybody of anything but I guess we need to substantiate it....Dont we?