CHOLA DYNASTY

 

The Chola dynasty is one of the longest dynasties in world history and ruled for some 850 years or even more. The Cholas were the only Indian dynasty that attacked kingdoms outside the Indian sub-continent. They had a very strong navy that enabled them to invade countries far away from them by sailing the sea.

The earliest reference to the Cholas comes from the inscriptions of Ashoka. They were not subject to Ashoka but were on friendly terms with him. Apart from the edicts, they were also mentioned in the Sangam period Tamil literature between 6^th century BC to 3^rd century AD.

Along with Cheras and Pandyas they continued to rule the areas of Tamilnadu & Kerala. Varayur, a part of Tiruchirapalli was their first capital. Kaveripttinam was another old capital. The heartland of the Cholas was the Kaveri river valley.

There is not much information about the Cholas after the Sangam period after 300 AD. After that there was a fight for ascendancy in the area was between the Pallavas and Pandyas.

Around the 7^th century, a Chola kingdom flourished in the present day Andhra Pradesh. They are known as the Telugu Cholas. It is possible that a branch of the Cholas has migrated north to AP to escape the influence of the Pallavas and the Pandyas.

As against being a Kingdom earlier, the Chola Empire begins only in the mid-9^th century AD with Vijayalaya Chola. He captured Tanjavur between 848 and 851 AD from the Pallavas. Now, Vijayalaya could have risen overnight and therefore the Cholas must have ruled as a smaller feudatory of the Pallavas or Pandyas in the interregnum.

Vijayalaya Chola was the founder of the Chola Empire. Taking opportunity from enmity between the Pallavas and the Pandyas, he seized Tanjavur and it became the capital of the Chola Empire.

Through their leadership[ and vision, the Cholas expanded their empire.

The 2^nd king of the Chola dynasty Aditya I defeated both the Pallavas and the Pandyas of Madurai in 885 AD and occupied large parts of Kannada country.

In 925 AD, his son Parantaka I conquered northern Ceylon. He also defeated the Rashtrakuta king Krishna.

Rajaraja Chola and Rajendra Chola were the greatest kings of the Chola dynasty. At its peak the Chola Empire stretched from Srilanka in the South to the Godavari-Krishna river basin in the North, and the entire Chera country and up to the Konkan coast. The eastern coast up to the Ganges was conquered later. Cholas had a great navy and they also conquered Lakshadweep and Maldives with it.  Rajaraja conducted a land survey of his empire in the year 1000 AD.

His son Rajendra Chola I conquered Orissa, marched north and defeated the Pala dynasty of Bengal and reached the Ganges river. He built a new capital Gangaikonda Chaolapuram to commemorate his victories in North India.

He also successfully invaded the Kingdom of Sri Vijaya in Indonesia which resulted in the decline of that kingdom. This perhaps happened because the Cholas were friendly with the Angkor kingdom in Cambodia and the Empire of Sri Vijaya was harassing it.

Rajendra Cholas name was mentioned in the medieval Malay chronicles as Raja Chulan. The Chola armies invaded Malaysia, Indonesia and Southern Thailand. An attack was also launched against the Burmese kingdom of Pegu. These attacks which were primarily for plunder but did not annex those territories. They weakened the empire of Sri VIjaya and finished it off. The trade of Sri Vijaya was taken over by the Tamil Trade Guilds which were very powerful then. It was also said that tehse guilds were one of the reasons why Rajendra Chola attacked the Empire of Sri Vijaya. They wanted more access to trade and have therefore exerted their influence on the king for the attack.

Rajendra Chola completed the conquest of Ceylon and took the Sinhala king Mahinda as prisoner. He conquered the territories of the Rashtrakutas and the Chalukyas. The kingdoms on the East coast up to the river Ganges acknowledged the Chola suzerainty. He sent 3 diplomatic missions to China.

The Western Chalukyas tried to regain their territories but their armies were routed repeatedly by the Cholas. The Chalukyas have been reduced to nothing by the Cholas. Finally their feudatories the Hoysalas, the Yadavas and the Kakatiyas gradually increased their power and finally replaced them in their territories. The Cholas remained stable until 1215 AD but were finally absorbed by the Pandyan Empire and ceased to exist by 1279 AD.