A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c18.12

c18.12

Not much information is forthcoming about the navy, though we hear of naval operations, great and small. The conquest of Rēvatidvipa and Purī on the West Coast by the Chālukyas of Bādāmi, and that of Ceylon and the Maldives by the Pallavas, Pāndyas and Cholas as well as by Vijayanagar, above all the great naval expedition of Rājendra Chola against the maritime empire of Śri Vijaya could not have been executed without an efficient naval organization. Furthermore the maritime trade of the country, which was always considerable, must have required protection from the depredations of pirates and hostile powers. The opinions of Chola mariners expressed in treatises on navigation were quoted with approval by their Arab successors in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. There is no doubt that the kingdoms of South India had a fairly continuous maritime tradition which served their immediate purposes; but it failed them altogether against the more adventurous nations of Europe.