The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c35.s3: Section III. The Chola Kingdom
The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c35.s3
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Section III. The Chola Kingdom
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According to tradition, the Chola country (*Choḷamaṇḍalam*) was bounded on the north by the Pennār, and on the south by the southern Vellāru river; or, in other words, it extended along the eastern coast from Nellore to Pudukottai, where it abutted on the Pāndya territory. On the west it reached to the borders of Coorg. The limits thus defined include Madras, and several other British districts on the east, as well as the greater part of the Mysore state.¹ The most ancient historical capital was Uraiyūr, or Old Trichinopoly, so far as is known with certainty.² A town called North Mañalūr, of which the position is not known, is said to have been the Chola capital in prehistoric times.³
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¹ *Coins of Southern India*, p. 108. Chola is also written *Chora*, *Śola*, or *Sora*. Coromandel is a corruption of *Choḷamaṇḍalam* (Yule & Burnell, *Anglo-Indian Glossary*, s. v. ‘Coromandel’). The name Chola means a people as well as a dynasty, but nothing is known about the Cholas as a people. They have become merged in the existing population without leaving a trace.
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² Uraiyur is also spelt Woraiyur. ‘Woraiyur, which is two miles from Trichinopoly, was a city newly planned and built by the great Choḷa king, Karikāl Peruvaḷattān’ (*Town Planning in Ancient Dekkan*, by C. P. Venkatarama Ayyar, Madras, 1916, p. 11).
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³ *Ind. Ant.*, 1913, pp. 70, 72.
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The existence of well-known traditional boundaries must not be taken to justify the inference that they always agreed with the frontiers of the Chola kingdom, which latter, as a matter of fact, varied enormously. The limits of the Chola country, as determined by tradition, mark ethnic rather than political frontiers on the north and west, where they do not differ widely from the lines of demarcation between the Tamil and the other Dravidian languages—Telugu, Kanarese, Malayālam, and Tulu. Tamil, however, is as much the vernacular of the Pāndya as of the Chola region, and no clear ethnical distinction can be drawn between the peoples residing north and south of the Vellāru, the southern limit of the traditional Chola territory.
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The kingdom of the Cholas, which, like that of the Pāndyas, was unknown to Pānini, was familiar by name to Kātyāyana, and recognized by Asoka as independent. Inasmuch as the great Maurya's authority unquestionably extended to the south of Chitaldūrg in Mysore, and down to at least the fourteenth degree of latitude, the Pennār river probably was the northern Chola frontier in the Maurya age. In later times that frontier on both north and south was much advanced, while, on the contrary, at an intermediate date, it was greatly contracted during the period of Pallava supremacy.
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Ancient Tamil literature and the Greek and Roman authors prove that in the first two centuries of the Christian era the ports on the Coromandel or Chola coast enjoyed the benefits of active commerce with both West and East.¹ The Chola fleets did not confine themselves to coasting voyages, but boldly crossed the Bay of Bengal to the mouths of the Ganges and Irrawaddy, as well as the Indian Ocean to the islands of the Malay Archipelago. All kinds of goods imported into Kerala or Malabar from Egypt found a ready market in the Chola territory; while, on the other hand, the western ports drew a large part of their supplies of merchandise from the bazaars of the eastern coast, which produced great quantities of cotton goods. The principal Chola port was Kāviripaddinam, situated at the northern mouth of the Kāvēri (Cauvery) river. This once wealthy city, in which the king maintained a magnificent palace, and foreign merchants found residence agreeable and profitable, has vanished, and its site lies buried under deep sand-drifts.²
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¹ Schoff holds that 'the eastern sea-trade of India exceeded its western trade' (*J. A. O. S.*, 37, p. 242).
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² For Kāviripaddinam, see *ante*, p. 462. *The Tamils Eighteen Hundred Years Ago*, pp. 25, 26, 38. The full Tamil name of the town is *Kāvēripūmpaṭṭinam*.
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The first historical, or semi-historical, Chola king is Karikāla (Karikkāl), who is represented by the early poets as having invaded Ceylon and carried off thence thousands of coolies to work on the embankments of the Kāvēri river, a hundred miles in length, which he constructed. He founded Kāviripaddinam, transferring his capital from Uraiyūr to the new port. He enjoyed a long reign, which was much occupied by fighting with his neighbours, the Pāndyas and Cheras. He seems to have lived in the second half of the first century of the Christian era, or perhaps in the second century. Karikāla was succeeded on the throne by his grandson, Nedumudi Killi, in whose reign Kāviripaddinam is supposed to have been destroyed by the sea. Nedumudi Killi was contemporary with Chenkuttuvan Chera and Gajabāhu I of Ceylon. The Chera king appears to have then become the leading power in the South for a short time, while the glory of the Cholas departed, not to be renewed until ages had passed.
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Literary references indicate that, in the second or third century after Christ, the power of the Chola and other Tamil kings declined, and was superseded by the rise of the Aruvalar and similar tribes, apparently distinct in race from the Tamils.¹ The earliest known Pallava inscriptions, dating from about the beginning of the fourth century, show that at that time a Pallava prince was reigning at Kānchī in the middle of the traditional Chola country; and it may well be that the opposition of the tribes alluded to was organized and directed by the foreign or semi-foreign dynasty of the Pallavas, who, as hereafter stated, may perhaps have been connected by descent with the rulers of Maṇi-pallavam or the Jaffna peninsula in Ceylon.² However that may be, a Pallava king certainly was established at Kānchī when Samudragupta raided the South, about A. D. 350 (*ante*, p. 300), and the Chola dominions at that time must have been much diminished in consequence.³ Nothing further is known about Chola history until the seventh century.
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¹ *The Tamils Eighteen Hundred Years Ago*, pp. 64–78; S. Krishnaswāmi Aiyangar, ‘Some Points in Tamil Literary History,’ *Malabar Quarterly Review*, 1904. The dates in Kanakasabhai’s book seem to be placed too early, Chap. vi of S. K. Aiyangar’s book, *Ancient India*, 1911, is the best history of the Chola kingdom. In the article entitled ‘Karikala and his Times’ (*Ind. Ant.*, 1912, p. 146), K. V. S. Aiyar unsuccessfully tries to prove that Karikāla lived in the earlier half of the sixth century after Christ. That view seems to me to be wholly untenable, and to involve a false chronology of Tamil literature.
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² See p. 491, *post*.
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³ *The Tamils Eighteen Hundred Years Ago*, p. 44.
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The observations of Hiuen Tsang give an interesting notice of the Chola kingdom in the first half of that century, the significance of which has not been fully appreciated by commentators on his travels. His visit to the South, when he penetrated as far as Kānchī, the Pallava capital, may be dated with certainty in the year A. D. 640. At that time the kingdom of Chola (Chu-li-ya) was a restricted territory estimated to be 400 or 500 miles in circuit, with a small capital town barely 2 miles in circumference. The country was wild and mostly deserted, consisting of a succession of hot marshes and jungles, occupied by a scanty population, of ferocious habits, addicted to open brigandage. The few Buddhist monasteries were ruinous, and the monks dwelling in them as dirty as the buildings. The prevailing religion was Jainism, but there were a few Brahmanical temples. The position of the country is indicated as being some 200 miles or less to the south-west of Amarāvatī. It must, therefore, be identified with a portion of the Ceded Districts, and more especially with the Cuddapah District, which possesses the hot climate and other characteristics noted by the pilgrim, and was still notorious for brigandage when annexed by the British in 1800. The pilgrim speaks merely of the 'country' of Chola, and makes no mention of a king; doubtless for the reason that the local Rāja was a person of small importance, subordinate to the reigning Pallava king of Kānchī, the powerful Narasimhavarman, who two years later destroyed the Chalukya power.¹ The correctness of this interpretation of Hiuen Tsang's notice of the Chola principality is demonstrated by the discovery in the Cuddapah District of stone inscriptions of local Chola Rājas engraved in characters anterior to the eighth century.²
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¹ Beal, ii, 227–30, Watters, ii, 224.
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² *Reports on Epigraphy in Madras G. O., Public*, No. 518, dated July 18, 1905, p. 48, and No. 503, dated June 27, 1907, para. 43. For the state of Cuddapah in 1800, see Hamilton, *Description of Hindostan*, 4to ed., 1820, vol. ii, p. 323.
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During the early part of that century the struggle for predominance in Southern India was waged between the Chalukyas of the Deccan and the Pallavas of Kānchī, the Cholas not counting for much. But the severe defeat suffered by the Pallavas at the hands of the Chalukya king, Vikramāditya, in 740, weakened the power of the kingdom of Kānchī, and gave the Cholas, who had been reduced to insignificance by the pressure of the Pallavas on the north and the Pāndyas on the south, an opportunity of recovering their position. We hear of a Chola Rāja named Vijayālaya, who came to the throne about the middle of the ninth century, and reigned for thirty-four years. His son Āditya (*c.* A. D. 880–907) conquered Aparājita Pallava, and so finally put an end to the Pallava supremacy.
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From the date of the accession of Āditya’s son and successor, Parāntaka I, in A. D. 907, the historian stands on firm chronological ground, and is embarrassed by the plethora rather than by the lack of epigraphic material. More than forty stone inscriptions of Parāntaka I were copied during the single season of 1906–7, ranging in date from his third to his forty-first year, *i. e.* from A. D. 909–10 to 947–8. This ambitious prince, not content with the overthrow of the Pallava power, pushed on to the extreme south, captured the Pāndya capital, Madura, drove its king into exile, and invaded Ceylon.
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Certain long inscriptions of Parāntaka I are of especial interest to the students of village institutions by reason of the full details which they give of the manner in which local affairs were administered by well-organized local committees, or panchāyats, exercising their extensive administrative and judicial powers under royal sanction. It is a pity that this apparently excellent system of local self-government, really popular in origin, should have died out ages ago. Modern governments would be happier if they could command equally effective local agency. The subject has been studied carefully by several Indian scholars, whose disquisitions are well worth reading. Whenever the mediaeval history of Southern India comes to be treated in detail, a long and interesting chapter must be devoted to the methods of Chola administration.¹
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¹ S. Krishnaswami Iyenngar, 'The Chola Administration, 900–1300 A. D.' (*Madras Review*, 1903), and *Ancient India*, pp. 158–91. The author sometimes spells his name Aiyangar. V. Venkayya, ‘Irrigation in Southern India in Ancient Times’ (*Archaeol. Survey Annual Rep.*, 1903–4, pp. 203–11). R. D. Mukharji, *Local Government in Ancient India*, 1919; and R. C. Majumdar, *Corporate Life in Ancient India*, Calcutta, 1918.
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Parāntaka I died about A. D. 953 or possibly later.¹ His son, Rājāditya, seems to have predeceased him, having been killed in battle at Takkola about A. D. 947–8 by the Rāshtrakūta king, Krishnarāja III. Parāntaka was followed by five obscure successors, who had short and troubled reigns.
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¹ *Ep. Ind.*, vol. xii, July, 1913, pp. 123, 124.
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The accession in 985 A. D. of a strong ruler, Rājarāja-deva the Great, put an end to dynastic intrigue, and placed at the head of the Chola state a man qualified to make it the leading power in the South. In the course of a busy reign of about twenty-eight years, Rājarāja passed from victory to victory, and, when he died, was beyond dispute the Lord Paramount of Southern India, ruling a realm which included nearly the whole of the Madras Presidency, Ceylon, and a large part of Mysore.
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He began his career by the conquest of the Chera country,² and in the fourteenth year of his reign his acquisitions on the mainland comprised the Eastern Chalukya kingdom of Vengī, formerly held by the Pallavas, Coorg, the Pāndya country, and extensive regions in the table-land of the Deccan. During the next three years, Quilon (Kollam) on the Malabar coast, and the northern kingdom of Kalinga were added to his dominions. Protracted campaigns in Ceylon next occupied Rājarājā, and resulted in the annexation of the island in the twentieth year of his reign. In or about A. D. 1005 he sheathed the sword and spent the rest of his life in peace. From 1011 his son Rājendra became his colleague, in accordance with Chola custom.
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² T. A. Gopinatha Rao (*Travancore Archaeol. Series*, vol. ii, pp. 3–5) shows that the earliest inscriptions of Rājarāja are of the 8th and 10th regnal years, and imply the conquest of the Chera country. The Chera king was Bhāskara Ravivarman, who ruled for at least 58 years, from A. D. 978 to about 1036 (ibid., p. 33).
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The ancient enmity between the Chalukyas and the Pallavas, inherited by the Chola power, which had succeeded to the premier rank formerly enjoyed by the Pallavas, led to a four years' war, ending in the defeat of the Chalukyas, who had not been long freed from subjection to the Rāshtrakūtas.
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Rājarāja possessed a powerful navy, of which he made full use, and his last martial exploit was the acquisition of a large number of unspecified islands, meaning, perhaps, the Laccadives and Maldives, in his twenty-ninth year.
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The magnificent temple at his capital Tanjore (Tanjūvūr), built by his command, the walls of which are engraved with the story of his victories, as recorded in the twenty-sixth year of his reign, stands to this day as a memorial of Rājarāja's brilliant career.¹
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¹ A characteristic specimen of his coinage is shown in Fig. 15 of the plate of coins.
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Although himself a worshipper of Siva, he was sufficiently liberal-minded to endow a Burmese Buddhist temple at the port of Negapatam, where two such temples continued to be the object of foreign pilgrimages until the fifteenth century. One of them, probably that endowed by Rājarāja, survived in a ruinous condition until 1867, when the remains of it were pulled down by the Jesuit Fathers, and utilized for the construction of Christian buildings.²
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² *Ind. Ant.*, vii, 224, with plates; *Madras G. O., Public*, Nos. 922, 923, dated Aug. 19, 1899.
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Rājendra-Choladeva I, surnamed Gaṅgai-konda, son and successor of Rājarāja, continued his father's ambitious career, with added vigour and even more conspicuous success. His fleet, crossing the Bay of Bengal, attacked and captured Kadāram (Kidāram), the ancient capital of the kingdom of Prome or Pegu, and also the seaports of Takkolam and Matama, or Martaban, on the same coast. The fall of these towns involved the temporary annexation of the whole kingdom of Pegu to the Chola empire.⁴ Two granite pillars still [Figure: THE GREAT TEMPLE AT TANJORE (*from outside the fort wall*)]
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³ Diwan Bahadur L. D. Swamikannu Pillai Avagal works out astronomically a number of Choḷa and Pāṇḍya dates in *Prog. Rep. Epigraphy, Madras G. O.*, No. 1260, dated 25 Aug. 1915, pp. 72 ff. He makes the reign of Rājendra-Choḷadeva I begin between May 6 and July 7, 1012. But this may be his conjoint reign, as the writer makes his successor, Rājādhirāja I begin between May 9 and Dec. 3, 1018 (see next page), reducing Kielhorn's limits by two months.
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⁴ V. Kanakasabhai, 'The Conquest of Bengal and Burma by the Tamils' (*Madras Review*, 1902, p. 251). Kidāram or Kadāram is supposed to be Tharekhettra, 8 miles west of Prome (*Ind. Ant.*, xxii, 6, 160). Takkolam=Takōla of Ptolemy (Bk. vii, ch. 2, 5; *Ind. Ant.*, xiii, 372), and is now called Ayethema (ibid., xxi, 383), some miles from the present coast. On Takkolam and Kadāram (or Kāla-gam), see Taw Sein Ko in *Burma A. S. Prog. Rep.*, 1909-10, pp. 14-16 and 1916-17, para. 57. It is Taikkula to SE. of Pegu. It is suggested that Pegu was under foreign Indian domination for 500 years. Kadāram seems to mean Pegu. Yet the position of Ptolemy’s Takōla really is uncertain. See articles by St. John and Blagden in Actes xi, Congrès Or., Paris, 1898, Deuxième Section.
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standing at the town of Pegu are believed to have been set up by the Chola king to commemorate his conquest, which was effected in the years A. D. 1025-7.¹ The annexation of the Nicobar (Nakkavāram) and Andaman islands followed on the conquest of Pegu.
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¹ *Archaeol. S. Burma, Progr. Rep.*, 1906-7, p. 19.
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During the earlier years of his reign Rājendra-Choladeva had occupied himself with a succession of wars against the northern powers. About A. D. 1023 he came into collision even with Mahīpāla, king of Bihār and Bengal, and brought his army to the banks of the Ganges. In memory of this exploit he assumed the title of Gangaikonda,² and built a new capital city, which he called Gangaikonda-Cholapuram. Near the city he constructed a vast artificial lake, with an embankment 16 miles long, fully provided with the necessary sluices and channels for the irrigation of a large area. The city was adorned by a magnificent palace and a gigantic temple, enshrining a *lingam* formed of a black granite monolith 30 feet high. The ruins of these structures, sadly defaced by the ravages of modern utilitarians in search of building material, still stand in lonely grandeur in a desolate region of the Trichinopoly District. The sculptures in the temples are of singular excellence.³ The Pāndya dominions continued to be subject to the Chola domination during the reign of Rājendra Gangaikonda, and were administered by his son as Viceroy, with the title of Chola-Pāndya.⁴
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² Rice interprets the title differently: ‘His son Rājendra Coḷa, in command of his father’s forces, advanced against Talekād, the Ganga capital, and this ancient city fell in 1004, and with it the Ganga line came to an end as a sovereign power. The event was marked by Rājendra Coḷa assuming the title of Gaṅgaikoṇḍa Coḷa, “the Coḷa who took Gangai”’ (*Bh. Comm.*, vol. 1917, p. 247).
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³ *Hist. of Fine Art in India and Ceylon*, figs. 159-61. A detailed survey and description of the site, fully illustrated, would be of much interest.
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⁴ *Report on Epigraphy*, in *Madras G. O., Public*, No. 503, dated June 27, 1907, para. 25.
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Rājādhirāja, eldest son of Rājendra, who had been his father's colleague since 1018, succeeded him in A. D. 1035, and continued the never-ending fight with all the neighbouring powers.¹ He fell in the fierce struggle with the Chalukya army at the battle of Koppam (*ante*, p. 448) in A. D. 1052 or 1053, which determined that the Tungabhadrā river should be the frontier between the rival Chola and Chalukya empires. Notwithstanding the death of Rājādhirāja, the fortunes of the day were retrieved by his brother Rājendra Parakesarivarman, who was crowned on the battle-field as his successor.
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¹ The practice of appointing the Crown Prince, or *yuvarāja*, as his father's colleague causes the regnal years to overlap. The chronology has been settled by Prof. Kielhorn (*Ep. Ind.*, viii, App. ii, 26). The references in detail to inscriptions can be traced through the paper cited. Later discoveries will be found in the *Reports on Epigraphy in Madras G. O., Public*, No. 492, dated July 2, 1906, and No. 503, dated June 26, 1907, and subsequent issues, as well as in *Ep. Ind.* to date.
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The customary wars went on during the reigns of this king and three kings who succeeded him, but few of the details are worthy of remembrance. A notable incident was the battle of Kūdal Sangamam, fought at the junction of the Krishnā and Panch Ganga rivers,² in which the Chalukyas suffered a severe defeat at the hands of Vīrarājendra Chola (acc. A. D. 1062–3). In the civil war between the brothers and rival claimants to the Chalukya throne—Somesvara II and Vikramāditya—Vīrarājendra took the side of the latter, and gave him his daughter in marriage.
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² Fleet, *Ep. Ind.*, xii, 298.
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The death of Vīrarājendra (A. D. 1070) was followed by a disputed succession and civil war. Vikramāditya Chalukya, having established himself on the throne of the Deccan, came to the aid of his brother-in-law, Adhirājendra, and succeeded in making him king of the Chola realm (1072). But the new sovereign proved to be unpopular, and was assassinated two years later (1074). With him the direct line in male succession of the great mediaeval Cholas came to an end.
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Adhirājendra appears to have left no issue capable of ruling, and so was succeeded by his relative Rājendra, subsequently known as Kulottunga I. Rājendra, whose mother was a daughter of the famous Gaṅgaikoṇḍa Chola, was the son of the Eastern Chalukya prince of Veṅgi who had died in 1062. But Rājendra had preferred to remain at the Chola court, and had allowed his uncle to rule Veṅgi for some years. In 1070¹ Rājendra was crowned as lord of Veṅgi, and four years later, when Adhirājendra was murdered, he assumed the government of the whole Chola territory. He thus founded a new Chalukya-Chola dynasty, taking the title of Kulottuṅga Chola. He was worthy of his position and ruled his extensive dominions successfully for forty-nine years. He reconquered Kaliṅga, defeating the Eastern Gaṅga king, Anantavarman Choda. His internal administration was distinguished by the execution of an elaborate revision of the revenue survey in A. D. 1086, the year of the survey for Domesday Book.
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¹ L. D. S. Pillai says that Kulottuṅga I's 'reign must have commenced before 28 June 1070'—as shown by inscriptions (*G. O., No. 920, Aug.* 4, 1914, *Epigraphy*, p. 59). See also ibid., No. 1260, Aug. 25, 1915, p. 73, where he says that the limits of the reign are now established beyond doubt.
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The celebrated philosopher, Rāmānuja, the most venerated teacher of the Vaishṇava Hindus in the south, received his education at Kānchī, and resided at Srīraṅgam near Trichinopoly during the reign of Adhirājendra; but, owing to the hostility of the king, who professed the Saiva faith, was obliged to retire into Mysore territory until Adhirājendra's death freed him from anxiety. The holy man then returned to Srīraṅgam, where he remained until his decease.²
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² For the history of Adhirājendra, Kulottuṅga, and Rāmānuja, I follow Bhaṭṭanātha Svamin, 'The Cholas and the Chaḷukyas in the Eleventh Century' (*Ind. Ant.*, 1912, pp. 217–27). His article is based on a contemporary metrical chronicle, entitled *Divyasūricharita*, of which he is about to publish a critical edition. The text was printed in Mysore in 1885. The title Kulottuṅga means 'highest in his family'.
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Vikrama Chola, the son and successor of Kulottuṅga, continued to fight with his neighbours according to precedent, and seems to have succeeded in maintaining the predominant position of his dynasty.³ The next three kings, who had short reigns, were not notable in any way.
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³ The exploits of Vikrama Choḷa are the subject of a Tamil poem of some merit, entitled *Vikrama-Choḷan-Ulā* (*Ind. Ant.*, xxii, 142).
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The last Chola king of any importance was Kulottuṅga Chola III, who reigned for about forty years from A. D. 1287. The succession was then disputed, and the Chola princes sank into a position of insignificance. For a time the Pāṇḍyas in the south reasserted themselves and gained the upper hand, until 1310, when the power of all the Hindu states in Southern India was broken by the successes of Malik Kāfūr's Muhammadan army in that year and following years. The rapid development of the Vijayanagar kingdom during the fourteenth century again restored Hindu authority in the Peninsula. The extreme South passed under the rule of Vijayanagar about A. D. 1370.¹
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¹ The coins of the Muhammadan Sultans of Madura range from A. D. 1329–30 to 1377–8 (Hultzsch in *J. R. A. S.*, 1909, p. 682).
Linked texts (2)
- Uṟaiyūr
- Divyasūricarita — Garuḍavāhanapaṇḍita, Sanskrit