Studies in Cola History and Administration c14.3

c14.3

The establishment of the Cōḷa empire was a landmark in the history of South India. Under the Cōḷas all the country to the south of the Kṛṣṇā river was for the first time brought under the supremacy of a fairly strong central government, and for over two centuries, its different parts came to be ruled, not as independent principalities exhausting themselves in ceaseless strife with one another, but as well-regulated provinces of a unified empire. Some fighting indeed there always was, and it was occasionally directed to the suppression of local risings, and more often to the conquest of fresh territory for the empire. But on the whole, it was a comparatively peaceful time for the bulk of Southern India, and the common people had perhaps no greater concern with the military transactions of its rulers than they have to-day with the suppression of a Moplah revolt or the expeditions on the North-West frontier of India. There were indeed some striking differences. Then the people furnished the soldiers for the whole army, and manned the navy, and war-experience must have been more wide-spread among them than now. By the opportunities it afforded for distinction in the service of the king and the prospect of a promotion into the new class of official nobility, service in the army and the navy must have been quite popular. The rapid growth of an efficient and strong bureaucracy doubtless offered attractive careers to many in the lower rungs of the civil service of the land. Those who did not enter public service minded their lands, the Lacedaemonians, who had been waiting for the signal, now attacked the city. The Plataeans, seeing the enemy already inside and their own men falling, and knowing nothing of the plot, were seized with panic and, thinking that the Thebans were far more numerous than they really were, surrendered at discretion. But when they discovered that the Thebans were few, they took heart and, resolving to attack them, closed the gates and fell upon them.