Chola Empire

Legacy

Chola bronzes, temples and maritime trade spread Tamil culture across South-east Asia, and their great temples remain living places of worship.

Timeline of Chola Empire

1. 885
   Aditya I and the Pallavas defeat the Pandyas

   Around 850 the Chola chief Vijayalaya took Thanjavur, in the Kaveri delta, during a war between the Pallava and Pandya kingdoms. His son Aditya I at first fought as an ally of the Pallavas, the dominant power in the north of Tamil country. Together with the Pallava king Aparajita and the Western Ganga king, the Cholas defeated the Pandyas of Madurai at Thirupurambiyam (dated c. 885 in the Chola Empire article, 878 in Aditya's own article). The Cholas gained land as a reward. Aditya later turned on the Pallavas, killing Aparajita in battle and annexing their kingdom.

2. 925
   Parantaka I invades Sri Lanka

   Aditya's son Parantaka I continued the expansion. Early in his reign he captured Madurai and defeated a combined Pandya and Sri Lankan army, and the Pandya king fled to Sri Lanka with his royal regalia. When the Sinhalese king refused to hand them over, Parantaka attacked the island. The Chola Empire article dates the conquest to 925, while the article on Parantaka places the main invasion, which sacked Anuradhapura, around 946–947. Either way the Cholas could not hold the island, and its army returned to Anuradhapura once they left.

3. 949
   Defeat by the Rashtrakutas at Takkolam; Tondaimandalam lost

   In the north the Cholas faced the Rashtrakutas, the strongest power in the Deccan. Around 948–949 the Rashtrakuta king Krishna III and his Western Ganga ally Butuga II invaded and met a Chola force under the crown prince Rajaditya at Takkolam, near Kanchipuram. Rajaditya was killed on the battlefield, according to some accounts while riding an elephant, and the Cholas were defeated. They lost the northern province of Tondaimandalam, around Kanchipuram, to the Rashtrakutas. For the next three decades Chola power shrank back toward the Kaveri delta.

4. 985
   Rajaraja I takes the throne

   Arulmozhi Varman became king in 985 after the death of his uncle Uttama Chola, taking the name Rajaraja, 'king of kings'. He inherited a small kingdom around Thanjavur and Tiruchirappalli that was still recovering from the Rashtrakuta wars. Over nearly thirty years he built a powerful army and navy and conquered the Pandya and Chera kingdoms, the Deccan lands of Vengi and Gangavadi, and northern Sri Lanka. He also organised a land survey in 1000. Under him the Chola kingdom became an empire, and the map begins to spread across south India.

5. 993
   Chola forces invade the Anuradhapura kingdom of Sri Lanka

   The Sinhalese kingdom of Anuradhapura, in northern Sri Lanka, had fallen into chaos. Around 982 its army, largely Tamil mercenaries, revolted against King Mahinda V, who fled to Rohana in the south. Rajaraja I took advantage of the eleven years of disorder and invaded in 993. The Cholas took the north of the island, made Polonnaruwa their provincial capital and renamed it Jananathamangalam. For the first time the Chola map stretched across the Palk Strait into Sri Lanka.

6. 1010
   Rajaraja dedicates the great Brihadisvara temple at Thanjavur

   Rajaraja I built the Brihadisvara temple at his capital, Thanjavur, between 1003 and 1010, dedicating it to the god Shiva. It was the grandest temple of its age in south India. Its granite tower (vimana) over the shrine is one of the tallest in the region, and it houses one of the largest Shiva lingas in India. The temple displayed the wealth and power of the Chola state and served as a centre of worship, administration and the arts. Today it is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site 'Great Living Chola Temples'.

7. 1017
   c. 1017: Rajendra completes the conquest of Sri Lanka's Rajarata

   Rajaraja's son Rajendra I, king from 1014, finished what his father began in Sri Lanka. According to the Sinhalese chronicle, the Mahavamsa, the conquest was completed in about 1017–1018. Rajendra's army marched into Rohana, the island's southern refuge, and captured King Mahinda V with his queen, his crown and great treasure, and also seized the Pandya regalia kept there. Mahinda died as a prisoner in India in 1029. All of Rajarata, the northern kingdom of Sri Lanka, was now a Chola province.

8. 1018
   Rajendra's forces take the Maldives and Lakshadweep

   The Cholas had a strong navy and wanted to control the trade routes of the Indian Ocean. In 1018 Rajendra's forces captured the Maldives and the Lakshadweep (Laccadive) islands off the west coast of India. Rajendra renamed the islands 'Twelve Thousand Islands and the Ocean Where Three Waters Meet'. His father Rajaraja had already extended Chola influence over parts of the Maldives. The conquest gave the Cholas bases on the sea lanes between Arabia and South-East Asia, and the map reaches out into the Arabian Sea.

9. 1022
   Ganges expedition returns; a new capital, Gangaikonda Cholapuram, follows

   Rajendra sent an army on a great campaign to the north, through Odisha and Bengal, where it defeated the Pala king and reached the river Ganges. The army returned around 1022 with water from the Ganges. Rajendra took the title Gangaikonda, 'he who took the Ganges', and built a new capital, Gangaikonda Cholapuram, with a great Shiva temple and a huge tank where the Ganges water was mixed. The northern lands were raided, not ruled. But the campaign showed Chola power from Sri Lanka to Bengal.

10. 1025
    Naval raids on Srivijaya and Kedah

    Srivijaya, based on Sumatra, controlled the Strait of Malacca, the main sea route between India and China, and forced passing ships to use its ports. In 1025 Rajendra launched a swift naval invasion that took Srivijaya by surprise. His fleet attacked its ports, including Kedah (Kadaram) on the Malay Peninsula, and captured its king, Sangrama Vijayatunggavarman. The raid did not create lasting rule. But it broke Srivijaya's grip on the strait for a time and spread Chola influence into South-East Asia.

11. 1070
    Kulottunga I founds the Later Cholas; overseas lands slip away

    In 1070 the Chola king Athirajendra was killed in a civil disturbance, leaving no heir. His cousin Kulothunga I, son of an Eastern Chalukya king of Vengi and grandson of Rajendra I through his mother, took the throne. He began the line known as the Later Cholas and ruled until 1122. He kept the core empire strong and claimed overlordship over Kedah, but the Cholas lost Sri Lanka to a revival of Sinhalese power, and they began to lose control of the Pandya lands. The map starts to shrink at its edges.

12. 1118
    c. 1118: Vengi lost to the Chalukyas, Gangavadi to the Hoysalas

    Late in Kulothunga I's reign, around 1118, the Cholas suffered losses on their northern frontiers. The Western Chalukyas of Kalyani occupied Vengi, the Telugu coastal lands the Cholas had controlled through marriage alliances, and the Hoysalas under Vishnuvardhana took Gangavadi, in what is now southern Karnataka. These were temporary setbacks. Kulothunga's son Vikrama Chola soon recovered Vengi and part of Gangavadi. Still, they showed that new regional powers were rising around the empire.

13. 1216
    c. 1216: Pandya king Maravarman Sundara defeats Kulottunga III

    Kulothunga III had defeated the Pandyas and in 1205 burned their coronation hall at Madurai. In 1216 a new Pandya king, Maravarman Sundara Pandyan, came to power determined to take revenge. He invaded the Chola kingdom, sacked Thanjavur and Uraiyur and drove the aged Kulothunga III and his heir into exile. Hoysala help won Kulothunga back his kingdom, but only as a Pandya vassal, and from now on the Cholas were weak and dependent. The Pandyas were the rising power in Tamil country, and they finally ended the Chola dynasty around 1279.

Periods and reigns

• Vijayalaya (r. c. 848–871) 850–871
• Aditya I 871–907
• Parantaka I 907–955
• Rajaraja I 985–1014
• Rajendra I 1014–1044
• Rajadhiraja I 1044–1054
• Virarajendra 1063–1070
• Kulottunga I 1070–1122
• Rajaraja II 1146–1175
• Kulottunga III 1178–1218
• Rajaraja III 1218–1256

Rulers

• Karikala c. 2nd century CE

  Celebrated early Chola king of Tamil poetry

• Vijayalaya c. 848 – 871

  Revived the dynasty by capturing Thanjavur

• Rajaraja I 985 – 1014

  Built the Brihadeeswarar temple; conquered northern Sri Lanka

• Rajendra I 1014 – 1044

  Marched to the Ganges and raided Srivijaya by sea

• Kulottunga I 1070 – 1122

  United the Chola and Eastern Chalukya lines

• Rajendra III 1246 – 1279

  Last Chola king, defeated by the Pandyas

Realms on the map

• Chola Empire 850–1259
• Early Cholas 291 BCE – 305 CE

Chapters

• The world in 1000: The Millennium Turns
• The world in 1100: Crusaders in Jerusalem