CHOLAS

Cholas in South India

• Terms of the scale of accomplishments in art and architecture and the wealth of writing and epigraphic records, the Cholas would come across as one of the richest dynasties in South Indian history
• There is a profusion of inscriptions that give meticulous details about administration, social life, and material culture… The Brihadeshwara Temple alone which was consecrated in 1010 CE by Rajaraja I has nearly a hundred inscriptions.
• It is also claimed that the Cholas were one of the longest recorded dynasties in world history
• At the peak of their rule in the ninth and tenth centuries, the entire area south of the Tungabhadra River was brought together as a single unit under the Cholas.
• They were perhaps the only dynasty from Southern India to have moved north, marching into Eastern India, where Rajendra Chola is known to have defeated the Pala king of Pataliputra
• They were also the first empire with grand commercial and territorial ambitions outside of the Indian subcontinent

About Cholas

• The earliest references to the Cholas date as far back as the third century BCE and were made by the Mauryan emperor Ashoka
• However, very little evidence exists about the early Cholas, apart from the early Tamil literature of the third Sangam, and the references made about them in an ancient Graeco-Roman periplus written in the early centuries of the Common Era.
• The Chola Empire as we know it in all its glory emerged sometime in the mid-ninth century under King Vijayalaya Chola
• The dynasty of Vijayalaya left behind a vast number of stone inscriptions and some copper plate grants, which have, in the last few decades, been the main source for reconstructing the history of the Cholas.
• The Chola empire was at its most expansive under Arulmozhivarman, who on acceding to the throne in 985 CE, adopted the regnal title of Rajaraja or king of kings
• The doyen of South Indian history, Nilakantha Sastri, in his 1955 book The Cholas, writes that under Rajaraja I and his successors, the Chola Empire had reached the capacity of ‘Byzantine royalty’ “with its numerous palaces, officials and ceremonials and its majestic display of the concentrated resources of an extensive empire.” 
• According to Sastri, with the emergence of Rajaraja I, the monarchy underwent a substantial transformation, with the king now becoming an emperor. In his official records, Rajaraja I was referred to as the “emperor of the three worlds” or as possessing the whole universe.

Cholas vs Pandyas

 Cholas Expeditions

• Rajaraja Chola established himself as one of the most astute political and military strategists that southern India had ever seen
• By the close of the 10th century, he had overrun almost all of the Pandya territories and appointed his own governors there
• He then moved to Sri Lanka, ransacking some of the greatest of Buddhist viharas and establishing the presence of the Cholas through the building of Shiva temples.
• The expansion of the Chola empire continued under Rajaraja Chola’s son, Rajendra Chola, also known as Rajendra the Great or Gangaikonda Chola (the Chola who conquered Ganga)
• He built the Chola capital at Gangaikondacholapuram (close to present-day Tiruchirapalli) to commemorate his victory over the Pala dynasty in present-day Bengal in 1025 CE. 
•  He then erected a gigantic Shiva temple in it as a mark of thanksgiving to the lord.
• Rajendra became one of the only Indian monarchs to conquer territory outside the Indian subcontinent
• In 1025 CE, he sent a naval expedition to Indochina, the Malay Peninsula and Indonesia. His expansion to Southeast Asia was crucial in establishing trade and cultural links with the region
• The influence of the Cholas can be seen in the language and society of large parts of Southeast Asia as well
• The deification of kings in Cambodia and Thailand as incarnations of Brahmanical Gods, for instance, is a most evident imprint of the Cholas.
• The medieval Chola empire began to decline in 1070 CE, after the death of Virarajendra Chola, the son of Rajendra Chola.
• A period of chaos prevailed, which ended with the emergence of the Later Cholas, a dynasty that was the product of alliances between the Cholas and the Eastern Chalukyas.

Art & Culture

• From the 10th century onward, the Cholas more prominently started making structural temples
• The gigantic Brihadeshwara Temple in Thanjavur is perhaps one of the finest examples of the Cholas’ artistic brilliance
• Inscriptional evidence in Chola art also points to the prominent role played by royal women and dancers in the patronage of art and architecture
• One of the most celebrated patrons was the widowed queen of Gandaraditya Chola, Sembiyan Mahadevi.
• An avid temple builder, she is well known for her contributions to temples such as Umamaheshvar Temple at Konerirajapuram, Tirukkurangaduturai Temple at Aduturai, Tirukkotisvarar Temple at Tirukkodikkaval among other
• Under the Chalukyas you had the basic design of the structural temples coming in and under the Pallavas, the rock-cut temple art emerged. But it is the scale of temple building activities under the Cholas that mark them out
• The pyramidal vimana of the Brihadeshwara temple of 66 metres is one of the tallest buildings in antiquity
• The Gangaikonda Cholapuram temple with its catenary-shaped vimana is also a unique engineering marvel