JPSC HISTORY(GS Paper-III): The Chola’s maritime activities In Sourth east Asian counturies

The Chola’s Maritime activities In Sourth east Asian counturies

• The founder of the Chola empire was Vijayalaya, who was at first a feudatory of the Pallavas. He captured Tanjore in AD 850. And by the end of the ninth century, the Cholas had defeated both the Pallavas of Kanchi (Tondaimandalam) and weakened the Pandyas, bringing the southern Tamil country under their control.
• Apart from the conquest of South Indian kingdoms, the Cholas importance lies in their rise as a maritime power. They raised a powerful navy and used it to enlarge their territories and further their economic interests.
• Inscriptions and historical sources assert that the Medieval Chola Emperor Rajendra Chola I sent a naval expedition to Indochina, the Malay Peninsula and Indonesia in 1025 in order to subdue Srivijaya. Kheda (Kadaram), feudatory kingdom under Sri Vijaya, and many other areas like Malaiyur, Pannai etc. were conquered by Rajendra.
  • The Thiruvalangadu plates, the Leyden grant, and the Tamil stele of Rajendra Chola I are the principal sources of information about the campaign. ©crackingcivilservices.com
  • Rajendra Chola in one of his inscriptions (1026 CE) mentions that he conquered “the whole of Ilam (Ceylon) in the raging ocean girt by the crystal waves of the sea…[and] countless old islands (about 12000 in number) in the midst of the ocean in which conches resound (likely to be Lakshadweep and Maldives).
  • The same inscription records his naval conquest of King of Kadaram (the ancient kingdom of Prome or Pegu, whom he caught by dispatching many ships across the stormy sea (Bay of Bengal). Along with Kadaram was also captured flourishing ports of Takkolam, Mataba, Martoban, Sri Vijaya (Indonesia) and Nakkavaram (Andaman and Nicobar). ©crackingcivilservices.com
  • These inscriptions thus clearly show that Cholas had a well-developed naval fleet, and had undertaken naval expeditions to foreign shores.
• The relation between Srivijaya and the Chola dynasty of southern India was initially friendly during the reign of Raja Raja Chola I. In 1006 CE a Srivijayan Maharaja from Sailendra dynasty, king Maravijayattungavarman, constructed the Chudamani Vihara in the port town of Nagapattinam.
  • However, during the reign of Rajendra Chola I the relations deteriorate as the Chola Dynasty started to attack Srivijayan cities.
  • With his naval forces, Rajendra Chola I invaded Malaya Peninsula and Srivijaya Empire that extended over Sumatra, Java and the neighbouring islands.
• The causes of the hostility are obscure. While some scholars opine that the campaign was undertaken to establish Chola dominance over the seas of South-East Asia, other suggest that it might have been a war of plunder.
  • It seems that the Khmer king Suryavarman I of the Khmer Empire requested aid from the powerful Chola Emperor Rajendra Chola I of the Chola dynasty against Tambralinga kingdom. After learning of Suryavarman’s alliance with Rajendra Chola, the Tambralinga kingdom requested aid from the Srivijaya king Sangrama Vijayatungavarman.
  • This eventually led to the Chola Empire coming into conflict with the Srivijiya Empire. The war ended with a victory for the Chola dynasty and Angkor Wat of the Khmer Empire, and major losses for the Sri Vijaya Empire and the Tambralinga kingdom.
  • Most acceptable cause is that these activities were targetted towards safeguarding the trade routes to China.
• Due to the various Chola naval expeditions to Southeast Asia and the support provided by the Cholas to the Ayyavole guild, the Ayyavole guild emerged as a maritime power and continued to flourish in the kingdom of SriVijaya (on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia). This is well documented in an inscription of the Ayyavole guild of the year 1088 AD found in Barus of West Sumatra, Indonesia. South Indian merchants were also active in Burma and the Thai peninsula.
• Conquest of South East Asia led to the expansion of Indian culture like language, sculpture, temple architecture etc to South East Asia.
• Differing historians views regarding the maritime activities of Cholas:
  • Some scholars (George Spencer, Richard Fox, and Burton Stein) have expressed doubts on the overseas expeditions of the Cholas, stating that the Thanjavur inscriptions that detail Chola expeditions to the South East Asian countries are mere rhetorics, while other epistographic records (meikkirti) dating from the same period as the king’s rule, were likely to be more of poetic imaginations.
    • Furthermore, these scholars on the basis of their studies of early medieval European kings and West African politics of “segmentary states,” have also stated that the conquests, if they really happened, were for ‘loot and raid’ and not for any long-term conquests.
  • However, RC Mazumdar in his book “Hindu Colonies in the Far East” tells us quite clearly that “the story of this victory is not merely an image of the court-poets, but based on facts, is proved, beyond doubt, by the detailed references to the vassal states. It is interesting to note that many of these States are included in the Silendra Empire by later Chinese authorities”.
  • PK Gautam also explains that “There is a lot of weight in the argument that the Cholas undertook maritime expeditions to South East Asia not for short-term plunder motive, but with a long-range view of minimizing the role of Srivijaya as the intermediary between the Cholas and the Sung Dynasty in China. I will call this good strategic thinking by the Cholas as we know it today. The Cholas continued to be a power to be reckoned with, including in their maritime exploits”.
  • Moti Chandra, while expressing doubts on naval battles (owing to lack of many references to such wars in the Indian literature), holds no doubts about Chola conquests in parts of what we now know as South East Asia. He writes, “In the conquests of Rajendra Chola came almost the whole eastern part of Sumatra, and the central and southern parts of the Malay peninsula. He also occupied the capitals of Srivijaya (Indonesia) and Kedah (Malaysia)”. ©crackingcivilservices.com

To conclude, the achievement of Chola in their maritime conquests is unique in that the Cholas were the first to realize the importance of naval powers and they used it effectively to pursue territorial andeconomic interests. In fact, the Bay of Bengal became a Chola lake. ©crackingcivilservices.com