Saturday, November 28, 2009

THE IMPERIAL CHOLAS

THE IMPERIAL CHOLAS

The emergence of Chola power from obscurity, its rise to an imperial position and its conflicts, first with the Rashtrakutas from beyond the Tungabhadra and later with their successors, the Chalukyas of Kalyani, form the domi­nant features of the history of South India in the period 850-1200 AD. The whole region south of the Tungabhadra was united and held as one state for a period of two
centuries or more.

The founder of the Chola empire was Vijayalaya, who was at first a feudatory of the Pallavas. He captured Tanjore in 850. By the end of the ninth century, Vijayalaya's successor, Aditya I Chola, wiped out the Pallavas of Kanchi and weakened the Pandyas, thus bringing the southern Tamil country under his control. In the beginning, the Cholas were hard put to defend their position against the Rashtrakutas, but towards the end of the tenth century Chola power rapidly rose. Parantaka I (907-955) captured Madurai but was defeated by the Rashtrakuta ruler, Krishna III, at the battle of Takkolam, and he lost Tondaimandalam. But his grandson, Sundara-Chola, overcame the Rashtrakuta ruler and wrested Tondaimandalam from him.

The greatest Chola rulers were Rajaraja (985-1014) and his son, Rajendra 1(1014-1044). Rajaraja destroyed the Chera navy at Thiruvanandapuram, and attacked Quilon. He then captured the Pandy~ capital Madurai, and also annexed the-northern part of Sri- Lanka. One of his naval exploits was the conquest of the Maldive islands. In the north, he annexed the north-western parts of the Ganga region in north-west Kamataka and overran Vengi. His son and successor, Rajendra I, continued with the annexationist policy by completely overrunning the Pandya and Chera kingdoms and including them in his empire. He also annexed the rest of Sri Lanka which remained under Chola rule for another 50 years. Rajendra I also sent an expedition against Bengal through Kalinga; his armies crossed the Ganga and defeated the Pala king, Mihipala, of Bengal and Bihar.

In commemoration of his victories in the Gangetic delta, he assumed the title Gangaikonda, and founded a capital-Gangaikonda Cholapuram. An even more remark­able exploit in his reign was the naval expedition against the revived Sri Vijaya (Sumatra) empire; the expedition led to the conquest of Kadaram or Kedah and a number of other places in the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra. The Chola navy was the strongest in the area for some time.

The Chola rulers fought constantly with the later Chalukyas (of Kalyani), who had succeeded the Rashtrakutas in the Deccan, for the overlordship of Vengi (Rayalaseema), the Tungabhadra doab and the Ganga country in north-west Karnataka. Neither side was able to gain a decisive victory in this context and it ultimately exhausted both the empires. However, up to 1115, the' extent of the Chola empire remained undiminished under Kulottunga I, except for the loss of Ceylon, and included the entire region south of the Krishna and the Tungabhadra extending at least up to the Godavari on the east coast. But after this the empire began to shrink. By 1118, the Chola empire was confined to the Tamil region and a relatively small area of the adjoining Telugu districts. Kulottunga III (1178-1210) was the last
great Chola monarch, who remained involved in the Pandyan wars of succession and sacked the Pandya capital in 1205.

The Chalukyan empire disappeared at the end of the 12th century and the Chola empire tottered at the beginning of the 13th century. The place of the Cholas was taken by the Pandyas and the Hoysalas in the south, and that of the later Chalukyas by the Yadavas and the Kakatiyas. For a -century thereafter, the history of South India is the history of these four kingdoms and their mutual antagonisms. Minor powers like the Telugu-Cholas of Nellore played their part as auxiliaries to the chief powers. The period was marked by no striking developments in polity or society, although industry, trade and the arts continued to flourish with their normal vigour. The Muslim invasions of the Deccan which began towards the end of the thirteenth century upset all the four kingdoms and caused a period o( confusion terminated by the rise and expansion of the Bahmani and Vijaynagar kingdoms in the second quarter of the 14th century.

There is not much information about the history of the Chera country during 850-1200. There are inscriptions of the several kings of the ninth century of whom Sthanuravi, a contemporary of Aditya I Chola, was the most important, and the Syrian Christian Kottayam copper plates are asso­ciated with him. He was perhaps succeeded by Vijayaragadeva.. Among the kings who followed, Bhaskara Ravivarman (1047-1106) deserves mention. Srivallabhan Kodai and Govardhana Martandavarman of Venad were his contemporaries. Under Rajaraja I Chola and his successors, Chola rule extended over the bulk of Chera country. The region revolted during the troubles preceding the accession of Kulottunga I who reconquered the Chera country and established military colonies in south Chera country. In the twelfth century there are inscriptions of the rulers of Venad, identified with Cheranadu; one of these rulers was con­quered by Parantaka Pandya, a feudatory of Vikrama Chola
(1118-35).

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