1
Chola (Cola) Empire
RAKESH MAHALAKSHMI
Jawaharlal Nehru University, India
Throughout almost 400 years of its rule,
Chola power extended over a large area of
south India comprising the whole of the modern state of Tamil Nadu and contiguous areas
of southern Karnataka and southern Andhra.
Emerging from their heartland in the vicinity
of Uraiyur along the banks of the river Kaveri
in the mid-9th century, they soon controlled
the entire Tamil-speaking area. There are five
major regions that comprised the Tamil
country according to early medieval sources:
the Cholamandalam, the Tondaimandalam
(the sphere of authority of the Pallavas centering around Kancipuram), the Pandimandalam (the Pandya realm with Madurai as
its core), the Naduvilnadu (literally “the land
in the center” between Cholamandalam and
Tondaimandalam), and Kongumandalam
(areas around the Dharmapuri and Coimbatore districts) (Heitzman 1997). At the apex
of its power between the late 10th and late
11th centuries, the Chola Empire extended
over the entire Andhra region, Mysore, and
northern-central part of the island of Sri
Lanka. Other islands in the Indian Ocean
such as the Lakshadweep and the Maldives
were also brought under its control. During
the time of Rajendra Chola (1012–1044), its
power extended to the Malay Peninsula and
the eastern archipelago. The conquests of this
ruler in particular suggest that he was victorious over the entire region, from Andhra to
Orissa, parts of Madhya Pradesh, and Bengal,
which earned him the title of Gangaikondan
or the “conqueror of the river Ganga.” However, this appears to have been more of a
Digvijaya (conquest of the directions) campaign related to assertion of power rather
than leaving any lasting impact in terms of
the territorial control by the Cholas.
The origins of the Cholas in the Early
Medieval period can be traced to Vijayalaya
who ruled in the locality of Uraiyur in the Tiruchirapalli region of Tamil Nadu in the mid9th century. The history of the Cholas has
been reconstructed on the basis of inscriptions on stone and copperplates used to record royal orders and donations. The kings
were identified through their epithets and
by using the strategy of alternate titles of Rajakesari (“lion among kings”) and Parakesari
(“lion among enemies”) for successive rulers,
and from the end of the 9th century, a further
distinguishing feature was the use of specific
introductory verses to describe a king. We
also know from records of the practice of
co-regency, where the anointed successor
ruled alongside his father. Chola rule can be
broadly divided into four periods – early
(850–985), middle (986–1070), later-1
(1071–1178) and later-2 (1179–1279) – marking
their rise and consolidation, imperial expansion, struggle to maintain their power and
decline respectively. The major rulers of this
dynasty were Parantaka I (907–955), Rajaraja
I (985–1014), Rajendra I (1012–1044), and
Kulottunga I (1070–1120). While succession
to the throne was based on patrilineal primogeniture, the later-1 period was heralded by
the accession of Kulottunga I, the grandson
of Rajendra Chola, and the son of Rajendra’s
daughter Ammanga Devi and the eastern
Chalukyan ruler Rajaraja Narendra.
A matter of some curiosity is the link
between the Cholas of the Vijayalaya line
and the Cholas of the Sangam literature.
We know of the dynasty called Cholas, whose
The Encyclopedia of Empire, First Edition. Edited by John M. MacKenzie.
© 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Published 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
DOI: 10.1002/9781118455074.wbeoe366
2
rulers, along with those of the Pandyas and
Cheras, were referred to as the Muvendar or
“three kings.” They seem to have vanished
into obscurity by the end of the 3rd century
CE, and it is believed that a line of these rulers
surfaced in the Renadu area of Andhra by the
7th century. There is no evidence to directly
connect the Sangam Cholas with the early
medieval dynasty; however, frequent mention
of the Tanjavur and Tiruchirapalli districts as
the Chola core, in records of other dynasties
from the 6th century, such as the Pallavas
and Chalukyas of Badami, and the prasastis
of the Cholas themselves from the 10th century, indicate the living memory of the earlier
lineage.
The administration of the Cholas as
demonstrated through inscriptional sources
suggests that a very elaborate revenue and
bureaucratic structure was put into place by
the late 10th century. There are broadly two
kinds of officials – those important functionaries who already wielded power within the
locality whom we call proto-bureaucratic,
and those who were deliberately appointed
by the state – the bureaucratic officials
(Heitzman 1997). A class of officials referred
to simply as nam karumam arayum – “those
following our (the king’s) orders” – is found
as conducting the affairs of the state. The
generic term atikari (Sanskrit adhikari) was
also used for various classes of officers. Those
at the top of the ladder appear to have been
drawn from the elite vellala and brahmana
landowning sections of society. Both types
held the titles of the reigning king along with
their personal names; additionally, the former
carried the title of Muvendavelan, while the
latter carried the title of Brahmarayan. These
titled officials’ names appeared in the context
of maintenance of records (olai), revenue
administration (vari), or as military functionaries (senapati – military commander). Other
important offices include those of the Pallavarayan and Vilupparayan, where the suffix
arayan indicates that they were notables from
the locality (Karashima 1984).
We have specific mention of the karrali or
inscriber of the grants and olainayakam or
scribe, suggesting the institution of writing
and maintenance of records. There is a separate mention of the office of puravuvari tinaikalam, which appears to be a reference to the
revenue department. Within this office, we
have references to the varipottakam or revenue register, the varipottaka kanakku or the
one who makes entries into the tax register,
variyilidu or tax officer, pattolai or the copier,
and kilmukavetti or the junior inscriber.
Interestingly, we have references to the office
of the madhyasta, invariably in the context of
village assemblies, suggesting the function of
arbitration or mediation. The office of the
nadalvan, one who governs the nadu or
region, appears to be conspicuous in the last
stage of Chola rule, leading us to the conclusion that community-centric decision making
had given way to individuals exercising power.
There was a second tier of government
machinery that functioned at the trans-local
level. In the early medieval period, the nadu
or peasant locality emerged, comprising a
cluster of villages called ur, dominated by
non-brahmana landholding elite. These nadu
had their own mechanisms of political and
economic control, marked by the assembly,
also called nadu, which was managed by the
village elites who together formed the nattar –
“those who hold the nadu” (Stein 1994).
However, there were external elements that
played a role in the nadu such as the sabha
or assembly of brahmanas, who lived in separate settlements called brahmadeya that
appear to have been royal creations. The state
appears to have had its own bevy of officials at
the nadu level: the nadu vagai ceyvar, also
referred to as the nadu kuru ceyvar, indicating
one who was in charge of settling nadu
accounts, and what may have been a superior
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office of nadu kankani nayakam or one who
oversaw the accounts of land sales and
arranged for services and suchlike
(Subbarayulu 1973). At the very local level,
the brahmana villages had a system of representation in the corporate body called sabha,
with different committees or variyams having
specialized functions such as supervision of
tanks and the weighing of gold. The method
of election to five such committees is mentioned in an inscription of the early 10th century. There were 30 kudumbus or wards
arranged into 12 ceris or streets. Nominations
were first invited from the kudumbus and
then a selection by lot or kudavolai was done
(Sastri 1937). Temples and other religious
institutions that also played an important role
in economic and social transactions in the
society had organizations to look after their
working.
Regarding sub-rulers and provincial governors, there is no specific indication of institutionalized tiers of rule under the Cholas.
There is indication of heirs to the throne
being co-regents; and allied rulers and
military commanders or senapati also figure
during military campaigns. It appears that
the king of Sri Vijaya represented the Cholas
(Karashima 2009) at an embassy in Song
China. The Cholas had very close ties with
a number of chiefs in the area, like the Sambuvarayar, as well as neighboring kingdoms
such as the Rashtrakutas and Eastern Chalukyas, often forged through marriage. Often
these matrimonial alliances soured relationships between the kingdoms at a later date,
as in the case of the Rashtrakutas, on the
question of succession. The early years of
Chola rule saw them first conquering the Pallavas to the north and renaming their territories as Jayamkondacolamandalam. They
were also constantly attempting to conquer
and maintain their control over the Pandyas
and Cheras in the extreme south, the Chalukyas of Kalyani in the northwest, and the
various small principalities ruled by the
Nolambas, Gangas, and others (Sastri 1955).
At the zenith of their power, the Cholas
maintained cordial relations with kingdoms
in Southeast Asia and the Chinese Empire.
During Rajaraja I’s time, the Sailendra
dynasty ruler of Sri Vijaya was permitted to
build a Buddhist temple – the Chudamani
Vihara at Nagapattinam – in c.1008 CE. Rajendra I received a golden chariot as a gift from
the king of Kamboja (Khmer or Angkor,
modern Cambodia) (Kulke 2010). Rajendra
and his son Virarajendra led an expedition
to Kadaram against the Sri Vijayan kingdom
in 1025 apparently to curb its imperialist
expansion vis-à-vis the Khmer. Chinese Song
period chronicles Songshi identify this kingdom as Sanfoqi while the Cholas are called
Zhunian. The Songshi also mentions an
embassy from the Zhunian king in 1077
(Sen 2010). Closer to home, there were frequent skirmishes with the kings of Rajarata
in Sri Lanka culminating in the conquest of
the northern and central parts of the island
in the early 11th century.
The saints of the bhakti or devotional tradition, which flourished in the Tamil region
between the 6th and 9th centuries CE, firmly
established the worship of the brahmanical
deities Siva and Visnu, extolled in the sacred
texts called Purana composed in the Sanskrit
language. These saints localized the traditions
by using Tamil language as their mode
of expression, and identifying local cult
sites as sacred to these Puranic deities
(Mahalakshmi 2011). Although we know of
the presence of the northern religious
traditions – Brahmanism, Buddhism, and
Jainism – in the region since the 2nd century
BCE, it is the last two that held sway in addition
to the local belief systems until this point. The
Chola period saw the construction, renovation, and expansion of a number of shrines
to these Puranic deities, thereby seeking legitimacy from the bhakti tradition. The middle
4
Chola period saw the “cathedral” style of
building marked by towering spires and magnificent proportions, exemplified in the Siva
temples in Tanjavur, Gangaikondaolapuram,
and Darasuram (Srinivasan 1972). In the later
Chola period, there was the horizontal expansion of the temple complex and a number of
subsidiary shrines to minor deities and different forms of the main deity were added. What
is striking is that the temples were named
after kings, the best example being the massive Rajarajesvaram in Tanjavur built by
Rajaraja I. This may be seen as an ideological
mechanism through which the association
between the king and the deity was invoked,
thereby granting divine sanction to the king.
This was linked to the absorption of local
gods and goddesses who were gradually associated with the brahmanical deities, and the
adoption of brahmanical rituals for their worship. The patronage to the ritual specialists –
brahmanas – and the creation of a liturgy in
an evolving Sanskritized Tamil language
helped to strengthen this assimilation
(Stein 1994).
The Chola state was dependent on the surpluses generated from the expansion of wet
rice cultivation and the intensification of
agrarian processes in already cultivated areas.
In addition, due to the presence of a large
number of craft specialists, burgeoning trade
and the concomitant urbanization led to new
economic bases for the state coming into
being. The evolution of nadu or peasant localities was a gradual process that began in the
early centuries of the Common Era, and
which was accelerated in the early medieval
period. There are numerous sources that talk
of the “killing” of forests and the creation of
the agrarian areas as well as the clearing of
wastelands (Subbarayulu 1973). This process
was facilitated through the operation of institutional mechanisms in the form of the brahmadeya or brahmana settlements and the
devadana or temple settlements that were
either part of or whole settlements. As
these were controlled by those from outside
the locality they also provided leverage for
the state to make its presence felt in disparate
regions (Champakalakshmi 1996). While private ownership of land was not known in the
non-brahmana villages with the vellan-vagai
or peasant cultivators until the 10th century,
thereafter we see rapid development of individual tenures as compared to the communal
ownership of earlier times. We have a number
of instances of irrigational facilities instituted
and maintained by the local governmental
machinery in the form of raising embankments, tanks, and canals. We also hear of
committees levying taxes and fines for this
purpose. Inscriptions tell us of livestock gifted
to temples and their redistribution among the
pastoral communities (Heitzman 1997).
The Chola period also saw craft specialization and trading activities accelerating due to
the highly productive agrarian system that
was put into place by the state. A number
of specialists such as weavers, oil pressers,
goldsmiths, and so on, are known from
inscriptions. As a result, we also have a concomitant development of trade within the
region and outside, including maritime
trading activities. A third institutional mechanism, closely linked to the temple, that contributed to the economic transformations in
the Chola period was the nagaram or urban
settlement. The corporate assembly of the
same name comprising merchants from the
settlement, the nagarattar, directed trade
and other affairs (Hall 1980). Cities became
important production centers over the Chola
period, and we hear of specialized centers
such as the Saliya Nagarattar of the weavers
and Sankarappadi nagarattar of the oilmongers. Merchant bodies such as the Manigramam and Ayyavole, also called Nanadesa
Disai Ayiratti Ainurruvar, which had a
trans-regional presence, were dominant
from the latter half of the Chola rule, while
5
supra-local trading bodies dealing in a particular commodity are also known. The Ainurruvar, particularly, played an important role
in linking different trading bodies and regions
as indicated by their name – “the 500 from
one thousand directions in different regions” –
and had a significant presence outside the
region as well as across the ocean in Sri Lanka.
A guild of foreign merchants called Hanjumannam is also known, that may initially
have included Jewish and Arab merchants
but was later exclusively associated with the
Arabs (Subbarayulu 2012). There appears to
be little doubt that the Cholas were aggressively following a policy of promotion of trade
and it has been argued that the numerous
naval expeditions undertaken by them into
Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia, and China may
be attributed to the commercial potential of
the area (Sen 2010). This has also led to the
assertion that while the early Cholas were
focused on the internal revenue base the
imperial Cholas were influenced by the pull
of the coast (Chakravarti 2011).
The many gifts recorded to religious institutions suggest that goods and land were in circulation, and, in the case of the latter, in the 12th
century the state was forced to pass injunctions
restricting land sales. The Cholas oversaw a
vibrant money economy with kings issuing
coins in gold called in ascending order of value
as manjadi, kacu, and kalanju although with
varying values (Chattopadhyaya 1977). We also
hear of a gold coin in circulation presumably
from Sri Lanka called ilakacu (Ilam is the name
for Sri Lanka found in Tamil sources). Many
gifts in gold were channeled into the agrarian
economy, and we also hear of usury as an established practice.
Land revenue was the main source of
income for the state and the entire taxation
system was organized to harness this in
various ways. We hear of assessment of land
in terms of the cropping pattern – orupuvilaiyum nilam or one-crop lands, and
irupuvilaiyum nilam or two-crop lands; nir
nilam or wet lands; punjey or dry/wastelands; and nanjey or improved lands
(Karashima 1984). Essentially there were
two tiers of revenue extraction – local and
supra-local. The most pervasive tax was that
levied on the cultivator – kutimai. Among
the local taxes there were various kinds of
labor dues, the most common being irrigational labor – vetti/vettinai – at the village
and nadu levels. There was a general tax
called natacci/uracci referring to the taxes
on residential spaces and commons. There
were a number of trading and artisanal dues
as well, such as cunkam or toll, tattar pattam
or tax on goldsmiths, ennai irai/urai nali on
oil, kurai kacu on cloth, verrilai on betel leaf,
vannar parai on washermen, paci pattam on
fishing, and so on. What is interesting to
note is that most were specified to be paid
in kind. At the state level, the most abiding
tax term we find is the katamai, which is also
called kanikatan, which was paid in kind.
Both terms are revealing: katamai means
duty while kanikatan refers to a debt on land.
There are taxes mentioned under the generic
head irai in the early Chola period that
referred perhaps to this land tax. We have
another land tax to be paid in cash called
antarayam, literally meaning “income coming in” identified as an interior tax.
A particularly interesting tax was the eccoru
referring to provisions made to feed the officials engaged in revenue administration.
There were general taxes clubbed as perumvari and ciru/kil vari meaning big and small
taxes respectively. A special right of protection called padikaval was given to locality
chiefs such as the Malaiyaman, Vana-kovarayar, Kadava, and Sambuvaraya, recognizing
their privileged status.
In conquered territories such as the Pallava
areas of Tondaimandalam, earlier structures
were maintained. The same policy was also
followed in the Pandya regions, although
6
there were some new taxes as well as those
known in Chola areas (Karashima 1984).
We know of a large standing army of the
Cholas and its various regiments, such as
the kudirai cevagar or cavalry, anaiatkal or
elephant corps, villigal or archers, and valperra kaikkolar or swordsmen. The king
was the head of the armed forces in principle
and there were various expeditions led by
individual rulers or their sons or feudatories.
There was an official functionary called the
senapati who was the commander of the
forces. The specialized group of valangai
velaikkarar or left-handed groups who performed a velai, or task, is known as the backbone of the army not merely in the Chola
lands but also in Sri Lanka. These have been
understood as mercenary armies that offered
their services to any party in the later Chola
context (Hall 1980). Grants of land for military services known as padaiparru were given
by kings. Specialized communities such as the
Kaikkolas (“by the strength of their arms”)
and Curuttiman (bowmen) are also known
from the latter half of Chola rule.
The navy of the Cholas has attracted a lot of
scholarly attention, and while the military
expeditions are not disputed the possibility
that the state was itself engaged in mercantile
activities has also been raised. It has further
been suggested that rather than maintain
their own fleet of ships they used mercantile
vessels or outriggers such as Sangara (large
oceangoing single log vessels) and Colandia
(massive oceangoing vessels). The kattu
maran (catamarans) were the small bounded
log-boats used in shallow waters and were
possibly used to ferry soldiers’ arms and
ammunition and provisions to the larger carriers (Sakhuja and Sakhuja 2010).
Early historiography of the Cholas focused
on its grandeur, comparing it to the Byzantine
Empire, while emphasizing the democratic
structures in the form of elected representation in village assemblies. The first systematic
effort to study the political economy of the
Cholas was through a statistical analysis of
the pattern of landholding in brahmana and
non-brahmana villages in the early Chola
period which had implications for the changes
heralded by the royal creation of the brahmadeya in rural society. Another groundbreaking
work focusing on the political geography of the
Cholas established that the state created new
agrarian pockets, renamed old ones, and was
constantly redefining its political boundaries.
Some scholars have argued that the period
marked by Chola rule represented a feudal
social formation. A very important study on
the Cholas focused on the issue of ritual sovereignty, where ideological mechanisms primarily drawing from religions were seen as the
main props of the state. Countering this claim
that the state had no real power as well as the
feudalism proponents, scholars have stressed
the many institutional apparatuses created
by the Chola state to establish and maintain
itself as a centralized entity. Recent studies
have questioned the assumption of Chola
colonization of Southeast Asia by focusing
on the maritime trading networks from China
to the Arab world as the key to understanding
this interaction. Works that have focused on
religious traditions and transformations of
the cultural landscape of the Tamil region
draw attention to the ideological institutions
used by the state to further its reach and maintain its power.
Conventional histories have tended to
focus on the decline of the Cholas because
of weak rulers in the late 12th century. Recent
studies indicate that the onus must be shifted
to the political economy on the one hand, and
on the other to the rise of additional regional
powers such as the Hoysalas and Kakatiyas to
the northwest and northeast, and the Pandyas
in the south. The last known ruler of this
dynasty was Rajendra III who was defeated
in 1279 by the Pandyan king Maravarman
Kulasekara.
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SEE ALSO: Administration and bureaucracy;
Agriculture and empire; Chalukya dynasty;
Chera Kingdom; Eastern Ganga and Gajapati
empires; Hoysala Empire; Kakatiya Kingdom;
Pandyan Empire; Rashtrakuta Empire;
Śailendra Empire of Java; Srivijaya, Kingdom of;
Trade and commerce
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Chattopadhyaya, B. D. 1977. Coins and Currency
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Hall, K. R. 1980. Trade and Statecraft in the Age of
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Heitzman, J. 1997. Gifts of Power: Lordship in an
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Karashima, N. 1984. South Indian History and
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Karashima, N. 2009. Ancient to Medieval: South
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Sastri, K. A. N. 1955. A History of South India from
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Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Sen, T. 2010. “The Military Campaigns of Rajendra
Chola and the Chola-Sri Vijaya-China Triangle.” In H. Kulke et al. (Eds.), Nagapattinam
to Suvarnadwipa: Reflections on the Chola Naval
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Srinivasan, K. R. 1972. Temples of South India.
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Subbarayulu, Y. 1973. The Political Geography of
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Subbarayulu Y. 2012. South India Under the Cholas. Delhi: Oxford University Press.
FURTHER READING
Kulke, H., K. Kesavapany, and V. Sakhuja (Eds.)
2010. Nagapattinam to Suvarnadwipa: Reflections on the Chola Naval Expeditions to Southeast Asia. New Delhi: Manohar Publishers.