Rajendra Chola I
Rajendra Chola I
Rajendra Chola I
Rajendra Chola redirects here. For Rajendra Chola II, located to the north of Hyderabad in present-day Andhra
see Rajendra Chola II.
Pradesh. An excerpt from an inscription in Tamil from
Kolar states:
Rajendra Chola I or Rajendra I was a Chola emperor
who is considered one of the greatest rulers and military
generals of India. He succeeded his father Rajaraja Chola
I in 1014 CE. During his reign, he extended the inuence of the Chola empire to the banks of the river Ganga
in North India and across the Indian ocean to the West,
making the Chola Empire as one of the most powerful empires of India.[5][6] Rajendras conquests included
the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Sri Lanka, Maldives,
and he successfully invaded and raided the territories of
Srivijaya in Malaysia, Southern Thailand and Indonesia
in South East Asia.[5][7] The Cholas exacted tribute from
Thailand and the Khmer kingdom of Cambodia. He defeated Mahipala, the Pala king of Bengal and Bihar, and
to commemorate his victory he built a new capital city
called Gangaikonda Cholapuram.[8][9]
2.2
In the 8th year of the reign of Kopparakesarivanmar sri Rajendra Sola Deva, who,
while the goddess of Fortune, having become
constant, increased, and while the goddess of
the great Earth, the goddess of victory in battle and the matchless goddess of Fame, having become his great queens, rejoiced-that in
his extended lifetime, conquered with his great
war-like army Idaiturai-nadu, Vanavasi shut
in by a fence of continuous forests; Kollipakkai, whose walls were surrounded by sulli
trees; Mannaikkadakkam whose fortication
was unapproachable.[12]
2
2.1
Military conquests
Early campaigns
MILITARY CONQUESTS
1017 CE and annexed the entire island.[13] As a result 2.5 Expedition to the Ganges
of the campaign, Rajendra captured the regal jewels of
the Pandyas, which Parantaka I tried to capture and the Main article: Chola expedition to North India
crown of the Sinhala king. The Sinhala king Mahinda V
was taken prisoner and transported to the Chola country.
In 1019 CE, Rajendras forces marched through Kalinga
towards the river Ganga. The Chola army eventually
reached the Pala kingdom of Bengal where they defeated Mahipala. The Chola army also defeated the
2.3 Pandyas and Cheras
last ruler of the Kamboja Pala dynasty Dharmapala of
Dandabhukti.[16][17] The Chola army went on to raid East
In 1018 CE, Rajendra marched across the Pandya and
Bengal and defeated Govindachandra of the Chandra dyChera kingdoms referred in the Tamil Copper-plate innasty and invaded Bastar region.[18][19] The territories
scriptions. The territories were already conquered during
held the status of tribute paying subordinates and trade
the reign of Raja Raja I.[10] Rajendra appointed one of his
partners with the Chola Kingdom, an arrangement that
sons as viceroy with the title Jatavarman Sundara Cholalasted till the times of Kulothunga III.[20] He constructed
Pandya with Madurai as the headquarters.
a new capital at Gangaikondacholapuram and built the
Brihadeeswarar Temple similar to the Brihadeeswarar
Temple at Thanjavur.
2.4
Chalukyan conict
Vangadesam
(Pala)
Pagan
In 1015 CE, Jayasimha II became the king of Western
Odda
Kalyani
Burmese
Kalinga
Chalukyas. He tried to recover the losses suered by
Western
Pegu
Vengl
Chalukyas
his predecessor Satyashraya, who ed his capital and was
Champa
Chenla
later restored to the throne by Raja Raja I as a tribute pay(Khmer) Sambor Prei Kuk
Kanchipuram
Gangaikonda Cholapuram
ing subordinate. Initially, Jayasimha II was successful as
Nagapattinam
Thanjavur
Cahaya
Rajendra was busy with his campaigns in Sri Lanka.[14] In
Kadaram
Lanka
1021 CE, after the demise of the Eastern Chalukyan king
Vimaladitya of Vengi, Jayasimha supported the claim
Panai
Trade Routes
Chola Territory
of Vijayaditya VII to the throne against the claims of
Chola Inuence
Rajaraja Narendra. Rajaraja Narendra was the son of
Srivijaya
Vimaladitya and Chola princess Kundavai.[14] Rajendra
helped his nephew Rajaraja defeat Vijayaditya.[15] His
armies defeated Vijayadiya in Vengi and Jayasimha in the Rajendra Cholas Territories c. 1030 CE
battle of Maski.[14]
(Basavakalyan)
(Siem Reap)
(Chaiya)
(Kedah)
(Palembang)
Gangaikonda Cholapuram was built by Rajendra Chola to celebrate his success in the Ganges Expedition
Sangrama Vijayatunggavarman was the son of Mara Vijayatungavarman of the Sailendra dynasty who ruled
the Srivijaya kingdom near Palembang in Sumatra.
The Sailendra dynasty had good relations with the
Chola Empire during the reign of Rajaraja Chola I.
Mara Vijayatungavarman built a Chudamani Vihara at
Nagapattinam. The Khmer king Suryavarman I requested aid from Rajendra against the Tambralinga
kingdom.[21][22] After learning of Suryavarmans alliance
with Rajendra Chola, the Tambralinga king requested
aid from the Srivijaya king Sangrama Vijayatunggavarman.[21][23] This eventually led to the Chola expedition
against the Srivijiya Empire. This alliance somewhat
also had a religious nuance, since both the Chola Empire and the Khmer empire were Hindu Shivaist, while
3
Tambralinga kingdom and Sri Vijaya were Mahayana
Buddhist.
In 1025 CE, the Chola navy crossed the Indian ocean and
attacked the Srivijaya kingdom of Sangrama Vijayatunggavarman. Several places in Malaysia and Indonesia were
invaded by Rajendra Chola I.[24] Kadaram, the capital
was sacked and Pannai in present-day Sumatra in western
Indonesia and Malaiyur in the Malayan peninsula were
attacked. Rajendra also invaded the Tambralinga Kingdom in Southern Thailand and the Langkasuka Kingdom in modern Malaysia and South Thailand.[9][25][26]
The Chola invasion marked the demise of the Srivijaya
Empire.[27][28] The victory dealt a blow to Sri Vijayas
maritime might and monopoly.[29] After this the Chola
Empire conquered large portions of the Sri Vijaya Empire including its ports of Ligor, Kedah and Tumasik
(current day Singapore.[29][30] The Chola invasion furthered the expansion of Tamil merchant associations
such as the Manigramam, Ayyavole and Ainnurruvar
into Southeast Asia.[31][32][33][34] For the next century,
Tamil trading companies from southern India dominated
Southeast Asia.[27][28] The expedition of Rajendra Chola
I is mentioned in the corrupted form as Raja Chulan in the
medieval Malay chronicle Sejarah Melaya and Malaysian
princes have names ending with Cholan or Chulan such Stone sculpture with Tamil Inscription, Chokkanathaswamy temas the Raja of Perak called Raja Chulan.[35][36][37][38][39] ple, Bangalore built in 10th century AD
One record of Rajendra Chola describes him as the
King of the country of Lamuri in north Sumatra in
Indonesia.[40] The war ended with a victory for the Chola
dynasty and major losses for the Sri Vijaya Empire and
the Tambralinga kingdom.[21][23]
REFERENCES
[7] Power and Plenty: Trade, War, and the World Economy
in the Second Millennium by Ronald Findlay,Kevin H.
O'Rourke p.67
Popular culture
See also
List of Tamil monarchs
References
tele-
[3] Sculptures of Shiva in temples of South India. lakshmisharath.com. Retrieved February 17, 2015.
[4] Sen, Sailendra (2013). A Textbook of Medieval Indian
History. Primus Books. pp. 4649. ISBN 978-9-38060734-4.
[5] Trade and Trade Routes in Ancient India by Moti Chandra
p.213
[6] Advanced Study in the History of Medieval India by
Jaswant Lal Mehta p.37
Majumdar, R. C. (1961). The Overseas Expeditions of King Rjendra Chola, Artibus Asiae 24
(3/4), pp. 338342. Artibus Asiae Publishers.
[24] Coeds, George (1968). Walter F. Vella, ed. The Indianized States of Southeast Asia. trans.Susan Brown Cowing.
University of Hawaii Press. pp. 142143. ISBN 978-08248-0368-1.
[25] Leaves of the Same Tree: Trade and Ethnicity in the
Straits of Melaka by Leonard Y. Andaya p.35
[26] Epigraphia Carnatica, Volume 10, Part 1, page 41
8 Further reading
Schmidt, Karl Ludwig (1997). An Atlas and Survey of South Asian History (Sources and Studies in
World History). Armonk, N.Y: M.E. Sharpe. ISBN
1-56324-334-2.
R. Hall, Kenneth (October 1975). Khmer Commercial Development and Foreign Contacts under
Sryavarman I, Journal of the Economic and Social
History of the Orient 18 (3), pp. 318336. Brill Publishers
[40] Al- Hind: The slave kings and the Islamic conquest. by
Andr Wink p.326
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9.2
Images
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