Earlier this month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled a new insignia for the Indian Navy while marking a major milestone in its history – the commissioning of the country’s first indigenously built aircraft carrier INS Vikrant.
Roughly a millennium ago, the Chola dynasty achieved what INS Vikrant is expected to accomplish — to make India a superior maritime power. When the new insignia, which drew inspiration from the naval ensign of Maratha king Chhatrapati Shivaji, was unveiled, it triggered a discussion on how apt it would have been for the insignia to have a symbol representing the Cholas, who proved their naval supremacy at least five centuries before the ascent of Shivaji.
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The supremacy of Cholas, particularly their navy, attained its zenith during the reign of Rajendra Chola, who ascended the throne in 1012 AD. During his rule, the vast majority of peninsular India was under their control, which provided them with an unfettered access to the seas.
It was during his reign that the entire Sri Lanka (Ceylon) was brought under Chola rule and the Srivijaya kingdom in the Malay archipelago was subjugated.
However, the foundation for the imperial Chola domination was laid by his father Rajaraja, who reigned from 985 AD to 1014 AD. Renowned historian K.A. Nilakanta Sastri in his book, The Colas, says, “[the navy which] Rajendra used so effectively some years later had been organised under his great father who stands in many ways in the same relation to Rajendra as Philip of Macedon to Alexander the Great.”
Three campaigns during Rajaraja’s rule were important in establishing the naval dominance of the Cholas. Two conquests proved the superiority of the Chola navy, while the other ensured the destruction of an opponent’s naval fleet.
One of his first campaigns was against the Pandyas and the Cheras. Historian K.K. Pillai in his Tamil book Cholar Varalaru says the phrase ‘Kandalursalai kalamaruttaruliya’, found in many inscriptions, referred to the destruction of the naval fleet (kalam means ship, while arutta means destroy in this context) of the Cheras in Kandalur in the west coast. “The expedition against Kandalur in the early years of Rajaraja’s rule was primarily intended to sterilise the naval power of the Cheras,” says Sastri in his book.
Though attempts were made to subjugate Sri Lanka even during the rule of Parantaka I (907-955 AD), it was during Rajaraja’s reign that the northern part of the country was decisively made a Chola province.
An inscription on the Tiruvalangadu plates compares Rajaraja’s victory in Ceylon to that of the mythical victory of Lord Rama over Sri Lanka. “Rama was excelled by this [king] whose powerful army crossed the ocean by ships and burnt up the king of Lanka,” the plate says.
The third important conquest, which happened towards the end of Rajaraja’s reign, was that of the present-day Maldives. The phrase ‘Munneer pazantheevu panneerayiram kondathuvey (the conquest of the old islands of the sea numbering 12,000)’ is believed to refer to the Maldives.
It has to be noted that Rajendra, as the heir prince, played a major role in these conquests. On becoming the emperor, he vastly expanded on these victories. His first major naval conquest was that of Sri Lanka when the whole of the island became a Chola province. According to Sastri, while the Chola inscriptions are silent on the details of the conquest, the Mahavamsa provides a detailed account of the pillage of Sri Lanka by Rajendra’s forces.
His most audacious naval campaign was against the Srivijayan kingdom in the Malay archipelago, which gave him the title ‘Kadaram Kondan’ for his victory over Kedah in the present-day Malaysia.
While the imperial quest to expand the kingdom is often the reason for most of the Chola campaigns, historians feel the Kadaram campaign was different as the Srivijayan kingdoms were never brought under Chola control despite a victory.
As predicted by other historians like Sastri and Pillai, Tansen Sen, Professor of History, NYU Shanghai, in his essay for the book In Nagapattinam to Suvarnadwipa: Reflections on the Chola Naval Expeditions to Southeast Asia, says the Kadaram campaign was due to the conflicts in maritime trade, mainly with China that was under the rule of Song dynasty then.
While these conquests of Rajaraja and Rajendra show the supremacy of the Chola navy, not much detailed information is available on the organisation of their navy or their ship-building. In the same book, in the essay ‘A note on the navy of the Chola State,’ Y. Subbarayalu, former Professor of Epigraphy and Archaeology, Tamil University, Thanjavur, writes, “We have practically little explicit information from any contemporary source to understand the organisation of the Chola navy, the nature of their sea vessels, the numerical strength of the warriors involved in the expeditions, or the port towns used as their naval bases.”
Pointing to the maritime trade the Tamils had since the Sangam age, Sastri, in his book, says, “The Cholas only continued an ancient tradition in the attention they gave to developing their power on the sea. The conquest of Ceylon and the Maldives, and the evidence of the Chinese annals on the embassies that reached China in this period from the Chola country, give us some measure of the success they attained in this direction.”
Considering the naval expeditions and conquests of the Cholas, particularly Rajendra, he adds, “The existence of a well-ordered fleet comprising ships and boats of different grades must be admitted.”
