Chola naval expedition to Srivijaya

01The ports in the inscription

Rajendra’s meykirti from his fourteenth year on lists what the fleet took: Kadaram, with its king Sangrama Vijayottungavarman and his elephants and treasure; the jewelled Vidyadhara-torana, the war gate of his city; Srivijaya itself; Pannai, Malaiyur, Mayirudingam, Ilangasokam, which is Langkasuka, Mappappalam, Mevilimbangam, Valaippanduru, Talaittakkolam, Madamalingam, Ilamuri-desam in north Sumatra, Manakkavaram, the Nicobar islands, and Kadaram again. The list follows the coasts of Sumatra and the Malay peninsula like a sailing route.

02Why the Cholas sailed

Srivijaya controlled the strait through which the trade of the Coromandel coast reached China. Relations had been friendly: Rajaraja had granted a village for a Buddhist vihara built at Nagapattinam by a Srivijaya king, recorded in the Larger Leiden plates. What broke the friendship is not recorded; the likeliest cause is the strait and its tolls. After the raid the Cholas did not stay, but Chola embassies went to China, and Tamil merchant guilds worked these ports for two centuries more.

Person · Reigned 1014–1044 CE (co-regent from 1012)Rajendra Chola IRajendra, son of Rajaraja, took the Chola empire to its height. His army marched to the Ganga and brought its water home; his fleet crossed the Bay of Bengal and struck Srivijaya; and he built a new capital, Gangaikonda Cholapuram, the city of the Chola who took the Ganga.Read →