Imperial Cholas

01From Thanjavur outward

Vijayalaya was a Pallava feudatory when he seized Thanjavur from the Muttaraiyars. His son Aditya I ended Pallava rule, and Parantaka I took Madurai. Then came a setback: in 949 the Rashtrakuta Krishna III crushed the Cholas at Takkolam and held the north of their country for a generation. The recovery belonged to Sundara Chola and, above all, to his son Arunmozhi, who took the name Rajaraja in 985 and spent thirty years making the Cholas the first power of the peninsula.

02Rajaraja and Rajendra

Rajaraja conquered the Pandyas and Cheras, took northern Lanka and the Maldives, and in 1010 consecrated the Rajarajeshvaram at Thanjavur, its vimana rising over sixty metres. His son Rajendra I marched an army to the Ganga around 1019–1022, brought its water back in pots, and built a new capital, Gangaikonda Cholapuram, "the city of the Chola who took the Ganga". Around 1025 his fleet struck the ports of Srivijaya across the sea, including Kadaram in Malaya.

Place · Sung by the Alvars; stone temple of the Chola country, enlarged by the later Pandyas, Vijayanagara and the Madurai NayakasAzhagiya Manavalar Temple, Thirukkozhi (Uraiyur)The second Divya Desam, in the old Chola capital of Uraiyur, where Bhagwan Ranganatha came as the beautiful bridegroom for Kamalavalli, the Chola king’s daughter. Here the Thayar goes first in every procession and the Perumal follows.Read →

03Villages that voted

Two inscriptions of Parantaka I on the walls of the Vaikuntha Perumal temple at Uttaramerur, dated 919 and 921, lay down how the village sabha was chosen: names written on palm leaves, dropped in a pot, and drawn by a boy, with rules on age, property and learning for every candidate. Chola temples were also banks, schools and granaries. The line weakened after Kulottunga III, and by 1279 the Pandyas had taken its lands.

The rulers

1. 1VijayalayaTook Thanjavur from the Muttaraiyarsc. 848–871
2. 2Aditya IEnded Pallava rule in Tondaimandalamc. 871–907
3. 3Parantaka ITook Madurai; Uttaramerur inscriptions; lost at Takkolam 949c. 907–955
4. 4GandaradityaPoet of a hymn in the ninth Tirumuraic. 950–957
5. 5Sundara Chola (Parantaka II)c. 957–970
6. 6Uttama Cholac. 970–985
7. 7Rajaraja IBuilt the Brihadeeswara temple, 1010985–1014
8. 8Rajendra IGanga expedition and the Srivijaya raid1012–1044
9. 9Rajadhiraja IKilled at Koppam fighting the Chalukyas1018–1054
10. 10Rajendra II1051–1063
11. 11Virarajendra1063–1070
12. 12Kulottunga IEastern Chalukya prince who united the two houses1070–1122
13. 13Vikrama Chola1118–1135
14. 14Kulottunga II1133–1150
15. 15Rajaraja IIBuilt the Airavatesvara temple, Darasuram1146–1173
16. 16Kulottunga IIIBuilt the Kampaheswarar temple, Thirubuvanam1178–1218
17. 17Rajaraja III1216–1256
18. 18Rajendra IIILast of the line1246–1279

What they left

• Brihadeeswara temple, Thanjavur (1010), with the temples at Gangaikonda Cholapuram and Darasuram, together a UNESCO World Heritage Site
• Chola bronzes cast by the lost-wax method, above all the Nataraja
• The Uttaramerur inscriptions on electing a village sabha
• Copper-plate charters such as the Anbil, Tiruvalangadu and Larger Leiden plates
• Huge irrigation tanks, among them the Chola Gangam lake at Gangaikonda Cholapuram