Chola Empire

Gangaikonda Cholapuram

     


















The presence of a league of Tamil merchants in the port of Barus on the west coast of northern Sumatra in Indonesia, is attested in the eleventh century AD C.
    * Rajendra Choladeva (1014-1045) completed the conquest of Ceylon, wages war in Orissa and Bengal. He built the temple where he Gangaikondacholapuram transfer its capital. Rajendra in 1025 sent an expedition against the kingdom of Srivijaya (present-day Palembang in South Sumatra), which monitors shipping in the Malacca Straits, and the conquest of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. He sent an ambassador to the Emperor of China in 1033.
    * Rajadiraja Chola I (1018-1054)
    * Rajendra II (1051-1063)
    * Virarajendra (1063-1070)
    * Adhirajendra (1070-1073)
    * Rajendra Chola I Kulottunga (1070-1118) met for a time the Chola and Chalukya realms, regains Kalinga revolt, but lost its colonies in Ceylon and overseas. In 1086, he also made a census of its territories.
    * Vikrama Chola (1118-1133)
    * Kulottunga Chola II (1134
    * Rajaraja II (1134-1162)
    * Rajadhiraja II (1162? -1178)
    * Kulottunga III (1178-1216)
    * Rajaraja III (1216 and 1245-1252)
    * Rajendra III (co-regent in 1242 -1252 and 1267-1279), the last ruler Chola.

Chola Coins

The dynasty goes into decline and the Chola kingdom again reduced to the original area of Uraiyur will be absorbed by the kingdom of Vijayanagar in the fourteenth century.

The Chola know their height during the Chola I and Rajendra Rajaraja Choladeva. It was under their reign that India is the only period of sea power in its history.

Chola Dynasty

Chola Dynasty

The Chola dynasty is a very old southern India, mentioned in the Mahabharata, which gave its name to the Coromandel coast (from mandalam Chola, the Chola country) in Tamil Nadu. We know little about the early Cholas, whose tradition and literature have given us some names and approximate dates:

Capital Uraiyur
    * Veliyan Tittan, conqueror of Uraiyur (today near Tiruchirapalli), the first capital of Chola (50 BC. - 25 BC).
    * Porvaikko-Perunarkilli (25 av. J.-C.-1 BC).
    * Mudittalaiko Perunarkilli or-Ilan-set-Senni (1 av. J.-C.-25)
    * Karaikal I (1-25) have built a dam on the Cauvery
    * Velpahtadakkai-Perunarkilli (25-50)
    * Uruva PAHTAS-Ilan-id-Senni (50-75)
    * Karaikal II (75-100)
    * Sed-Senni Nalankilli-(100-125)
    * Kulamurrattu-tunciya Killivalavan-(125-150)
    * Rajasuyam-Vetta-Perunarkilli (150-175)
    * Ko-Cholan Cenkannan (175-200)

Chola age Coin

The rest is lost in the confusion. Then the Cholas are back on the scene in the ninth century.
Capital Thanjavur
    * Vijayalaya Chola (836-870) took Thanjavur and made it his capital.
    * Aditya Chola (870-907) pulls down the power of the Pallava and extends its domination to          Kanchipuram
    * Parantaka Chola I (907-953) hunting Pandya king Rajasimha II found refuge in Ceylon
    * Gandaradityavarman Chola (950-957)
    * Arinjaya Chola (956-957)
    * Parantaka Sundara Chola Rajendra II (957-970)
    * Uttam Madurantaka Chola (970-985)
    * Rajaraja Chola I (985-1014) resumed the policy of conquest after the troubled times of former kings. It destroys the fleet Chera near Trivandrum, conquers a part of Karnataka and northern Ceylon. It organizes the administration of his kingdom, began building the temple at Thanjavur Brihadesvara and promotes the cult of Shiva while being tolerant of other religions, especially Buddhism. In 1001, he made a great census of its territories.

Chera Dynasty

 

The Chera is one of the three dynasties of ancient Dravidian India, the others being the Cholas who ruled on the Coromandel Coast of Pandya and occupying the southern Dravida, which dominate much of the history of southern India and are in almost perpetual conflict to ensure their predominance. Its kings belonged to the tribe Vânavar, perhaps the Vanara people or apes of the Ramayana. The Chera reign on the Malabar coast in a region that corresponds to the modern state of Kerala, whose name comes from Keralaputra or son of Chera. They are mentioned in the inscriptions of Ashoka and correspond to Caelobothras Ptolemy.

The Chera capital to establish their Vanch, which is usually located Karur near Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu. Some however see it as the region of Kochi. Twenty-five Chera kings are known with details of their reign. We know in particular that they are fighting against piracy and they favored trade, especially spices, ivory, timber and gems to the Middle East and southern Europe, a trade was a great source of wealth for the region. At the same time as the goods exchanged between systems of beliefs, the country hosts the Chera Buddhism and Jainism from the third or second century BCE, and he sees the Jews to settle there very early, possibly be a result of the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem and that is where the tradition is to take countries to Thomas came to spread the teachings of Christ.
 

                      Over history, several branches of Chera reign over the country, such as that founded by King Udiyanjeral to 130, those of Ay and Nannan prevailing respectively in the southern and northern coast. Yet we know little about the early Chera kings. One of them, Senguttuvan, who reigned in the second century, knotted relations with the kingdoms of Ceylon, which is described by the Silappadhikaram, a book written by his brother Ilango Adigal. By 800, the branch Perumal - also called Kulashekhara - dominates the whole coast and until the reign of its last king Ramâvarma Kulashekhara. We find a branch of Chera, then called Zamorin, head of Calicut in the fifteenth century. The latter, traditionally trader with Arabs fight against the Portuguese alliance with rajas of Kochi in the sixteenth century.

History Of Tamilnadu

Ancient Tamil Script

The territory of Tamil Nadu in India is occupied by man since prehistoric times the most remote, and the history of Tamil Nadu and its people, the Tamil people, is one of the oldest in the world. Throughout its history, the beginnings of the Paleolithic era to our modern times, this region was home to different cultures with different origins. Except for some relatively brief periods, it has always remained independent. The three Tamil dynasties, Chera, Chola and Pandya are the dynasties of ancient times. Together, they ruled this land with a unique culture and language, contributing to the development of one of the oldest literatures of the world. They have maintained relations with the Roman Empire through maritime trade. They indulged in ongoing struggles for hegemony. 

    In the third century, the invasion of Tamil Nadu, another dynasty of southern India, the Kalabhras, causing the displacement of the three ruling dynasties. The occupants are then overthrown by the Pallava dynasty and then re Pandyas which restore the traditional kingdoms. The Chola dynasty, who resurfaces from nothingness by defeating the Pallavas and Pandyas the ninth century, extended his empire over the entire southern peninsula. At its peak, the Chola Empire extended from Bengal, north-east Sri Lanka in the south. The Navy stood up to the kingdom of Sriwijaya in South-East Asia.

Old Cholas Coin ( Sangam Age)

 

The rapid changes in the political situation in the rest of India, due to invasions from the north-west of the Muslim armies, mark a watershed in the history of Tamil Nadu. With the gradual decline of traditional three dynasties during the fifteenth century, the territory came under domination of the Tamil Hindu Kingdom of Vijayanagar.