The Chola Dynasty was a Tamil thalassocratic empire of southern India, one of the longest ruling dynasties in the world's history. The earliest references to the Chola are in inscriptions from the third century BC, left by Ashoka of the Maurya Empire. As one of the Three Crowned Kings of Tamilakam, along with the Chera and the Pandya, the dynasty continued to govern over varying territory until the 13th century AD.
The flag of Chola was a jumping Tiger.
Despite these ancient origins, the period the appropriate "Chola Empire" only begins with the medieval Cholas in the mid 9th century AD.
The history of the Cholas falls into four periods: the early Cholas of the Sangam literature, the interregnum between the fall of the Sangam Cholas and the rise of the Imperial medieval Cholas under Vijayalaya, and finally the Later Chola dynasty of Kulothunga Chola I from third quarter of the 11th century.
The main source of information of the early Cholas is the Tamil literature of the Sangam period. There are also brief notices furnished by the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, and in slightly later work of Ptolemy. Urayur (now a part of Thiruchirapalli) was their earliest capital. The Mahavamsa mentions that Sri Lanka was invaded in 235 BC by a Chola prince Ellalan and captured.
Little is known of the Cholas during the next few centuries until the accession of Vijayalaya in the second quarter of the 9th century.
The heartland of the Cholas was the fertile valley of the Kaveri River, but they ruled a significantly larger area at the height of their power from the latter half of the 9th to the beginning of the 13th century. The whole country south of the Tungabhadra was united and held as one State for a period of three centuries between 907 and 1215 AD. Under Rajaraja Chola I and his successors Rajendra Chola, Virarajendra Chola and Kulothunga Chola I, the dynasty became a military and economic power in South Asia and Southeast Asia. The Chola fleet represented the zenith of ancient Indian sea power.
Rajendra Chola I, conquered Odisha and reached the Ganges River. His name is mentioned in corrupted form as Raja Chulan in medieval Malay chronicle Sejarah Melayu.
During 1010-1153, Chola territories stretched from Maldives to Godavari River in Andhra Pradesh. In 1025, he successfully invaded cities of Sriviaya of Malaysia and Indonesia. The later Cholas 1070-1279 AD would still rule almost all of Sri Lanka. The overseas conquests include southern Thailand, Burma and Kedah too.
Chola Coinage. In the later part of the 10th century, the kingdom adopted coinage after a break of four centuries. It triggered off with gold coinage. Soon silver and copper coinage were minted in plenty. Raja raja Chola struck coins both in Sri Lanka and India. They differed in fabric, style and in the gold purity. In Tamilnadu, Cholas They adopted "Tiger facing two fishes" as their emblem on the coinage. Chola's coinage issues were in all three metals Gold, Silver and Copper. Gold fanams were struck by Raja raja.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Any inputs or feedback is welcome!