Chozhas - A naval power from South India

 Happy independence day

Hello everyone, welcome aboard the guru time traveller. Today we will be travelling to the 10^th century to visit the Chozha dynasty, the largest south Indian kingdom to ever exist.

When you think about the Chozhas you usually think about the 1000 year old Bhrahadheshwara temple in Tanjavur or the 2000 year old Kallanai dam across Cauvery river. But do you know that they were the only Indian kingdom to conquer territories outside of the Indian subcontinent. So, lets have a look at the Chozha history in detail.

The Chozha era can be split into two phases:

The Early Chozhas  This era is from  600 BCE to 300 CE. King Karikalan is the most famous Chozha king of that era. Not much information is known about the Early Chozhas.

Later Chozhas: This is the golden age of Chozhas. This era started from 850 CE. n  850 CE, Vijayala Chozha was the first king of this era.  He captured Thanjavur and declared independence from the Pallavas. Later they slowly gained control over the entire Pallava kingdom over the next 100 years. ..

Raja Raja Chozhan (985 – 1014CE) was one of the most powerful kings of that time. Under his reign, the Western Ganga Dynasty, the Cheras and Pandyas  and most of Sri Lanka was brought under Chozha rule.

His Son, Rajendra Chozha (971-1044 CE) was the commander of the Chozha army during some of these expeditions.

When Rajendra Chozhan became king, he accomplished many things. He subdued rebels on the Malabar coast, conquered parts of the Chalukya Dynasty, finished his father's conquest of Sri Lanka and conquered the Maldives and Andaman Islands all in 9 years and he had just started.

He raged his army towards northeast India and conquered the Kalinga kingdom in modern day Odisha and the Pala kingdom in Bengal.

This made him so happy that he brought large tanks filled with water from the Ganges to Tamil Nadu and even constructed an entire city called "Gangai Konda Chozhapuram" and blessed it with the water from the Ganges.

The Chozhas were also big in maritime trading. Ancient text from Tamil Nādu tell that the streets of the Chozha cities were filled with gods from around the world.

Now is the time to understand the maritime Silk Road. It is the route along which ancient powers traded most of their goods and the Chozhas was in the middle of it. So, the Chozhas always wanted to gain influence over the maritime Silk Road.

Sri Vijaya, a powerful kingdom based in southeast Asia was interfering with Chozha interest. You see, the Silk Road was going through some changes in the 11^th century. Normally ships would stop at both Indian and southeast Asian ports but advancements in the ship building industry made 2 stops unnecessary.  This caused tension between the Chozhas and Sri Vijaya. Sri Vijaya bribed sea gypsies to engaging in piracy on Sri Vijay’s side and to force all ships to dock at Sri Vijayan ports making Chozha ports redundant. This made Rajendra to think about attacking Sri Vijaya.

The invasion of Sri Vijaya involved 2 other players. Tambralinga, a Sri Vijayan ally and Angkor, an ally of the Chozhas. In 1025 CE Angkor was at war with Tambralinga and requested Chozha help. The Chozhas agreed to help and Sri Vijaya came to help its ally.

Using this opportunity, Rajendra gathered his navy which was one of the best navies at that time. His father had gathered Arab and Chinese builders for the development of his navy. He implemented many new technologies like watertight haul innovations which allowed his navy to traverse rougher seas, a compass and advancement of the flamethrower, a device that is designed to project a controllable jet of fire.

 Rajendra Chozha split his navy into an auxiliary and main fleet. He sent the auxiliary fleet through the Malacca straits where the Sri Vijayan navy was waiting for him. The Sri Vijayans thought that it was the bulk of Chozha fleet and started to fight but the main fleet was sent under Sumatra. On the way they sacked the city of Palembang, Sri Vijaya’s southern capital and ventured north to the Malacca straits and defeated the Sri Vijayan navy easily.

Then, they went to Kedah, the northern capital and sacked the city. Then they went to Tambralinga and brought it under Angkor’s control.

But, you might be wondering “why didn't Sri Vijaya expect the Chozha navy to come under Sumatra?” it was because traversing the rough waters under Sumatra was deemed very difficult at that time and they did not know the Chozha navy had the technology to traverse those rough waters. After this,  the Sri Vijayan King was held captured by the Chozha army and his daughter got married to the master Gurubaran himself; I’m sorry I meant Rajendra Chozhan.

 

So that's all for today's journey and everyone please thank master Gurubaran for his very nice explanation of the Chozha invasion that we saw now.

All aboard, we'll be returning to August 16th 2022 or ஆடி ங0(This is 30 in tamil numbers) சுபக்ருது வருடம் (Aadi is the tamil month and subakruthu is the name of the year as per tamil calender).