Chola dynasty

The Chola dynasty, a Tamil ruling family from Southern India, built a vast maritime empire at its peak. The earliest known references to them appear in inscriptions from the 3rd century BCE, during the Mauryan emperor Ashoka’s reign. They reached their imperial height under the Medieval Cholas in the mid-9th century CE. As one of the Three Crowned Kings of Tamilakam—alongside the Chera and Pandya dynasties—they controlled shifting territories until the 13th century CE.

The Cholas’ heartland was the fertile Kaveri River valley. From the late 9th century to the early 13th century, they ruled a much larger area, uniting peninsular India south of the Tungabhadra River as a single state for three centuries (907–1215 CE). Under rulers like Rajaraja I, Rajendra I, Rajadhiraja I, Rajendra II, Virarajendra, and Kulothunga Chola I, the empire became a military, economic, and cultural force across South Asia and Southeast Asia.

Written evidence for the Cholas before the 7th century CE is scarce. Early information comes from Sangam-era Tamil literature (c. 600 BCE), oral traditions, religious texts, and inscriptions on temples and copperplates. Later medieval Cholas claimed an ancient lineage. The Ashokan Edicts (273–232 BCE) mention them as friendly neighbors of the Mauryas. Brief references to Chola country, towns, ports, and trade appear in the *Periplus of the Erythraean Sea* and Ptolemy’s geography. The 5th-century Buddhist text *Mahāvaṃsa* recounts conflicts between Sri Lankans and Cholas in the 1st century BCE.

Commonly, Chola is thought to be an ancient clan name, like Chera and Pandya. The commentator Parimelazhagar noted that people from such old lineages remain generous even when reduced. Other names for the Cholas include Choda, Killi (possibly from *kil*, meaning to dig or work the land), Valavan (linked to *valam*, meaning fertility), Sembiyan (descendant of the legendary hero Shibi), and Cenni (meaning head in Tamil).

Chola history divides into four periods: the Early Cholas of Sangam literature, an interregnum after their fall until Vijayalaya’s rise (c. 848), the dynasty of Vijayalaya, and the Later Chola dynasty under Kulothunga Chola I from the late 11th century.

The earliest verifiable Chola kings appear in Sangam literature, dated to the late centuries BCE and early centuries CE. This literature records kings, princes, and poets but lacks a clear chronology. It also includes myths, such as King Kantaman, whose devotion supposedly brought the Kaveri River into being. Two prominent Sangam-era kings are Karikala and Kocengannan, though their order and relationships are uncertain. Urayur (now part of Thiruchirapalli) was their oldest capital; Kaveripattinam also served as an early capital. The *Mahāvaṃsa* notes that a Chola prince named Ellalan invaded and conquered Sri Lanka’s Rajarata kingdom in 235 BCE with a Mysore army.

Little is known of the three-century transition from the Sangam age’s end (c. 300 CE) to the Pandya and Pallava dominance. The Kalabhras invaded, displacing existing kingdoms, until the Pallavas and Pandyas ousted them in the 6th century. The Cholas largely vanished from Tamil land during this period, though a branch—the Telugu-Cholas—appears in Rayalaseema by the late 5th century CE, mentioned by the 7th-century traveler Yuan Chwang. Due to the Kalabhra invasion and Pallava power, Cholas migrated from Uraiyur to Telugu country, ruling as Pallava chieftains from at least 540 CE. Several Telugu Chola families, such as the Renati, Pottapi, and Nellore Cholas, emerged.