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WHY THE CHOLAS WERE RICH

The socio-economic processes that culminated in a South Indian Golden Age

In the 11th century CE, Rajendra I (“Lord of Kings”) of the Chola Empire of South India embarked on an
extraordinary series of campaigns. Extraordinary not because of what they achieved, but because they
overturn the traditional views of what “India” as a civilisation did.

A recurring myth about India is that its kings were not interested in anything that happened outside the
subcontinent, and even if they were, they were not violent enough to do anything serious about it (I
debunked this in my review of Upinder Singh’s Political Violence in Ancient India). Such a view is barely
justifiable even when applied to North India. South India, however, is a different matter entirely, as we
shall see.

This article aims to explore the rise of Rajendra’s dynasty, and why they chose to devote their wealth and
power across the ocean to subjugate Southeast Asia, instead of across the subcontinent to conquer the
North. I will draw on economic, political, and social processes, in addition to geography, to understand
this.

The South Indian Vision

A lone promontory that protrudes


into the Indian Ocean, South India
has been at the centre of global
trade since at least the 3rd century
BCE. Owing to the high transport
costs involved in pre-steamship
global trade, most of the goods
coming to and departing from
South India were luxury goods.

The imposing gateway of the Chola temple of Brihadesvara, or Shiva, at Urbanization in the South was
Tanjavur. At its height, it would have been painted and decorated, a sight
driven by surpluses arising from
to behold.
this trade, as opposed to agriculture
in the North. This has traditionally given the South a deep interest in global affairs, especially in what
happens in Southeast Asia. In addition, the importance of merchants and trade infrastructure in
maintaining a high quality of life was recognised from a very early period.

The relative geographic diversity of South India resulted in many warring states that were unable to
dominate each other, or powerful enough to conquer the North. On the other hand, the flat geography of
North India gave rise to many powerful empires that were unable to effectively control the rough terrain
of the South. This divide was so extreme, argues Trautmann, that even in 150 CE North Indians
considered the South to be a foreign country.
However, a gradual process of cultural exchange was present — called “Sanskritisation”. The prestige-
conferring Brahminical paraphernalia and rites of North Indian kingship were gradually adopted by South
Indian kings, and spread via their prosperous ports to Southeast Asia.

Since sea transport depended on weather patterns, merchants often constructed trading bases and then
set down roots in Southeast Asia. The
resulting ties of marriage and mutual
prosperity, coupled with a well-
developed transport infrastructure
the relative ease of sea transport and
burgeoning cultural similarity, meant
that South Indians saw their
Southeast as much more part of their
worldview than the distant North.

Cadet branches of Indian dynasties


often married into new Southeast
Asian kingdoms, such as Champa in
Vietnam. The importance of the sea
trade to them is reflected in poetry The South Indian vision: encircled by rough terrain on the Indian
and temple inscriptions. The subcontinent, strong maritime links developed to Southeast Asia,
presence of the Chinese giant, leading to ties of culture and marriage.
looming collectively over South India
as well as Southeast Asia through its control of trade, was acknowledged by diplomatic missions and
gifts. It should also be noted that it is much more difficult for North Indians to reach China — perhaps
accounting for the fact that North India saw itself as an almost isolated geopolitical world in contrast to
the “globalised” South.

From the Gupta of the Oceans to the Cholas of the Heavens

At the end of my last article, Samudragupta’s Geopolitics, I pointed out how most Indian states aligned
culturally with the North, as the emperor imposed a post-1990s-America-like “unipolar moment” on the
subcontinent by the 5th century CE. In the centuries that followed, global trade declined somewhat as the
Roman Empire collapsed in a period of global cooling and de-urbanisation, and the Arab conquests
drastically reshaped the geopolitics of the Middle East.

Closed off for a couple of centuries, India lost some of the cultural, religious, and ethnic plurality that
once characterised it. Buddhism and Jainism declined, and Hinduism spread aggressively across the
South, and from there to Southeast Asia. This new Hinduism was different from Brahmanism in that it
had a relatively broader social base, helped along by proselytising from religious reformers. In addition, it
was expressed with the construction of structural stone temples, often with royal patronage. This will be
explored later.
South Indian rulers also began to show an increasing interest in Northern culture. From the 9th to the
10th centuries, the Rashtrakuta rulers of the Deccan highlands sparred with North Indian powers to
control the grand imperial city of Kannauj, and built temples that reflected a sort of “transference” of
sacred significance from North India to the South, as Diana L. Eck argues in India: A Sacred Geography.
Consider the magnificent
monolithic Kailasanatha (“L
ord of Kailasa”) temple at
Ellora, which figuratively
represents the holy
mountain of the god Shiva,
which is actually in the
Himalayas. (This will be
referenced in the sequel to
this article).

In this milieu, in the deepest


South of India, the Tamil
land, the Chola dynasty
emerged from relative
insignificance to sear the
rice-fields with the heat of a
King-of-Kings, to
paraphrase Keay.
The Kailasanatha Temple at Ellora, carved into a cliffside, is possibly the
world’s largest monolithic structure.

Why the Cholas Were Powerful

As urbanization in the Tamil land depended on trade, any ruler worth his (or her) salt recognized how
important it was to keep it thriving. Despite (or perhaps because of) the continuous rise and fall of
dynasties, merchant guilds became more and more powerful, as did local councils.

Kanakalatha Mukund points out that this was the most efficient way to govern, given the state of
technology at the time. Local councils would collect taxes for the central administration, and possessed
authority over reinvesting some of the wealth collected. Each assembly was responsible not only for law
and order, irrigation, and the stewardship of land under its jurisdiction, but also for running the local
temple.

The local temple was much more than merely a religious institution. They served as headquarters for the
local assembly, as cultural and entertainment centres, and as providers of jobs and capital. Everyone
from shepherds and gardeners, to sculptors and bronze-workers, to priests and dancing-girls, would find
profit here. The construction of a temple, therefore, led to spreading wealth and prosperity.

This process took centuries to come to a head. First merchants had to emerge, then cities, then a widely-
accepted temple-building culture, and then the wealth needed to build a temple. This culminated roughly
when the Chola dynasty emerged, and the factors which characterize an Indian Golden Age once again
aligned. The South burst into prosperity.

The Chola administration reached a sort of “golden mean” between local self-governance and
centralization. The king would be responsible for foreign affairs, military matters, and monumental works
such as the massive Brihadesvara Temple (pictured above). The local assemblies handled day-to-day
administration, public goods, and tax collection.

The military aggressiveness of the Cholas — who did not shy from sacking temples and monasteries —
 provided wealth which the military classes reinvested in temple construction. This was seen as a way to
generate social capital, and was also done by the wealthier merchants.

This meant that the Chola state, almost by definition, continuously stimulated further urbanisation and
prosperity. This fine balance was achieved possibly because of the shrewd policies of the first of the
imperial Cholas, Rajaraja I, the father of the aforementioned Rajendra. I will discuss the geopolitical
actions of the dynasty, and the causes of its decline, in a sequel to this article.

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