NCERT Class 12 - Themes in Indian History Part I, Chapter 2

The Chola Empire and Local Government

The imperial Cholas ruled the far south from the ninth to the thirteenth century. They are remembered for three things - a navy that crossed the Bay of Bengal, the Dravida temple at its finest, and a system of village self-government recorded in stone.

The rulers

• Vijayalaya founded the imperial line in the ninth century by capturing Thanjavur.
• Rajaraja I conquered Sri Lanka and the Maldives, and built the Brihadeshwara temple at Thanjavur, also called the Rajarajeshwara temple.
• Rajendra I led an expedition north to the Ganga and took the title Gangaikonda Chola, founding a new capital Gangaikonda Cholapuram.
• Rajendra I also sent a naval expedition against Srivijaya in south-east Asia, an unusual step for an Indian ruler and clearly aimed at protecting trade routes.
• The empire declined in the thirteenth century under pressure from the Pandyas and the Hoysalas.

Local government

• The empire was divided into mandalam, then valanadu, nadu and finally the village.
• Three kinds of village assembly existed - the ur of an ordinary village, the sabha or mahasabha of a brahmadeya village granted to brahmanas, and the nagaram of a merchant town.
• The Uttaramerur inscriptions in Tamil Nadu describe the working of the sabha in remarkable detail.
• Members were chosen by the kudavolai system - names written on palm leaves were put in a pot and a young boy drew them out.
• Qualifications were fixed - ownership of land, a house, a certain age and knowledge of the Vedas; those who had not submitted accounts were disqualified.
• Work was done through variyams, committees for the tank, the garden, gold, justice and the annual supervision.

Temples, bronzes and trade

• Chola temples perfected the Dravida style - a pyramidal tower called vimana over the sanctum, with gopurams on the enclosure walls growing larger over time.
• The Brihadeshwara temple at Thanjavur has one of the tallest vimanas of its time and is part of the UNESCO Great Living Chola Temples.
• Chola bronze images, above all the dancing Nataraja, were made by the lost-wax (cire perdue) method and are among the finest metal sculptures in the world.
• Temples were not only places of worship - they were landholders, employers, banks and schools, at the centre of the rural economy.
• Merchant guilds such as the Ayyavole Five Hundred and Manigramam carried Chola trade to south-east Asia and China.