Raja raja chola I (Military conquests)

Military conquests

Rajaraja created a powerful standing army and a considerable navy. A number of regiments are mentioned in the Thanjavur inscriptions. These regiments were divided into elephant troops, cavalry and infantry and each of these regiments had its own autonomy and was free to endow benefactions or build temples.

Early campaigns

Rajaraja began his first campaign in the eighth year of his reign. The Pandyas, Cheras and the Sinhalas allied against the Cholas. In 994, Rajaraja destroyed the fleet of the Chera king Bhaskara Ravi Varman Thiruvadi (c. 978–1036) in the Kandalur War. Rajaraja defeated the Pandya king Amarabhujanga and captured the port of Virinam. To commemorate these conquests, Rajaraja assumed the title Mummudi Chola, a title used by Tamil kings who ruled the three kingdoms of Cholas, Pandyas and Cheras. In 1008, Rajaraja captured Udagai from Cheras and Rajendra Chola I led the Chola army in this battle.

Conquest of Sri Lanka


Mahinda V was the king of Sinhalese. In 991, Mahinda’s army mutinied with help from mercenaries from Kerala with Mahinda seeking refuge in the southern region of Ruhuna. Rajaraja invaded Ceylon in 993. The Thiruvalangadu copper-plate inscriptions mention that Rajaraja’s army crossed the ocean by ships and destroyed Anuradhapura, the 1400-year-old capital of Sinhalas. Cholas made the city of Polonnaruwa as the capital and renamed it Jananathamangalam. Rajaraja built a Siva temple in Pollonaruwa to commemorate the victory. Raja Raja captured only the northern part of Sri Lanka while the southern part remained independent. His son Rajendra Chola captured the island in 1017 and the Chola reign in Sri Lanka was ended by Vijayabahu I in 1070.

Chalukyan conflict

In 998, Rajaraja captured the regions of Gangapadi, Nolambapadi and Tadigaipadi (present day Karnataka). Raja Chola extinguished theNolambas, who were the feudatories of Ganga while conquering and annexing Nolambapadi. The conquered provinces were originally feudatories of the Rashtrakutas. In 973, the Rashtrakutas were defeated by the Western Chalukyas leading to direct conflict withCholas.An inscription of Irivabedanga Satyashraya from Dharwar describes him as a vassal of the Western Chalukyas and acknowledges the Chola onslaught.In the same inscription, he accuses Rajendra of having arrived with a force of 955,000 and of having gone on rampage in Donuwara thereby blurring the moralities of war as laid out in the Dharmasastras. Historians like James Heitzman and Wolfgang Schenkluhn conclude that this confrontation displayed the degree of animosity on a personal level between the rulers of the Chola and the Chalukya kingdoms drawing a parallel between the enmity between the Chalukyas of Badami and the Pallavas of Kanchi.
There were encounters between the Cholas and the Hoysalas, who were vassals of the Western Chalukyas. An inscription from the Gopalakrishna temple at Narasipur dated to 1006 records that Rajaraja's general Aprameya killed minister Naganna and other generals of the Hoysalas.A similar inscription in Channapatna also describes Rajaraja defeating the Hoysalas. Vengi kingdom was ruled by Jata Choda Bhima of the Eastern Chalukyas dynasty.Jata Choda Bhima was defeated by Raja Raja and Saktivarman was placed on the throne of Vengi. After the withdrawal of the Chola army, Bhima captured Kanchi in 1001. Raja Raja expelled and killed Bhima before re-establishing Saktivarman I on the throne of Vengi.
Naval expedition
The invasion of the kingdom of Kalinga occurred after the conquest of Vengi.

One of the last conquests of Raja Raja was the naval conquest of the islands of Maldives.The realization of the importance of a good navy and the desire to neutralize the emerging Chera Naval power were probably the reasons for the Kandalur campaign in the early days of Rajaraja’s reign. The Cholas controlled the area around of Bay of Bengal with Nagapattinam as the main port. The Chola Navy also had played a major role in the invasion of Sri Lanka. The success of Raja Raja allowed his son Rajendra Chola to lead the Chola invasion of Srivijaya, carrying out naval raids in South-East Asia and briefly occupying Kadaram.

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