Who Was Rajendra Chola I And Why Did PM Modi Visit His Capital City?

King Rajaraja Chola, who built the powerful Chola empire by defeating the Pandyas and Cheras, was immortalised in Kalki’s masterpiece Ponniyin Selvan – a Tamil novel that traverses the intrigues of the royal family, resulting in the crowning of Prince Arulmozhi Varman as Rajaraja Chola I.

Ace director Mani Ratnam recently turned it to celluloid, with a star-studded cast including Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Vikram, Karti, Trisha and Jayam Ravi among others.

King Rajaraja Chola I began the job of consolidating the Tamil dynasty’s power in India and Sri Lanka. But it was his son, Rajendra Chola I who expanded the Chola empire across South East Asia.

Under Rajendra Chola, the whole of Lanka, Indonesia and Sumatra, parts of China and Cambodia were all under the rule of Tamil kings. If Rajaraja Chola I built an extraordinary naval force, Rajendra Chola used it to spread Tamil culture and trade across the seas.

Not content with his southern kingdom, Rajendra Chola battled and won the king of Kalinga, in present day Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, defeated King Mahipala of Bengal’s Pala dynasty, as well as the Chalukyas and the Rashtrakutas who were themselves forces to reckon with at the time.

The victorious armies are said to have brought back pots of water filled with water from the river Ganga on the heads of defeated kings and soldiers to the capital city of the Cholas – this water from the Ganga was poured into a manmade lake which was named Chola Gangam. The victorious king named his capital Gangaikonda Cholapuram which roughly translates to the Chola land which has the Ganga. This city currently is in Ariyalur district in Tamil Nadu.

Tamil Nadu prospered under the reign of King Rajendra Chola with merchants trading in spices, textiles and jewellery across the seas. Rajendra Chola also built an intricate canal system that irrigated thousands of acres of lush fields. 

King Rajendra Chola was also a great Shaivite, a Shiva bhakt, and he built grand temples for his chosen deity, just like his father Rajaraja Chola I. These architectural marvels can be seen in the Shiva temple at Gangaikonda Cholapuram built by Rajendra Chola, while the Thanjavur Brihadeeswarar temple or Periya Koil was built by Rajaraja Chola I. Rajendra Chola also built Shiva temples in present day Sri Lanka and China.

It is in honour of this great son of the soil that Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the temple at Gangaikonda Cholapuram.

A small side-story needs to be told: Indira Gandhi visited the Brihadeeswarar temple in Thanjavur about two weeks before she was assassinated in October 1984. In that same year, then Chief Minister MG Ramachandran, who visited the temple with Indira Gandhi, fell sick with a kidney problem. He recovered, only to pass away three years later while still a sitting Chief Minister.

Ever since, no politician has visited the Thanjavur Brihadeeswarar temple as it was considered a sign of bad luck!