This is Part 2 of the series on Cholas and their naval exploits. Access Part 1 here:

Moopan still remembers that pre-eminent moment, the instant when he glimpsed death but yet did not depart. Fear of death pushes you deep into the shaft until the fire is seen. A fire that flares and up gobbles your personality. The sea daring Arata Mooki was no more, and his mind no more. An infinite fearlessness, sway of a dried foliar on the ever-present time. At the vast expanses of life, which is just like the horizon, Neelan has come to perform his part on the stage. Hey! Ratnakara, be a merciful benefactor to him as you are to this humanity. Let everyone have access to your bounty and richness. 

The south of the country's triangular region, the region between the eastern and western seas, presents us with a great maritime past. Indian littoral had and still has competent mariners, from primitive refers made from rushes, then logs and planks tied together, later they began building well-founded ships. The great monsoon forest, which backed both the coast, is home to some of the best hardwood timbers. Seawater resistant timber and quality of shipbuilding resources were available in plenty. 

Indians were masters in metallurgy as the Chinese were for their porcelain. Noncorrosive iron pillar of Delhi, the iron scaffoldings of Konark, stand testimony to it. The hull construction in ships was stitched with wooden dowels in support. Iron fasteners were taboo to be used under a misguided belief that ship fasteners would come apart as they passed over magnetic loadstones with which earth was set to be bound. This indirectly affected the way they built the ships and their defence of the coast along with it. 

On the fateful day of 11th May 1498, San Gabriel, a 120-ton ship, arrived in Calicut, with its revolutionary factor. It was a vessel carrying cannon. An armed Portuguese ship was totally unexpected and new in the Indian seas, which gave them a decisive advantage if they had to thrust in. Indian seas and its men follow the conception of freedom of the seas and had navies like Chola emperors or Samudhri Rajas to defend their coast or put down piracy.  

Indians have used seas for transporting military forces, and sometimes ships were armed with archers. The battle between Rajendra Chola and a Sailendra king took place on land. The Chola king carried whole armies across the Bay of Bengal and fought successive campings. The naval fight between ships and squadrons was unknown to Indians. The skewed concept of closed and exclusive seas was utterly alien to Indian thought. 

Rajendra Chola's overseas expedition to Sri Vijaya was unique as the primary reason still eludes, from the inscriptional sources from where we try to infer his expedition. We have to assume that Sri Vijaya was attempting to prevent Rajendra’s powerful merchant guilds from performing effectively, or it was his Digvijayam.

Merchant guilds of Southern India were powerful, namely, Manigramam, Anjuvarnam, Ayyavole offshoot of it, Ainurruvar, and other semi-independent organisations. The Anjuvannam was an organisation of foreign merchants, including Jews, Christians, and Muslims, who migrated to the Malabar coast. 

The earliest inscription about Manigramam guilds appears in the ninth and tenth centuries in Quilon's port (Kollam), Kerala, between emigrant foreign Christians and local authority. The first inscription about Ayyavole is found in Karnataka's Aihole. Some of the later inscriptions about Ayyavole are found in Munasandal, Pudukottai (Tamil Nadu). Later on, Ayyavole came to be addressed as Ainurruvar in Tamil speaking areas.

The Ayyavole Tamil merchants started moving towards Pudukkottai district, after which, in early medieval times, were the house of Irukkuvel Chief of Kodumbalur. Kodumbalur chief's power rose as the hegemony of Chola rose. The Kodumbalur chieftains were near related to Cholas and had dynastic connections. The Irukkuvel played a prominent role in Chola's invasion of Srilanka. Ainurruvar, having a successful enterprise under Chola's overlordship at Pudukottai, had made it to Srilanka as well. The merchants and their affiliates established themselves in Anuradhapura and later in Polonnaruwa. 

These merchants had semi-military groups, armed guards, and swordsmen hired by traders to protect and guarantee settlements' safe return. Kongavalar was associated with Ainurruvar and was brought into Sri Lanka and remained there later on. Citrameli is a group primarily consisting of agriculturists, and alliance between them and traders is assumed from their joint inscriptions. Their assemblies were held in the mandapa of temples maintained by their donations. The Mahanadu or an assembly convened on occasion decided on the donations to the temples.

Most importantly, since cess was levied on the products, it indicates that the prices were also discussed. The retail sales of products took place in weekly fairs. Barter was practiced in fairs, but for imported or luxurious items, retail prices were fixed in gold. The taxes for imported items are fixed so that we can infer that the prices were set too. There are no indications to suggest that the king's administration was determining the prices. The principle of the self-regulating market was in place.  

In contrast to the Chinese, it's ambiguous. In Tang's China, the state had a say on the distribution of products, be it goods of general welfare or luxury. The products sold by the foreigners (the ones which are allowed) were closely supervised by government agents and even the products which they might desire to take back to their country. About 714 goods were forbidden to be exported, and at times erratic restrictions on the import of goods were considered inimical to their national traditions. 

In the tenth and early eleventh centuries, the Cholas were actively involved in foreign maritime trade. Chinese dynastic history records bear this fact. Raja Raja Chola sent a trade mission to China in 1015, where he presented 21,000 ounces of pearls, a fair amount of elephant tusks, frankincense, and aromatics. On an interesting note, the king did not present indigenous products like cotton textiles; instead, he chose goods of various origins. Clearly, they sought trade exchanges of various imported goods (directly or indirectly), indicating that their merchants would be accepted in Chinese ports. They were personally interested in getting their share of profits from maritime trade. Let's remember the Sri Lankan pearl fisheries of Mannar were in control of Cholas. 

Later on, by 1020, a mission sent by Rajendra Chola to China was aborted as the lead envoy died after arrival at Guangzhou. Five years later, 1025 Rajendra Chola launched a massive raid on Sri Vijaya ports. And to mention that there aren't any mentions about Sri Vijaya missions in the Sang courts from 1018 to 1028. 

The confrontation between Cholas and Sri Vijayas seems to be steaming from intense competition to access the market of Sāng China. Their porcelain and silk were in demand in the middle east and further. The control of the geographical location and Chola's attempts to increase their sphere of influence confronts. 

The Persian navigator Al-Ramhormuzi in his book Ajaib al-Hind (Wonders of India), says Sri Vijaya rulers levy of 20,000 dinars as the right of passage before they allowed a Jewish ship to continue their voyage to China. 

Our understanding is that the Chola raid was undertaken to establish Tamil-speaking merchants' rights and, with that, trade a sizable amount of profit to their coffers. 

Even after several Sri Vijaya ports' sack and defeat, Cholas established their base only in Yuan China. Chola state was wrongly stated as a tributary state of Sri Vijaya in Chinese annals. We aren't sure whether this false estimation was a deliberate or misguided one. This was rectified only on a new mission by Kulottunga in 1077.

By the late thirteenth century, Sāng in China was replaced by the Yuan, a Mongol establishment that set the tempo of trade along east and west land routes, proper china, and central Asia. The Mongols being foreigners themselves, encouraged the other foreign settlements, and Chola settlements are seen up till Quanzhou. Shiva temple, known as Kaiyuan Temple in Quanzhou, stands testimony to the trade that existed even until later Cholas. 

While contemplating the current undercurrent scenarios with a string of pearls or strategy countering it by India, it seems nothing much has changed; the world might have become more technologically advanced but still, the core nature is just as unimpaired with ongoing trade disputes just like the past.

Reference books: 

1) Books published by Maritime History of India authored by Prof. B. Arunachalam. 

2) The Golden Peaches of Samarkand: A Study of T'ang Exotics by Edward H Schafer.

3)Asia and Western Dominace by K.M. Panikkar.

4)Two medieval merchant guilds of South India by Meera Abraham. 

5) Nagappattinam to Suvarnadweepa: Reflections on Chola Naval Expeditions.

Picture of a bronze idol of Chola emperor Raja Raja Chola

Nithya Raghunathan is a banker, a bibliophile and an heritage and culture enthusiast

 

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• The History Good to Know 65
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