The Chola kings, who ruled from before the Common Era until the 13th century, were long gone by the 17th century, when the Portuguese, Dutch, and the East India Company were vying for trade from the eastern coast of India. Of all dynasties that had ruled the coast, it was the Cholas whose name stuck as the Coromandel Coast.
What made the Cholas great? They held power over a large geography, spanning the Lakshadweep in the west to Malaysia in the east, Sri Lanka in the south to Madhya Pradesh in the north. Much of this was nominal yet impressive for their time.
Among all the mediaeval dynasties, we have the maximum inscriptions from their times—almost 5,000 of them, scattered across temple walls and other stones, mostly in South India. Unlike the Ashokan edicts, these are not in the king’s voice.
They are all transactions of the local community: tax, water, disputes, gifts—everything that mattered to the tiny villages that made up the empire. This unique primary source enables us to study a mediaeval society and kingdom in greater depth than others in India.
If you want a deeper sense of this and pick up Anirudh Kanisetti’s book Lords of Earth & Sea, you will be in for a disappointment. On the contents page, three out of the six chapters feature blood, war, and death. The other two have contrasting words, which give an accurate indication of what is to come.
In 269 pages, the author takes you through battle after battle in all the bloody detail. If a king looked out from his mansion, which Kanisetti believes was whitewashed and gleaming, he was mounting campaigns. If another king was pacing up and down his palace, he was surrounded by loot and war booty.
If a king was travelling up the river, there too he was only plotting further campaigns. Which ruling power is not violent—even today? The Cholas certainly were, and no empire was built based solely on persuasion and diplomacy. Administrations are rarely, if ever, conflict-free.
If the blood of the battlefield nauseates you, then you cannot turn to the fields and farms, which are only places of cruel exploitation by the landowners—mostly Brahmins. Turn then to the traders, but here too traders are shown more for their support of the Chola naval battles than for their trading. The book is a maze of blood and gore with no escape.
