If you’ve ever taken the Coromandel Express from Howrah to Chennai, dealt with Cholamandalam Finance, or heard about the Sengol that made headlines during the new Parliament’s inauguration, you’ve seen echoes of the Chola legacy. These are not just names—they are fingerprints of an empire that once dominated South India and beyond.

The Cholas ruled for nearly 500 years, rising from the fertile Cauvery plains in the 9th century to become a superpower of their time, before declining by the 13th century. Their impact still ripples through art, religion, and governance in India.

The Chola Temples

India in 9th Century was changing where the religion of Buddhism and Jainism have had their rise and were now on their decline. The Cauvery plains never had a large kingdom that we know of but were self controlled group of villages for a long time. If you want to read to the rise and fall of Cholas there are many books both Academic and Popular History. I will try to add some of the Bibliograhy at the end if you are interested.

India has many World Heritage Sites and The Great Chola Temples are also a part of that. There are three Temples that are part of the world heritage site are Brihadishvara (Dakshinameru) Temple at Thanjavur, second Brihadishvara Temple at Gangaikondacholapuram and Airaviteshvara Temple at Darasuram.

I had an opportunity to see these temples and I will have to say I was not able to get enough of them. They are such towering monuments that even today after almost standing for 1000 years they are so beautiful that one can only be awestruck by what the Chola kings were able to achieve during those days. In India of those days in order to stake the claim on ruling the population the temples and their operations were needed. As Chola kingdom rose so did the temple making by multiple generations of Kings.

The rise of Cholas started with a King called Parantaka who started to rule in 907 AD. He defeated the combined forces of Pandya and Sri Lanka and acquired the title of Maduraiyum-Ilamum-kunda meaning one who captured Madurai and Sri Lanka. But after Parantaka, his son Rajaditya was killed in a battle with the great rulers of Deccan called Rashtrakutas and then there a weak period in Chola history  until Arulmoli Varman who later renamed himself Rajaraja and became one of the most successful kings of Cholas. He was a very successful ruler in defeating enemy kings, forging alliances and increasing the Chola territory. He also started the construction of the majestic temple in 1003 AD and called it Rajarajeshvaram (Home for Rajaraja’s lord) and it was a great project  that was never seen by anyone in the Cauvery plains.

 

The next in line was equally illustrious son Rajendra who further dominated and got Cholas into the foreign lands of Kedah and China. He also defeated the Pala kings the east India and brought waters of Ganga and hence named as Gangaikonda. He even moved the capital to the new place and called it Gangaikondacholapuram where he poured the waters of Ganga in the temple kund. This temple was also called Brihadishwara and was built higher than one in Thanjavur

 

Last temple that was built by Rajaraja II in thirteenth century as the Cholas were already collapsing was called Airavatesvara Temple at Darasuram

These three temples make the World Heritage Site called The Great Living Chola Temples

Why Build Temples?

In the medieval time there were no elections like the ones we have today. Nobody can win 271 parliamentary seats and become the ruler for 5 years. One has to do things differently to capture the imagination of their subjects majority of whom were peasants who picked up war in off-season to make money and also help their king to achieve their objectives. The looted money from the enemy territories were distributed among the elites as well as donated to shrines to establish goodwill of the kings.

These imperial temples were built using the surplus money that was won from other enemy territories. Chola kings and queens knew that making these grand temples and donating the various village shrines will spread the goodwill and they can continue to influence all the spheres on the society. Also generally with these temples came in hordes of learned brahmins who were granted lands and rights by the kings. In turn these Brahmins did lot of ceremonies for the king which further justified their rule.

There is no doubt that the subject will have respect for people who are able to mobilize funds and resources to construct such marvels that even today people are awestruck with. The God Shiva was almost the de-facto god for most of the population and Cholas played a great by such magnificent temple for Shiva. The form of God that is called Nataraja was also made famous by the Chola and it has become one of the most famous sculptures of India even today.

These temples were also places to record major events by assigning them on inscriptions on the walls that are still available and gives the glimpse of lives those days.

So these were the pieces of public good that reinforced the belief in the king for multiple generations.

Fall of Chola

The rise always comes with a fall and so was the case of Cholas. One of the reasons for the fall was decreasing revenue collections due to tax evasions by landlords and generals. One of the rules during that time was when temples were given a tract of land those were exempted from taxes and this was the loop hole used by the powerful landlords to evade taxes. They brought much of their land under temple and evaded taxes. The imperial state started to loose taxes and there was no war money coming in as the later kings were not very adventurous.

Cholas are one of the greatest empire of India who in a very short time did a lot. They shook the foundations of very old kingdoms like Pandyas, Rashtrakutas and Sri Lankan Buddhist kingdom. The brought Shaivism to the forefront. Even after the fall these temples did not lose prominence as the rulers changes from Hoysalas, Vijanagara, Nayakas, Marathas and eventually to British. They were patronized and flourished during the times unlike some of the great temples of India that were lost like the Mahabodhi Temple of Gaya, Konark Sun Temple of Odisha

Most of this information is from my personal visit and readings. Books that I read are World Heritage Series on Chola Temples by ASI and a recent book of Anirudh Kanisetti called Lords of Earth and Sea.