The human side of the mighty Chola kings and queens

The man Kanisetti is referring to is the Chola emperor, Parantaka, “the foe-destroyer”, a third-generation ruler who “killed his half-brother, took the Chola throne and set about marrying women left and right,” at least 10 others, in addition to Kokkilan, all from “rich, landed families.”

Anirudh Kanisetti’s Lords of Earth and Sea: A History of the Chola Empire opens with a poignant scene. It describes the Cheran princess Kokkilan Adikal wiping the tears off her cheeks as she leaves her native Malabar coast in a palanquin, travelling east to be married to “an up-and-coming king with a dangerous reputation.”

The man Kanisetti is referring to is the Chola emperor, Parantaka, “the foe-destroyer”, a third-generation ruler who “killed his half-brother, took the Chola throne and set about marrying women left and right,” at least 10 others, in addition to Kokkilan, all from “rich, landed families.”

This scene, one of the many vivid episodes described in Kanisetti’s book about the Imperial Chola empire, was read and discussed recently at The Bangalore Room, Indiranagar. What came out in the conversation between writer and podcaster Ramjee Chandran and Kanisetti were intriguing aspects of the lives and reign of the Cholas, including the rationale behind the building of massive temples, the role of women in shaping this clan’s history and the centrality of the merchant guilds to the success of the empire.

The discussion also touched upon how the book draws on literary techniques such as character-building, scene-setting and plot development to delve into “the human part of history,” as Chandran puts it. The traditional way of approaching history as taught in school makes it “a very dry and boring litany of kings and their successions, their battles and dates, dates, dates.” History, however, can also be told “at the junction of different possibilities…for example, architecture, art, culture, language, epigraphy,” believes Chandran. “Where it all overlaps is where the story blossoms.”

In the introduction of Lords of Earth and Sea, Kanisetti writes that the Cholas were a “peasant clan” that arose in the Kaveri floodplain “seemingly out of nowhere” more than a thousand years ago, from the mid-9th century till the mid-13th century. During this period, the Chola dynasty would evolve into one filled with “great King-of-Kings.”

So, what made the Cholas so unique? “There are so many that I could possibly get into. But where I’d like to begin is with the fact that they are willing to break the wall in all kinds of possible ways,” responds Kanisetti. Take, for starters, their building prowess. The Cholas built massive, magnificent temples, such as the Brihadisvara Temple at Thanjavur (built by Rajaraja Chola I and now a UNESCO World Heritage Site), which was much larger in scale than other temples in that part of India. “It was conceived in a completely new kind of architectural plan that was connected deeply with the political incentives of the Chola state,” he explains.

According to him, building these large temples was a clever “media strategy,” with royal edicts inscribed on these temple walls specifying why someone like Rajaraja Chola I, for instance, deserved to be the emperor and was worthy of being worshipped. The practice, he believes, is in the same spirit as modern-day politicians advertising themselves in “places where people are likely to congregate.”