Why should you know about the Cholas as you watch Ponniyin Selvan in September?

Mani Ratnam’s soon to be released Ponniyin Selvan is based on the bestselling book by the same name authored by R Krishnamurthy, better known by his pen name “Kalki”. In the 1950’s when this story was serialized in his magazine Kalki, there would be major arguments within homes as to who reads the story in the magazine first that week! The serialized story was published as a book and has been translated into English and has always been a best seller. His story with its gripping plot, all the navarasa in plenty have attracted many into exploring the history of the Cholas.
The book and therefore the movie is set in the troubled years of the Cholas between the death of king Parantaka I in 955ACE to the accession of the greatest Chola king Raja Raja in 985ACE. The assassination of Raja Raja’s elder brother Aditya causes the kingship to a cousin instead of Raja Raja and this is the core of the plot. I will not spoil your experience of watching the movie but tell you why it is important for you to know more about the Cholas even if they are either never in your history text books in school or were just a passing reference!

The meaning of the word Chola is a mystery. Perhaps it comes from the related word in Tamil to mean prosperity. The Cholas themselves, from the 3rd century BCE when we hear of them, preferred to use Valavan, Sembiyan and Killi as names for themselves. All of these have a connection to wealth from agriculture. Their prosperity in agriculture was firmly connected to the Kaveri River – the Ponni in the movie title. Selvan means a lucky child, in this case, Kaveri’s lucky child Arunmoli Varman who ruled as Raja Raja. Even today, old farmers prostrate on the river bank as the fresh water flows into the river – for them , as it was in the Chola times – the river was not a water body they could take for granted by the very heart that kept their land alive.

Sangam poems from the 3rd Century BCE to 3rd Century ACE wax eloquent about the generosity and valour of the Chola kings and queens. Our references to the Cholas in history come only from the time of Vijayalaya (847ACE - 871ACE), who “caught hold of Thanjavur as if it was his lawful spouse” and built a temple for a ferocious Kali called Nishumbasudni. The temple still stands and don’t be fooled by the flowers and metal decorations that show her as a peaceful goddess. She is fierce alright! On her ear lobes you can discern a human form if your eyes are sharp … it is not a child the goddess is saving but the corpse of an asura she has just killed!

It is this ferocious nature that kept the Cholas going till the end of the 13th century when the Cholas were defeated by the Pandyas – who are probably the oldest continuously ruling dynasty in India. At the height of the Chola empire, in the times of Raja Raja and his son Rajendra, the empire stretched from Maldives to Malaysia, Sri Lanka to the Ganga. The Cholas managed this scale with standards of efficiency that rival our standards today. They have left us several thousand lines of epigraphs or inscriptions that give meticulous details. India’s oldest writing may be the Indus valley seals, the most famous ones Ashoka’s edicts, but the most well documented dynasty from Indian history are the Cholas. Scholar Y Subbarayalu estimates the total number of Indian inscriptions to be 60,000. Out of this, 44,000 are from South India. Tamil inscriptions from the 3rd century to the 20th century total 28,00 followed by Kannada from the 5th ACE century to the 20th century 11,000 and Telugu from the 6th ACE century to the 20th century at 5000. Out of this, 25,000 inscriptions are from the time of the Cholas with the majority from their temples.

The inscriptions are records of great importance that were etched into stones, usually on the temple wall. They were in a way like the website – everyone could see the record in a public place. They recorded gifts to the temple or village, civil and criminal judgements and water, irrigation or tax related royal orders or local decisions. The temple performed the role of the government in the local community and it was therefore the center of all activity in the village. Sadly, inscriptions and their rich information about daily life continue to be the preserve of epigraphists or those seriously interested in history and aren’t in the text books so children grow up learning a falsehood – ancient Indians never learnt to document. Today with most books on epigraphy available online, we can through a few clicks discover the richness of the Chola administration from our computer screens!

They took their farming seriously

The primary income for the king to maintain his army came from agriculture. The waters of the Kaveri river were plentiful and a complex network of canals ensured paddy cultivation was very high. These canals also served as waterways to transport grain after harvest. Land assessments were common in the Chola kingdom. A person who did an exemplary job was given the title, “Ulagalandan” – A person who had measured the world! The Chola king had a very precise idea of how much income each of his villages should give him. Based on irrigation facilities, soil fertility and the cropping cycles, land was classified into 20 different “taram” or grades. Land assessment and re-classification was periodic. When land was donated for charity – usually to a temple, then the grade of the land was lowered for reducing the tax. Many names for land measures are found. Some units like a “veli” were in use long before the Cholas and continue to be familiar even today. Land was measured with a measuring rod. Some temples have such lengths carved into the stone as a standard measurement. They were composed of a span (Chan) or a foot (ati). The 16-span rod was the most common. A kuli was one length 1 breath of a rod. Land was measured even to this level and the exact taxes calculated. Much of this was probably mental calculations! Similar care was taken in irrigation and harvesting as well. We have terms and conventions for irrigation techniques and even farming implements.

While land was owned by institutions and men, women who were economically affluent on occasion were allowed to dispose of land occasionally too. Women in temple service were called Devadasi and they were not of loose morals as they were considered in colonial times. Several were erudite scholars and they were allowed to own and dispose of property in their will. Many public service projects for the village were in fact their donation.

A federal system

The practical reality of primitive transport and communication facilities meant the king needed a reliable representative in the many villages of his land. That became the temple. Everything we expect from the government today, the temple did for the local community. This included functioning as schools and medical institutions. Ennayiram, Tribhuvanam and Tirumukudal all have temples with lengthy inscriptions from the 11th century reign of Rajendra Chola. They list the number of teachers, the subjects they taught and their salaries. In Tirumukudal, there was even a hospital with a surgeon, nurses and a pharmacy. We even have the list of medicines stocked in the pharmacy, many still available with ayurvedic physicians today. Studies started early in the day and went on for long and was probably a lot of memorising but there were some perks – a mat to sleep on, hot water oil baths on Saturdays!

In the village of Uttiramerur, we even have a lengthy inscription on the modalities for conducting an election. Overall, the success of the Chola empire depended on a fairly consistent practice of a Yuvaraja or crown prince appointed in the time of the monarch who was expected to conquer and govern territories on their own. Several kings were successful in battle and administratively were helped by the local villages, an efficient tax collection system. By the 12th century kings became less efficient and neighbouring Pandyas from the South and Hoysalas in present day Karnataka more powerful. The Cholas eventually gave way but not before giving their name to the eastern cost of India – coromandel is an anglicisation of Chola Mandala for that was what the region still was when the East India company purchased a small parcel of sandy coastline that would become Fort St. George and the first town of the British Raj in India.

(Article by Pradeep Chakravarthy)

Pradeep Chakravarthy, author of “Leadership Shastra” looks at how we can alter our behaviour based on the study of history.

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