Rājendra Chola I#Rajendra
A figure from the books
#Rajendra
Rājendra Chola I · c. 971–1044 CE · reigned 1014–1044
In the books · 1 chapter
Who this is
Empire — conqueror of Lanka's last redoubts, raider of the Ganges plain, sender of the only full-scale overseas invasion in Indian history, founder of Gangaikoṇḍacōḻapuram.
“The only Indian emperor ever to invade across an ocean named his capital not for the sea he crossed but for the river he fetched — "the town of the Chola who took the Ganges" — and today that capital is a field, with one enormous temple standing in it alone.”
The big idea, in the book's words:
“An empire's reach can be a gesture as much as a border. Rājendra marched an army to the Ganges and brought the river home in pots, then flung a fleet across the Bay of Bengal at Srivijaya — not to hold the north or the sea, but to prove, in water and loot, that a Tamil king could touch both.”
From the book
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