Rajaraja I

The crown of the Chola dynasty did not descend to Arul Mozhi Varman along a straight, sunlit path, but emerged instead from a thicket of dynastic murders, minor heirs, and shifting loyalties. Born in the late autumn of 947 CE to King Parantaka II and his queen Vanavan, the young prince—whose birth name translated poetically to "The Word of the Sun Clan"—grew up in a kingdom that was merely one among many competing powers in the southern peninsula of India. The Cholas of this era were still recovering from devastating incursions by the Rashtrakuta Empire, their authority largely confined to the fertile river valleys of the Thanjavur-Tiruchirappalli region. When Arul’s elder brother, the heir-apparent Aditha II, was assassinated under mysterious circumstances, the throne did not immediately go to Arul. Instead, his cousin Madhurantakan ruled for a time as Uttama Chola. Only upon Uttama’s death in 985 CE did Arul Mozhi Varman finally ascend the throne. He chose a regnal name that was both an inheritance and a declaration of intent: Rajaraja, "The King among Kings."

What Rajaraja inherited was a modest regional principality; what he forged was an administrative and military machine that reshaped the geopolitics of the Indian Ocean. At the core of this transformation was a relentless, multi-directional military expansion. To the west, along the emerald coast of modern-day Kerala, lay the ancient maritime networks of the Cheras and Pandyas. In 988 CE, Rajaraja struck his first major blow at Kandalur Salai, a heavily fortified coastal academy and naval base under the influence of the Pandya rulers of Madurai. The Chola inscriptions proudly adopted the formula Kāndalūr śālai Kalam-arutta—"the one who destroyed Kandalur Salai"—commemorating a joint land-and-sea operation that shattered the maritime power of his southern rivals. By the early eleventh century, Chola armies had systematically dismantled the power of the southern dynasties, sacking the historic Pandya capital of Madurai and subjugating the rulers of Kollam and Kodungallur. To cement this dominance, Rajaraja claimed the title Mummudi Chola—the "Three-Crowned Chola"—signifying his supreme lordship over the traditional Tamil crowns of the Cholas, Cheras, and Pandyas.

Having subdued the southern tip of the peninsula, Rajaraja cast his eyes across the Palk Strait toward Sri Lanka, a wealthy island known to Chola scribes as Ila-mandalam. The Sinhalese kingdom of Anuradhapura was fracturing from within. In 982 CE, the economic policies of King Mahinda V had triggered a violent mutiny among his own Tamil mercenaries, recruited from the mainland. As the island slid into a decade of lawlessness and civil war, with Mahinda seeking refuge in the southern principality of Rohana, the disenfranchised mercenaries turned their gaze—and their allegiance—toward the rising power in Thanjavur. Rajaraja seized the moment. In 993 CE, Chola fleets crossed the strait, sacked the ancient capital of Anuradhapura, and annexed the northern half of the island. Rather than maintaining the old capital, the Cholas established a heavily fortified provincial headquarters further south at Polonnaruwa, renaming it Jananathamangalam. At the port of Mahatirtha, renamed Rajarajapura, they constructed the great stone temple of Rajarajeshwara. The court poets of the Thanjavur palace, writing on copper plates, delighted in comparing this naval crossing to the legendary exploits of the god-king Rama. Rama, they pointed out, had to build a bridge of monkeys to cross the sea and defeat the King of Lanka; Rajaraja had simply sailed across in ships and put the island to the torch.