In 1024, Rajendra Chola dreamt up the grandest, riskiest, campaign ever planned by a medieval Indian ruler: an attack across the seas on Kedah (in today’s Malaysia). Both Rajendra Chola and the ...

As much as kings, Tamil merchants are the unsung heroes of medieval India’s global footprint. Sometimes, cultural diasporas can achieve as much, if not more, than an armed force.

In a couple of decades after Rajendra Chola's raid on Kedah, this great Malay trading emporium, we have archaeological evidence of Tamil merchant settlements in Sumatra. They were present on both ...

A dynasty that introduced the sengol — a sceptre symbolising power that was recently in the spotlight — established international trade relations with Sri Lanka ...

But there really is no modern parallel to this remarkable organisation. Like the Chola state, the Five Hundred had a formidable ability to incorporate diverse groups. Its members included Brahmins, ...

Rajaraja Chola's successor, Rajendra, built alliances with Tamil merchant corporations: a partnership between traders and government power that foreshadowed the East India Company - a powerful ...

The Cholas were as important to the Indian Ocean as the Mongols were to inner Eurasia. Rajaraja Chola's successor, Rajendra, built alliances with Tamil merchant corporations: a partnership between ...