At last, the date and time has come for me to begin the final story on the rise and fall of the mighty Cholas. So many years has passed since I returned from China, some five years, it has been a slow process but finally I have completed the detailed writing of the Gallery items for each topic and each key places I had visited in my last trip to the Chola points of interest. It took a trip to US to see my eldest daughter and her two lovely daughters to find the time to complete the above. Now I begin the next journey to write the “Rise and Fall of Cholas” from my point of view. I pray to my Guru, Mr. Bala Kumaran as I begin this journey.
The Cholas have a great history both in Sangam age and in the later Chola era. However due to my limited knowledge and interest I decided to limit my scope to the time of Raja Raja cholan and end with their final fall. After the Cholas overran the pallava Dynasty in battle and shifted their capital to Tanjore a new beginning starts for the Cholas. While we can argue that they let down the Pallavas who had nurtured them and protected them, it was a mass betrayal to turn against them. However, betrayals are part of growth and fall of empires and politics and we must accept it as a fact in kings and politicians. What I do not understand is how the Pallavas allowed the rise, what happened to their intelligence gathering? The same can be said on how the Pandya’s later overthrew the Cholas. Complacency is something kings and politicians cannot afford, trusting one too much may lead to a sudden downfall. A good spy network is always needed to keep in check those under us be it Country, office, or surroundings. This is what the Americans, Russians, Israelis, and India as well do. Some do it better than others.
With the fall of Pallavas, Cholas planted the seed for their growth. However, to nurture the growth they need to have successful kings who are great generals and capable leaders. This was God given to Cholas as thus they we able to build a dynasty that lasted for centuries and was one of the longest in history. Each succeeding king in the Chola line added to the strength and vision and thus no enemies were able to stand up to Cholas for a very long time. Now let us begin the journey to go back in history in some 1100 years ago.
Having turned against the Pallavas, the Chola king Vijaylaya overran the mutharayar who ruled Tanjore and thus bringing an end to their rule. Tanjore became Cholas capital. This was the first milestone of Chola rise since after the Sangam age. Soon the Cholas started gaining in strength, but inter rivalry between the Tamil kings slowed down their growth until Paranthagan came to power. Wars continued; new alliances were formed. Tamil Nadu at that time was ruled by four strong dynasties, Pallavas, Pandyas, Cheras and Cholas. Centuries of infighting between them led to continuous fights and miseries to the common man. No one king in Tamil history could overcome the rest and bring commonality to the Tamil community. People remained divided and they cherished when their king cherished. No one king spent any effort to integrate the conquered people into one community and one people or into their military and political mainstream. If this had been done, the Tamils would have until now remained strong and non-conquerable military and political wise.
Only in Sangam age was the Tamil kings ever united as one to defend against the invasion from North. That is why even in the age of Ashoka or Guptas, Tamil Nadu was the only area they could not conquer. Historians from the north may say this was due to Southern Tamil kings being in friendly terms with them, but history knows that friendly terms did not matter at that time, only military strength will determine the outcome of territorial extension. Why would Ashoka and Gupta will not want to take pride to claim they ruled to the tip of India? The answer is simple, the Tamil kings managed to fight them off with combined unity and the Tamils at that time were great warriors and took great pride in protecting their language and culture. Nothing frightened them and they were always ready for war. They must have won it and pushed these invaders back. In the next page let us go deep into the war and participate in the battlefield with them.
The unity between them did not last and soon the infighting started and they stood as individual powers. Each had a great history, great kings and great achievements in terms of language, culture and arts. However historical evidence of Sangam time is limited to poems and literature. There is a lack like written details of wars and details of each king are not clearly evident. Only Karikalan cholan stands out but even then, there was some confusion on how many Karikala cholan there were and the timelines of existence. One thing for sure, Karikalan was a great Tamil king and great warrior and no one can match him other than Raja Raja Cholan and Rajendra Cholan. We will talk more of him in the next page Now let us go back 1500 years back, the Mauryan emperor Asoka lead a huge army against the Tamil nadu, the army consisted of Elephants, chariots, cavalry and infantry soldiers. The army led by Asoka and his great generals were closing in on Tamilnadu. The clouds blackened with the arrival of this huge army where no one could see where the last soldiers stood. Asoka’s army occupied a vast piece of land the army moved together and it seems no escape route available from all ends. Expecting their arrival of Asoka, the moovendars and the mighty Chola king Ilamchetchenni (father of karikal Cholan) lay wait for them.
The Mauryan Army overconfident of their capability like the Persian army against the Spartans, Asoka expected his army to overrun the Tamils in a single day. Little were there aware of the bravery of the Tamils whom like Spartans had war in their blood. The Tamil warriors were trained to fight any enemies. It was a hot summer day, vultures circulated above waiting for feast on dead bodies. The wind was standstill as both armies stood face to face separated by a 500meter gap. Asoka looked at the Tamil army in front of him and told his generals, the war will be over by sunset, do not take any prisoners and get a party ready at night to celebrate our victory. He said “I wonder why these Tamil kings do not want to surrender and face death in my hands, their army is definitely much much smaller than us and our war elephants will wipe them out single handedly”
Ilamchetchenni looked at the massive army in front. He called for his generals and the fellow Chera and Pandya kings. He said, the enemy is huge in numbers but we are warriors and numbers should not matter to us. Each of our soldier must aim to kill fifty enemies. Asoka will unleash the elephants on us first and then the cavalry. Put infantry in front and hide out special forces carrying flame throwers from the visibility of the enemies. Move our elephants to the rear and behind them the cavalry. Pandya will lead the elephants and Chera the infantry. I will lead the cavalry. When the war starts the infantry should open up suddenly and divert to the side and retreat to the safety behind our elephants. At this instant the flame throwers will put the plan into action, the flames will be thrown at the elephants charging and at the same time our archers will launch hundreds of poisoned arrows in the direction of elephants. Our aim is to destroy the elephants in their ranks until they exist no more. Once that is done our work will be made easy and we will move our elephants Infront. At the flanks the Cavalry will charge under my leadership to flank the enemy
The horns were blown and the war started. Just as Chenni had predicted the Mauryans charged with their elephants which looked like big mountains moving together and whose ends were nowhere to be seen.
The Tamil infantry soldiers formed a line and started marching towards the enemy in a disciplined formation.
Asoka can’t belief why the Tamils were walking into a suicide. He smiled sitting on top of his war elephant watching the battlefield from a safe distance. He was surrounded by his body guards at all ends. Dust started forming as the elephants charged ahead, they blew their trumpets which can shake any mighty warriors but not the Tamils. As the elephants crossed the 300m they had formed a vast cloud of dust. The dust made visibility bad for Asoko from the rear. Suddenly he heard screams and cry for help from his elephant brigade.
The Tamils had executed their plans, the infantry suddenly split op and circled back. The flame throwers and the archers came in front. Oil was lit up and the burning oil was catapulted towards the elephants by hundreds of flame throwers. They hit bulls’ eye as the burning oil landed on the elephants, they screamed in pain and the mahouts on top yelled for help and lost control of the war elephants. There was complete chaos in the field and soon the archers let go of thousands of arrows which pierced the elephant handlers and the soldiers on top of the elephants. The poisoned arrows soon had the effect, the elephant ran wild and turned back towards the Mauryan army as the elephant handlers lost control of the elephants
Among the dust and confusion Asoka was confused why the dust getting worst towards his army. He asked his generals to go and find out what is happening. The elephants who were like large mountains soon split and the mountains dispersed in all direction. Before the generals could understand what was going on, the elephants attacked the Mauryan Army. After being badly burnt and poisoned the elephants went crazy and trampled up anyone on their way. Asoka’s bodyguards had to quickly evacuate him to a safer place. There was complete confusion in the battlefield.
Chenni waited patiently until the Mauryan elephants were dispersed, he then asked the Pandya king to bring his war elephants Infront. The Tamil war elephants had huge tusks, which were further sharpened for war. They had sharp spikes all around so they can attack, kill in all direction.
They had been given liquor to make them angry and were ready for war. The Pandya king gave the signal by blowing the big sangu shell, he himself sitting on a huge bull elephant. The elephants moved in an arrow formation towards the enemy, each elephant had four archers and their basket full of arrows.
The war elephants which had taken wine were furious and ran wild against the Mauryan army. With the Mauryan elephant army destroyed opened the Mauryan army to the the war elephants of Tamils. Caught by surprise the Mauryan infantry started running for their life. Many soldiers fell. The soldiers were killed by the Tamil war elephants.
The Tamil archers poured arrows on the enemy and decimated them. Within hours just like the elephants, the Mauryan infantry started dispersing in all direction. Angry and frustrated, Asoka ordered his commanders to kill any soldiers retreating. More bad news came for Asoka. Chenni’s cavalry charged at all flanks and surrounded the Mauryan army and engaged the Mauryan cavalry. The Tamil infantry shouted their war cry and with spears and swords charged towards the enemy.
The arrowhead formation of the elephants started to change as they started to thin out and split into a circle formation. Asoka finally understood chenni’s plan. Chenni was encircling his entire Asoka army and trapping Asoka’s inside. Chenni charged with great valour and anyone who came in front of him were cut into pieces, hands and legs fell apart. He was like a bull elephant himself and nothing could stop him. Asoka from a distance can see that wherever chenni went in the battlefield his army was decimated. From far he looked at Chenni, who at six-foot height and the arms of rock of chenni stood out in the crowd. He wore minimum armour. His horse was a black and swift as wind. The horse was charging at lightning speed. Chenni had long swords in his arm, a long spear and a bow at his back. He was switching between weapons as he rode into the enemy. His special forces assigned to protect him could hardly keep up to his speed. Chenni looked like the god of fire agni. On the other side the Pandya and Chera kings wore heavy armour were fighting furiously and it was like the gods of fire, wind and lightning were joining forces. Asoka suddenly realised he had grossly miscalculated the Tamils. Standing united nothing can defeat them.
Asoka led his special cavalry towards chenni.
Asoka himself a great warrior who had never faced defeat, was not ready to turn back. Seeing their king charging ahead the mauryans seemed to have regained their courage and started to rally behind the king for a last stand. Asoka and Chenni were coming closer for a face-to-face fight, the battlefield was turning red in blood.
As the two great warriors clashed face to face, sparks flew from the swords as they hit each other with full force. Asoka can feel the strength of Chenni and was getting nervous, but defended himself bravely. Each warrior had their own strengths . However, in any battle only one will win. As the sun was about to set, the war continued fiercely. The Mauryan Elephant army was destroyed completely, the infantry was in a mess and the Tamil warriors were in no mood to take prisoners. The Mauryan cavalry was completely out manoeuvred by the Tamil cavalry. The Tamils were skilful on their horses and attacked tactically in waves from four directions forcing the Mauryan cavalry to the centre of the battle field. The archers then took over and aimed at the Mauryan cavalry decimating them. The mauryans who had never been defeated previously, panicked and tried all means to escape the battle field by laying down their weapons. They knew the Tamils had a code of honour not to harm unarmed man.
On the battle between Asoka and Chenni, it was like two bull elephants charging at each other, each man equally strong and valiant. However, as time went, Asoka was getting tired, his bodyguards were killed one by one by Chola king’s bodyguards. Eventually Asoka stood alone. Chenni signalled his soldiers not to interefere so that it will be a fair fight between him and Asoka. Respecting Asoka’s skill as a warrior, Chenni was not using his full force as he did not want to kill the great warriorAsoka.Chenni skilfully defended against each blow from Asoka. suddenly Chenni launched a tornado like attack on Asoka .This martial art was new to Asoka and before he could counter it, he lost both his swords and was disarmed. Asoka’s head hung low on the defeat; he was a lonely man on the battlefield. Most of his able generals were either dead or had deserted him. A great king who had conquered most of India lost to a small kingdom in the south. Chenni looked at Asoka with great sadness, as the Tamils always respected brave warriors. Asoka body was battered with wounds by swords and arrows, he looked like a tired common man
Chenni put down his weapons and walked towards Asoka.He put his hands on the shoulders of Asoka and greeted him.Dear friend, tamils take pride in our freedom.We may have differences internally but when there is a combined threat to Tamils we stand united and we do not fear anyone and will not bow to anyone.We are all brothers, wars cause much damage to people and property.We want peace , me and my fellow brothers Chera and Pandya do not create enemies, welfare of our people is our main aim.
We invite you as a guest to our tent tonight.Tomorrow you can leave to your homeland with the remaining soldiers of yours.However do not take our kindness as our weakness.If your ever set foot on our land for a fight, next time we will not forgive you. Asoka was humbled by Chenni’s words.He accepted his invitation.
On that night Asoka set for dinner with Chenni and the other Tamil kings. They had a great feast. Asoka now saw the other side of the tamils, their hospitality amazed him .He decided he will never wage another war in his lifetime. The next day, together with his remaining soldiers he departed to his homeland. Chenni presented to him a four faced lion headed stone sculpture and various other gifts. Asoka hugged Chenni and the other tamil kings, tears rolling down his cheeks, he said goodbye.
The great Mauryan army reduced to just a few hundred soldiers, carried their wound soldiers on chariots, moved slowly and soon were out of sight.
Chenni let a sigh of relief and turned towards the Chera and Pandya kings. He said, brothers I thank you for your support. Without you we would not have won the Mauryans. May our friendship last. If we stand united we will live, if divided we will fall. I salute your bravery and friendship. I shall leave to my homeland tomorrow, will leave a small force here to monitor the Mauryans. Something tells me that the North india will never learn to respect the South india now and ever, we have to be on our alert at all times. The fellow kings nodded in approval but already they were thinking how to overcome the Chola strength and bring them down. Sad but true, it does not take others to bring down the Tamils, it is themselves who bring their downfall now and ever are the tamils
Pages: 1 2