How Cholas, Mings dominated Indian Ocean before INS Vikrant

via The Print, 22 September 2022: The INS Vikrant is India’s first aircraft carrier – this article talks about India and China’s ancient maritime activity in the waters, including parts of Southeast Asia.

Ming interventions in the Indian Ocean were not the first example of a trans-regional military expedition in the region. Such interactions between South India and Sri Lanka had happened for centuries. But truly trans-regional expeditions began in 1017–18 when the Chola emperor Rajendra I claimed to have successfully attacked Kedah in present-day Malaysia. In 1022–23, his armies raided Bengal, having sacked several independent towns and forts along the east coast in present-day Andhra Pradesh and Odisha en route. Finally, in 1024–25, he claimed to have attacked a number of cities of the Srivijaya confederacy across Indonesia and Malaya, including Kedah, Palembang, Panei, Jambi, and Lamuri. It is difficult to establish whether all these attacks were successful. Given the logistical challenges of an expedition at such distance, the Cholas either had local allies, had small numbers of highly effective troops, or exaggerated their successes to claim a maritime “conquest of the directions,” as was common in medieval Indian geopolitics.

There seems to have been some success in ensuring regime change — or at least temporary compliance — through these projections of force. In Bengal, the Cholas set up a dynasty called the Senas, who appear to have been Kannada speakers. They would gradually undermine the local Pala dynasty and their vassals. In 1018, the king of Kedah sent a large gift of gold for a temple in Nagapattinam, the premier Chola port on the Indian Ocean. Finally, after the 1025 raids, it appears that there was a change in the structure of the Srivijaya confederacy, with the city of Jambi taking over the premier position from Palembang. Tamil merchants set up several enclaves in the region. Though later Chola emperors found themselves unable to undertake similarly impressive expeditions, it seems that the court still tried to maintain influence in Kedah, then the gateway to the Malacca Strait. The future Chola emperor Kulottunga I was dispatched there in the late 1060s after a request for mediation.

Source: How Cholas, Mings dominated Indian Ocean before INS Vikrant