via The Print, 09 March 2023: Tambralinga, a medieval Malayan kingdom, challenged the Cholas of South India and Sri Lanka for supremacy in Southeast Asia invaded Sri Lanka in the 13th century and almost succeeded in creating a maritime empire that spanned from Sumatra to Bengal.
Tambralinga, “the land of the Copper [Coloured] Shiva Linga”, was an unlikely candidate for a superpower. In the Tirukkaiyur inscription of Rajendra Chola I—one of a handful of Chola records claiming overseas conquest—it is described as “the great Tamralingam, firm and fierce in many great battles”. In reality, it was just one among the many squabbling ports and city-states that dotted the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra in the 11th century CE, participating in the globalised exchanges of the Eastern Indian Ocean. It was centred around Nakhon Si Thammarat (Nagara Sri Dharmaraja) in the southern part of present-day Thailand—though its incorporation into Thai dominions was the result of a disastrous military expedition to Sri Lanka, on which more later.
In The Rise of Tambralinga and the Southeast Asian Commercial Boom in the Thirteenth Century, Japanese scholar Sumio Fukami studied Chinese court records in conjunction with archaeology. In the Indian Ocean World, dispatching an embassy to the Chinese court was a sign of global status and a statement of economic ambitions. The Cholas, for example, sent an embassy there in 1015, after the successful conquests of Rajaraja Chola I. Records maintained by the Chinese court at the time offer a valuable insight into the Indian Ocean’s turbulent politics.
Source: A medieval Malayan king beat Cholas at their game. Almost created a superpower
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