Indian History Quiz: Chola Empire

The correct answer is B, Rajaraja I. Rajaraja I, who ruled from 985 to 1014, is regarded as the most powerful Chola ruler. He annexed the northern part of Sri Lanka, led a naval raid on the Maldives, defeated the Cheras at Kandalur Salai, carried out a survey of land for revenue, and built the Rajarajesvara or Brihadisvara temple at Thanjavur, completed in 1010. Option A is wrong, though Rajendra I was a great conqueror who reached the Ganga and defeated Srivijaya; he is called Gangaikonda Chola, but the empire's foundation of power was laid by his father. Option C is wrong because Dantidurga was not a Chola at all; he was the founder of the Rashtrakuta dynasty of the Deccan. Option D is wrong because Vijayalaya only founded the imperial line about 850 by capturing Thanjavur and ruled a small kingdom.

The correct answer is B, Rajaraja I. The temple at Thanjavur, known both as the Rajarajesvara temple after its builder and as the Brihadisvara temple, was completed in 1010 during the reign of Rajaraja I. Its vimana is one of the tallest of any medieval Indian temple and its walls carry long inscriptions recording grants, servants and revenue. Option A is wrong because Rajendra I built the temple at his new capital Gangaikonda Cholapuram, modelled on his father's temple but smaller. Option C is wrong because Kulottunga I is remembered for uniting the Chola and Eastern Chalukya lines and for the Kalinga war, not for this temple. Option D is wrong because Rajaraja II built the Airavatesvara temple at Darasuram. All three temples together form the World Heritage property called the Great Living Chola Temples.

The correct answer is C, Vijayalaya. Vijayalaya, about the middle of the ninth century, took Thanjavur from the Muttaraiyar chiefs who held the Kaveri delta as subordinates of the Pallavas, and from that base the imperial Chola line grew. Thanjavur remained the Chola capital until Rajendra I built Gangaikonda Cholapuram. Option A is wrong because Karikala belonged to the early Cholas of the Sangam age, who ruled from Uraiyur centuries earlier and are credited with the Kallanai on the Kaveri. Option B is wrong because Aditya I was Vijayalaya's son, who extended the kingdom by defeating the Pallava ruler Aparajita. Option D is wrong because Parantaka I came later and was checked at the battle of Takkolam by the Rashtrakuta king Krishna III, in which the Chola prince Rajaditya was killed.

The correct answer is B, Rajendra I. Rajendra I, who ruled from 1014 to 1044, sent a fleet across the Bay of Bengal against the Sailendra kingdom of Srivijaya, in the Malay peninsula and Sumatra, and defeated its ruler Sangrama Vijayottunga Varman. The campaign was fought to keep the sea route to China open for Tamil merchants, and from the conquest of Kadaram the king is remembered as Kadaram Kondan. Option A is wrong because Rajaraja I campaigned overseas against Sri Lanka and the Maldives, not Srivijaya. Option C is wrong because Vijayalaya ruled only a small kingdom around Thanjavur and had no navy of this reach. Option D is wrong because Rajendra III was the last Chola, under whom the empire shrank before the Pandyas; the age of overseas expeditions was long over by then.

The correct answer is B, Chola. The inscriptions on the temple walls at Uttaramerur in Tamil Nadu, of the tenth century, set out in detail how the sabha of that brahmadeya village chose the members of its committees: who was qualified by landholding, house, learning and age, who was disqualified, and how name-tickets were drawn from a pot by a boy, the kudavolai system. They are the standard evidence cited for local self-government under the Cholas. Option A is wrong because the Pallavas, though they ruled the same region earlier and left inscriptions at Mahabalipuram and Kanchipuram, are not associated with these records. Option C is wrong because the Rashtrakutas ruled the Deccan from Manyakheta. Option D is wrong because the Chalukyas of Badami and Kalyani ruled further north-west, in Karnataka.

The correct answer is C, mandalam. The Chola empire was divided into mandalams, the largest provinces, which were frequently placed under royal princes or senior officers. A mandalam was divided into valanadus, a valanadu into nadus, and a nadu was a group of villages whose landholders met as the nattar. Option A is wrong because a nadu is a cluster of villages, several steps below a mandalam. Option B is wrong because a valanadu is a division within a mandalam, so it cannot be the largest. Option D is wrong because kurram, like nadu, is a term for a small group of villages. Candidates should remember the descending order mandalam, valanadu, nadu and village, because questions are set on both the largest and the smallest unit.

The correct answer is A, the lost-wax process. In this method, called cire perdue, the image is first modelled in wax, then covered with clay to form a mould; the wax is melted and drained out, molten metal is poured into the hollow, and the clay is broken away to reveal a single solid image that cannot be reproduced from the same mould. Chola bronzes of Nataraja, Somaskanda and the Shaiva saints were cast this way for use in temple processions. Option B is wrong because sand casting is a modern industrial method unsuited to such detail. Option C is wrong because repousse is the hammering of sheet metal from the reverse side, used in ornaments and masks, not in solid images. Option D is wrong because granulation is a goldsmith's technique of fusing tiny beads of metal onto a surface.

The correct answer is B, Parantaka I. Parantaka I had extended Chola power over the Pandya country and taken the title Maduraikonda, but his advance was stopped at Takkolam, in present-day Tamil Nadu, where the Rashtrakuta king Krishna III defeated the Chola army and the crown prince Rajaditya was killed in the fighting. The defeat cost the Cholas their northern districts for a generation. Option A is wrong because Aditya I, the son of Vijayalaya, is remembered for ending Pallava power by defeating Aparajita. Option C is wrong because Rajaraja I came after this setback and restored Chola supremacy, conquering northern Sri Lanka. Option D is wrong because Kulottunga I ruled much later and is associated with the Kalinga war described in the Kalingattuparani. The battle of Takkolam is dated to about 949 and is the standard example of the Rashtrakuta check on Chola expansion in the tenth century, so the pairing of Takkolam with Krishna III and Parantaka I should be memorised together.

The correct answer is C, Jayangondar. Jayangondar, a court poet of Kulottunga I, composed the Kalingattuparani, a war poem in the parani form that describes the Chola campaign against Kalinga. Option A is wrong because Kamban wrote the Ramavataram, the Tamil retelling of the Ramayana, which is the best known literary work of the Chola period. Option B is wrong because Sekkizhar wrote the Periyapuranam, the account of the lives of the sixty-three Nayanar saints of Shaiva devotion, composed under Kulottunga II. Option D is wrong because Tiruttakkadevar, a Jain author, wrote the Jivaka-chintamani. All four names are set together as options in examinations, so each should be fixed to its work and not merely to the Chola period. The Kalingattuparani is also valued as evidence of Chola court life, and examiners pair it with the Periyapuranam, the Ramavataram and the Jivaka-chintamani in match-the-following questions on Tamil literature of the Chola age.

The correct answer is A, merchant guilds. Ayyavole, also called the Five Hundred of Ayyavole, along with Manigramam and Nanadesi, were associations of traders who handled inland and overseas commerce, financed temples, maintained their own guards and left inscriptions in South India and as far away as Sumatra. Their trade with Song China and South-East Asia is the economic background to Rajendra I's naval expedition. Option B is wrong because the Chola military formations were the kaikkolar infantry and the velaikkarar, troops bound to defend the king. Option C is wrong because the committees of a village or temple assembly were called variyams. Option D is wrong because land in the Chola grants was described by its purpose, as brahmadeya, devadana, pallichchandam, shalabhoga or vellanvagai, not by these names.

The correct answer is A, Karikala of the early Cholas. The Kallanai, known in English as the Grand Anicut, is a dam built across the Kaveri to divert water into the delta channels, and tradition assigns it to Karikala, a king of the early Cholas of the Sangam age who ruled from Uraiyur. It remains one of the oldest water-diversion structures still in use anywhere. Option B is wrong because Rajaraja I, four centuries later, is associated with the Brihadisvara temple and with conquests in Sri Lanka. Option C is wrong because Rajendra I built Gangaikonda Cholapuram and sent the overseas expeditions. Option D is wrong because Rajaraja II built the Airavatesvara temple at Darasuram. The question is a standard trap that mixes the early Cholas with the imperial Cholas.

The correct answer is B, brahmadeya. A brahmadeya was land or a whole village granted to brahmanas, usually free of several taxes, and its assembly of adult male brahmana landholders was the sabha or mahasabha, which worked through committees called variyams; the Uttaramerur inscriptions describe such a sabha. Option A is wrong because devadana was land granted to a temple, whose income supported worship, servants and festivals. Option C is wrong because vellanvagai was the land of ordinary non-brahmana cultivators, whose village assembly was the ur. Option D is wrong because pallichchandam was land given to a Jain institution, the term palli standing for a Jain monastery or school. Examiners set these four terms against one another, so each should be fixed to its beneficiary.