Previous Year Question
Who among the following led a successful military campaign against the kingdom of Srivijaya, the powerful maritime State, which ruled the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Java and the neighbouring islands?
Correct Answer: C
Detailed Solution
Chola emperor Rajendra I launched a major overseas military campaign against the Srivijaya region of Southeast Asia around 1025 CE. The evidence does not depend merely on later historical accounts; it is recorded in inscriptions belonging to Rajendra Chola I himself.
An important Rajendra Chola inscription at Tanjavur records that he dispatched many ships across the sea and captured Sangrama-Vijayottungavarman, the king of Kadaram. The same conquest list mentions Srivijaya, Pannai, Malaiyur and several other Southeast Asian places. It therefore provides exceptionally strong primary epigraphic evidence for Rajendra's overseas naval campaign.
The expedition is generally dated to 1025 CE. Historical scholarship regards it as a remarkable demonstration of Chola maritime military capacity, with the inscriptions recording attacks on the Srivijayan ruler and a series of ports or territories in Southeast Asia.
It is also important that relations between the Cholas and Srivijaya were not always hostile. An inscription from Nagapattinam dating to the early reign of Rajendra records a religious donation by an officer of the king of Srivijaya. Thus, the campaign of 1025 occurred within a much broader history of interaction between India and Southeast Asia.
Rajendra I → Chola → naval campaign → Srivijaya/Kadaram → c. 1025 CE