Maritime South Asia (820 – 963 CE): Pallava Decline, Chola Rise, and Sri Lanka’s Anuradhapura Zenith

Geographic and Environmental Context

Maritime South Asia includes peninsular India south of the Narmada River (Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Goa, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, southern Odisha, southern Chhattisgarh), Sri Lanka, Lakshadweep, the Maldives, and the Chagos Archipelago.

• Anchors: the Tamil plains, Deccan plateau, Kerala backwaters, Sri Lanka’s dry and wet zones, and the Maldives–Chagos island chains.

Climate and Environmental Shifts

• A generally stable monsoon regime favored wet-rice agriculture in the Tamil plains and Sri Lanka’s north-central zone.

• Sri Lanka’s Anuradhapura irrigation system reached its peak, sustaining large populations.

• The Deccan plateau remained more reliant on dry-farming and seasonal rainfall.

• Lakshadweep, Maldives, and Chagos were dependent on coconuts, fishing, and rainwater catchments, with subsistence ecologies largely isolated from the mainland.

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Societies and Political Developments

• South India:

  • Pallavas of Kanchipuram declined; Cholas reemerged in the Kaveri delta, laying foundations for later empire.

  • Rashtrakutas dominated Deccan uplands, pressing into Tamilakam.

  • Cheras in Kerala maintained spice and timber trade.

• Sri Lanka:

  • The Anuradhapura kingdom under Sena I (r. 833–853) and successors invested in irrigation and monasteries.

• Island polities:

  • Maldives converted to Islam c. 1153 (later than this age), but in this period Buddhism still dominated.

  • Lakshadweep and Chagos remained sparsely inhabited, with fishing–coconut subsistence.

Economy and Trade

• Rice cultivation in Tamil plains and Sri Lanka.

• Spices (pepper, cardamom) from Kerala; elephants and gems from Sri Lanka.

• Maritime trade: Indian textiles, Sri Lankan pearls and cinnamon exchanged with Arab and Southeast Asian merchants.

• Islands: Maldives cowries circulated regionally.

Belief and Symbolism

• Hinduism: Chola–Pallava temples patronized Shaiva and Vaishnava cults.

• Buddhism: strong in Sri Lanka and the Maldives; monastic centers thrived.

Long-Term Significance

By 963, the Cholas were rising, Rashtrakutas powerful, Sri Lanka flourishing, and island chains forming small-scale maritime nodes.

Parantaka I ascends the Cholan throne in 907.

Parantaka, soon after ascending the Chola throne, assumes control of the remnant Pallavan lands coveted by the more southerly Pandya dynasty of Madura.

The Pandyas, allied to a small south-central Indian dynasty called the Ganga, unsuccessfully contest the Cholan land grab in 910.

The ten-mile-long Veeranam Dam in South India, created by Rajaditya Chola, son of Parantaka I, and built from 907 to 955, represents a climax of earthen dam technology, employing hewn stone to face the steeply sloping sides.

The Cholas, despite many skirmishes with the Pallavas and the eastern Chalukyas, have from 926 to 942 gained influence (but incompletely control) the entire southern tip of the Indian subcontinent.

Under their king Parantaka I, the Cholas have begun to annex former Pallavan lands adjacent to their kingdom and coveted by Rashrakuta, ruled by Krishna III.

The Cholans had taken Nellore from the Rashrakutans in 940.

The Rashtrakutans defeat the Cholans in a series of campaigns beginning in 948, taking the Vengi plain and in 949, dealing the expansionist Cholas a disastrous military setback.