Latest / The Chola Empire: How South India Dominated the Indian Ocean — Fexingo History / Chola Empire's Anuradhapura War and the Sacred Tooth Relic
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about the Chola navy and their reach across the Indian Ocean, but one of their most consequential land campaigns was actually just a few hundred kilometres south — across the Palk Strait into Sri Lanka. Luna: Right, the invasion of Anuradhapura. I remember that from passing references, but we've never dug into it properly. Lucas: Exactly. Around 993 CE, Rajaraja Chola I launched a full-scale invasion of the Sinhalese kingdom of Anuradhapura. This wasn't a raid — it was a conquest. The Chola army marched on the ancient capital, and the Sinhalese king Mahinda V basically fled to the region of Rohana in the south, leaving his kingdom to be occupied. Lucas: The Cholas then established their own capital at Polonnaruva, which they renamed Jananathamangalam. And they held northern Sri Lanka for about 40 years — right up until Rajendra Chola I's time. Luna: Forty years is a long occupation. What was the Chola justification? Was it purely expansionist, or was there some religious or trade angle? Lucas: The contemporary Chola sources — like the Tiruvalangadu plates of Rajendra Chola — frame it as a righteous conquest, part of Rajaraja's digvijaya, his conquest of the directions. But the real motivation was probably control of the lucrative trade routes. Sri Lanka was a hub for the cinnamon and gem trade, and it sat right on the Indian Ocean sea lanes connecting to Southeast Asia. Lucas: But here's the thing that really makes this campaign stand out: during the sack of Anuradhapura, the Cholas captured one of the most sacred objects in the Buddhist world — the Sacred Tooth Relic of the Buddha. Luna: Wait, the Tooth Relic? That's the one that's now in Kandy, at the Temple of the Tooth? They captured it? Lucas: Yes, the very same. According to the Sinhalese chronicle Culavamsa, which was written later, the Cholas seized the relic and took it back to their capital. For Sinhalese kings, possessing the Tooth Relic was essential for legitimacy — it was the palladium of the kingdom, the symbol that you were the true protector of Buddhism on the island. Luna: So what did the Cholas — who were devout Shaivites, temple builders to Shiva — do with a Buddhist relic? Lucas: That's the fascinating mystery. The Chola sources don't mention the relic at all. The Tiruvalangadu plates boast about capturing the king, his queen, his treasure, and even his crown — but no tooth. The Culavamsa, written centuries later, says the Cholas took it and kept it in the Chola country, and that it was only recovered after a later Sinhalese king invaded and brought it back. Lucas: But some modern historians are sceptical. They point out that the Cholas, for all their Shaivite devotion, were not iconoclasts — they patronised Buddhist monasteries and even built Buddhist temples in their own territory. So it's possible they simply held the relic as a political hostage, or perhaps they didn't realise its significance. Luna: That seems unlikely — you don't just miss the most famous relic on the island. If they seized the royal treasury, they'd have known exactly what they had. Lucas: True. And there's a later story — again from the Culavamsa — that a Sinhalese prince named Vijayabahu, who led a rebellion against the Chola occupation, eventually recaptured the relic and returned it to Sri Lanka. By then, around 1070 CE, the Chola grip on the island was weakening. Lucas: But here's an interesting twist: some Tamil sources mention that the Cholas actually built a Buddhist temple in their own capital, Thanjavur, to house the relic. If that's true, it would show a remarkable sophistication — a Hindu empire accommodating a Buddhist object as a gesture of imperial authority. Luna: Hmm, that would be a very different narrative from the one of simple plunder. Lucas: Exactly. It's a reminder that medieval empires were more pragmatic than we sometimes assume. The Chola kings called themselves 'Shiva's devotees' but they also claimed to be protectors of all faiths. Rajaraja even donated to a Buddhist monastery in Nagapattinam that was built by the Srivijaya king. Lucas: Let me loop in something personal here. A few listeners chip in monthly through Buy Me a Coffee at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo, and that's what lets us make episodes like this — where we can spend time on these nuanced questions without rushing to a simple answer. So thank you if you're one of them. Luna: Yeah, it really does make a difference — keeps the whole thing ad-free and gives us room to explore exactly these corners. Lucas: So back to the relic. The most widely accepted version is that the Cholas did take it, and it remained in the Chola country for about 70 years until Vijayabahu's campaign. But the question of where it was kept — and whether it was venerated or just stored — is still debated. Luna: What about the Chola period itself? Did they ever try to use the relic to legitimise their rule over the Sinhalese? Lucas: That's a great point. If they had paraded it or built a shrine, we'd expect to see some record. But the silence in Chola inscriptions is striking. It's possible that the relic was simply too hot to handle — a Hindu emperor holding a Buddhist relic might anger his own Shaivite priests, and it wouldn't necessarily win over the Sinhalese, who saw him as an invader anyway. Lucas: There's another theory: maybe the relic was actually lost or destroyed in the chaos of the invasion. The Culavamsa itself says that some of the Buddha's relics were broken during the plunder. But the Tooth Relic tradition is so central to Sinhalese identity that later chroniclers may have invented the story of its return to restore continuity. Luna: So the story we have might be more about national pride than historical fact. Lucas: Exactly. And the historical record is full of such gaps. We know the Chola occupation was harsh — they imposed taxes, built Hindu temples in Sri Lanka, and even set up a system of local administration. But the Sinhalese resistance never stopped. Vijayabahu, who finally expelled the Cholas, spent years fighting from Rohana, the same southern refuge where Mahinda V had fled. Lucas: After the Chola withdrawal, the Tooth Relic reappears in the Culavamsa as being enshrined in the new capital, Polonnaruva, which Vijayabahu made his seat. And from there, its story continues — through the medieval period, the Portuguese destruction, and finally to the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, where it remains today. Luna: It's remarkable how one object can tie together so many centuries of history. Lucas: It really is. And the Chola episode is just one chapter in that long story — but it's a chapter that forces us to think about how empires treat the sacred objects of conquered peoples. Did the Cholas see it as a trophy, a hostage, or an object of genuine reverence? We'll probably never know for sure. Luna: Maybe a bit of all three. Lucas: I think so. And that ambiguity is what makes it such a rich topic. Next time, we might look at what happened after the Cholas left — how Vijayabahu rebuilt the kingdom and the legacy of the occupation on both sides of the strait.