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The Politics of Plunder: The Cholas in Eleventh-Century Ceylon

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

George W. Spencer
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Extract

Although political and cultural developments in India have strongly influenced those in Ceylon for many centuries, the effects were often contradictory and ironic. The land that sent the Buddhist religion to Ceylon also sent invaders to plunder its Buddhist monuments; and the Indian mercenaries recruited by the kings of Ceylon to strengthen the royal army were such a turbulent element that they themselves frequently posed the greatest threat to the stability of the realm. India's cultural contributions to Ceylon are well known, and have been examined in detail by Indian, Ceylonese, and Western scholars. The purpose of this paper is to examine the more abrasive side of the Indian–Ceylonese relationship during the eleventh century, when the imperial Chola kings of southern India sent invading armies into Ceylon, bent upon occupation and plunder. A more general aim of this analysis is to suggest thatorganized plundering activity was a more important politico-economic instrument in the traditional Indian state than most historians have hitherto acknowledged.

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Articles
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The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 35 , Issue 3 , May 1976 , pp. 405 - 419
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1976

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References

1 I have taken the liberty of retaining the older name for Sri Lanka because “Ceylon” is well established in the literature referred to in this study. I have also used the common Anglicized spelling “Chola” in preference to Cōla.

2 See especially Wijetunga, W. M. K., “Some Aspects of Cola Administration of Ceylon in the Eleventh Century,” University of Ceylon Review, XXIII, 1–2 (1965), pp. 67–81.Google Scholar

3 E.g., in contrast to the glowing Chola references to the Deccan campaigns of Rājarāja I, the Hottur inscription (A.D. 1007–08) of the Cālukya king Satyāsraya describes the Chola army as “ravaging the whole country, perpetrating murders of women, children, and Brāhmatjs, seizing women, … overthrowing the order of caste,” etc. Epigraphia Indica, XVI (1921–22), No. 11.

4 The conceptof free-flowing resources has been developed by Eisenstadt, S. N. in The Political Sys-terns of Empires (Glencoe: Free Press, 1963).Google Scholar

5 For related observations on center-hinterland relations in this period, see Spencer, George W. and Hall, Kenneth R., “Toward an Analysis of Dynastic Hinterlands: The Imperial Cholas of Eleventh Century South India,” Asian Profile, II, 1 (1974), pp. 51–62.Google Scholar

6 See my “Temple Money-Lending and Livestock Redistribution in Early Tanjore,” Indian Economic and Social History Review, V, 3 (1968). pp. 277–93.Google Scholar

7 The Rigvedic accountof the aśvamedha lists cows and horses among the legitimate objects to be seized. RV, I, 162.22.

8 Cūlavamsa [hereafterCv.] 50.15. Presumably some of these Tamils were immigrant mercenaries or the descendants of earlier mercenaries who had become involved in Ceylonese politics during the preceding two centuries, but the Chronicle does not enlighten us on this point.

9 Cv. 50.33–36. The Chronicle frequently likens the Damilas to devils.

10 Cv. 51.27–51. The Ceylonese troops, upon capturjng Madurai, are said to have “plundered it completely.”

11 Many years later, in the late eleventh century, the Chola king Kulōttuṇga I would be described in his eulogy as “pleased to seize the pearl fisheries of the Madurai country.” South Indian Inscriptions, II, Part II (1892), No. 58. On Ceylon, see Appadorai, A., Economic Conditions in Southern India (1000–1500 A.D.) (Madras: Univ. of Madras, 1936), p. 459.Google Scholar

12 The Chronicle suggests further decimation of the Ceylonese troops during this campaign, due to plague. Cv. 52.77–81

13 Cv. 53.8–10

14 Cv. 5347ff.

15 993 corresponds to the earliest date of inscriptions that include Īlamandalam (Ceylon) among Rājarāja's conquests. Although the Cūlavanfsa comments upon this period in detail, it does not refer to Rājarāja by name, so it is difficult to disentangle the events of his reign from later developments, except by synchronism with Chola inscriptions. Further evidence relating to Rājarāja's invasion is noted below.

16 Wilhelm Geiger has argued that this use of Indian mercenaries was necessary because the indigenous Sinhalese warrior class had become attached to the land and as a result had lost its mobility. See Bechert, Heinz (ed.). Culture of Ceylon in Mediaeval Times (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1960), p. 30Google Scholar. Whatever the reason, the price that was paid was high; the mercenaries created as many problems as they solved.

17 Cv. 44.71–73

18 Cv. 44.105ff.

19 The Culavarnsa refers to Rohaijas “terrible wildernesses” (51.136), which account for its popularity as a refuge for defeated kings, princes, rebels, etc. The mountainous central region of the island, Malaya-desa, frequently served the same purpose, Cv. 51.112ff.

20 Cv. 44.130 ff.

21 The compiler of the relevant section of the Chronicle was the bhikkhu Dhammakitti, who lived in the late twelfth century. Since he relied upon various unidentified sources for his narrative, I have referred to “chroniclers” in order to encompass both Dhammakitti and his unknown literary informants. For a discussion of the attitudes and values reflected in the Chronicle, see Perera, L. S., “The Pali Chronicle of Ceylon,” in Philips, C. H. (ed.), Historians of India, Pakistan and Ceylon (London: Oxford Univ. Press, 1961), pp. 29–43.Google Scholar

22 Cv. 55.3–5

23 This invasion is said to have taken place in the thirty-sixth year of the reign of Mahinda v, which corresponds to 1017. If true, that would place the Chola occupation of Rājarattha after the reign of Rājarāja I, in the time of his son Rājēndra I. But the year 1017 is an improbably late date for the invasion; Rājarāja had in fact established a strong foothold in Ceylon before that year. We know that a Saivite temple was constructed in Polonnaruva in the time of Rājarāja (Archaeological Survey of Ceylon, Report for 1906, pp. 17H”.), and revenues of five villages in Ceylon were assigned to the great temple in Tanjore by that king (South Indian Inscriptions, III, Part III (1920). No. 92.) Hence, the number 36. like so many other numbers provided by the Chronicle. is probably a mere rhetorical device, a multiple of the magic number twelve.

24 Cv. 74.1

25 As noted below, the Chola kings, though militantly Saivite, also patronized the Buddhist vihara at Nagapattinam. Similarly, Brahmanical advice and rites flourished at the Ceylonese court throughout the medieval period. See Geiger (n. 16 above), pp. 176–77.

26 Many of these were debt-slaves, but Tamil war-slaves were sometimes put to work on pious projects as well. Cv. 44.70–73

27 Cv. 46.20–22

28 Geiger (note 16 above), p. 193.

29 Cv. 55.16–22

30 Pali: Pulatthinagara; the Cholas called it Jananāthamangalam, after one of Rājarāja's titles.

31 See Paranavitana, S., “The Capital of Ceylon during the ninth and tenth centuries,” Ceylon Journal of Science, 11 (1928–33), pp. 141–47Google Scholar.

32 Nilakanta Sastri, K. A. in History of Ceylon, ed. By Ray, H. C. et al. (Colombo, 1959), p. 349Google Scholar; also Basham, A. L., “The Background to the Rise of Parākkamabāhu 1,” Ceylon Historical Journal, IV, 1–4 (1954–55). P. 15.Google Scholar

33 See especially Indrapala, K., “South Indian Mercantile Communities in Ceylon, circa 950–1250,” Ceylon Journal of Historical and Social Studies, n.s. I, 2 (July-Dec 1971), pp. 101–13Google Scholar. Certain problems of terminology arise in discussing these communities. K. Indrapala has cogently argued that the conventional use of terms such as “corporation” or “guild” in this context is inappropriate, since these terms carry implications about corporate organization that cannot be sustained by the evidence. “It seems more appropriate to call [the Aiññurruvar] a community of merchants with common origins, interests and beliefs.”; quotation from p. 29 of his “Some Medieval Mercantile Communities of South India and Ceylon,” Journal of Tamil Studies, II, 2 (Oct 1970), pp. 25–39.Google Scholar

34 Stein, Burton, “Coromandel Trade in Medieval India,” in Merchants and Scholars: Essays in the History of Exploration and Trade, ed. By Parker, John (Minneapolis: Univ. of Minn. Press, 1965), pp. 49–62.Google Scholar

35 It is equally significant that Rājēndra I re spected this grant sufficiently to have it inscribed on copper-plates during his own reign, after his father's demise. For details, see “The Larger Leiden Plates (of Rajaraja l),” Epigraphia Indica, XXII (1933–34). pp 213–66Google Scholar.

36 See Ayyar, K. R. Venkatarama, “Medieval Trade, Craft and Merchant Guilds in South India,” Journal of Indian History, XXV, 3 (Dec 1947), pp. 269–80)Google Scholar; and K. Indrapala, “Some Medieval Mercantile Communities” (n. 33 above).

37 Epigraphia Zeylanica, III. 4 (1929) and V, 16 (1963); the quote is taken from the latter, which is a revised reading.

38 Ibid.

39 The Loboe Toewa inscription bears a Śaka date corresponding to 1088, some 63 years after Rājēndras brief naval raid against Śrīvijaya. Sastri, K.A. Nilakanta. “A Tamil Merchant-Guild in Sumatra.” Tijdschrift poor lndische Taal-, Land-, en Volkenkunde. 1932, pp. 2–15.Google Scholar

40 Epigraphia Indica, XVII I (1926), No. 38.

41 Paranavitana, S., “Polonnaruva Inscription of Vijayabahu I,” Epigraphia Indica, XVIII, 1 (1926), pp. 330–38.Google Scholar

42 Cv. 60.35ff.

43 Indrapala, “South Indian Mercantile Communities” (n. 33 above), p. 112.

44 Archaeological Survey of Ceylon, Report for 1906, pp. iyff; Arch. Survey of India, South Indian Inscriptions, IV (1923), Nos. 594–96, 598.

45 Wijetunga (n. 2 above), p. 74 ; South Indian Inscriptions, IV (1923), No . 1412.

46 Cv. 58.11ff.

47 Cv. 55.19ff.

48 I have adopted Geiger's dates here, although again it should be noted that the Chronicle's attribution of twelve years may not be factual. (See n. 23 above.)

49 His military success no doubt serve d as verification of appropriate ancestral credentials; his genealogy is credulously recited in the Chronicle.

50 Cv. 58.16–17

51 For a radically different interpretation of these conflicts, and indeed the entire period covered by this article, see Paranavitana, Senarat, Ceylon and Malaysia (Colombo: Lake House Investments, 1966)Google Scholar. The stimulating but problematic hypotheses advanced in that work raise a number of technical questions that cannot be addressed in the short space of an article. I have therefore confined my present remarks to the exposition of an alternative model.

52 Sastri, K. A. Nilakanta. The Cōlas, 2nd ed. (Madras: Univ. of Madras, 1955), p. 321.Google Scholar