Under Rajendra Chola, the Cholas expanded their empire with the use of their strong navy and subdued many kingdoms of South-East Asia and occupied the region which included Myanmar, Malaya, Sumatra etc., and sent ambassadors to countries as far off as China.

However, the King faced total defeat by the hands of Chola king Raja Raja Chola I. Raja Raja Chola I invaded Kulasekhara kingdom in 994-995 AD and destroyed the navy of Bhaskara Ravi Varman I in the famous Kandalur War.

Together they extended the influence of their kingdom and played a major part in the ultimate demise of the Chola dynasty.

But with the beginning of the Chola era, there is strong evidence of increasing agrarian settlement, the growth of villages, institutions, the construction and expansion of temples.

Indian Hindu artisans from the period of the Chola empire in Tamil Nadu, used bronze to create intricate statues via the lost wax casting method with ornate detailing depicting the Gods of Hinduism mostly, but also the lifestyle of the period.

In 1025 and 1026 Gangga Negara was attacked by Rajendra Chola I, the Tamil emperor who is now thought to have laid Kota Gelanggi to waste.

Pattinapalai, a Tamil poem of the 2nd century CE, describes goods from Kedaram heaped in the broad streets of the Chola capital.

However the largest temple pyramid in the area is Sri Rangam in Srirangam, Tamil Nadu. The Thanjavur temple was built by Raja raja Chola in 11 century.

* A scene in the 2008 Tamil film Dasavathaaram shows the fictitious events of religious tensions between the Shaivists and the Vaishnavites in the Chola Kingdom ( present-day Tamil Nadu, India ).

In India, the Chola Dynasty reached its height of naval power under leaders such as Rajaraja Chola I and Rajendra Chola I, dominating southern India ( Tamil Nadu ), Sri Lanka, and regions of South East Asia.

* Rajaraja Chola I, ruler of Tamil Nadu ( southern India ) and Sri Lanka

* Rajendra Chola I, ruler of Tamil Nadu ( southern India ) and Sri Lanka

* Parantaka I, ruler of the Chola Dynasty of India – Tamil King ( reigned 907 – 950 )

* Raja Raja Chola I, ruler of the Chola Dynasty of India – Tamil King

The Pandya, Chola and Chera dynasties of the classical age rule and flourish in the ancient Tamil country.

Nataraja, Bronze, Chola Dynasty, Tamil Nadu, Government Museum Madras, India.

A Telugu and Tamil concept, Shiva was first depicted as Nataraja in the famous Chola bronzes and sculptures of Chidambaram.

Tamil Nadu, Chola Dynasty, India

Gangga Negara, one of the peninsula's oldest kingdoms, was eventually destroyed by Rajendra Chola I of the Tamil Chola empire.

* 1025: the Chola Dynasty of India uses its naval powers to conquer the South East Asian kingdom of Srivijaya, turning it into a vassal.

* June 29 – Vikram Chola becomes regent of the Chola kingdom.

* 1279 – The Chola Dynasty of South India falls under attacks by the Hoysala Empire and Pandyan kingdom.

* Srivijaya, a partly Buddhist kingdom based in Sumatra, is attacked by the Chola Empire of southern India in a dispute over trading rights in South-east Asia.

* 1025: Srivijaya, a Buddhist kingdom based in Sumatra, is raided by the Chola empire of southern India ; it survives, but declines in importance.

Rajaraja Chola I ( reigned 985 to 1014 ) and his son Rajendra Chola I ( reigned 1014 – 42 ), who were from the Dravidian kingdom in southern India, sent out a great naval expedition that occupied parts of Myanmar, Malaya, and Sumatra.

Gandaraditya was, however, not a great king and the enemies of the Chola kingdom began to rise again at the end of his reign.

Parantaka Chola II ( son of Arinjaya, also known popularly as Sundara Chola as he was exotically handsome and ruled the kingdom particularly well ), though later fell fatally ill as his legs were paralysed.

Trincomalee was used by Chola king Ilankesvarar Tevar as his eastern port in the 11th century and prospered under the Vannimai chieftaincies of the Jaffna kingdom.

The Chola kingdom, which four centuries before Christ had been recognized as independent by the great Maurya king Asoka, had for its chief port Kaviripaddinam at the mouth of the Cauvery, every vestige of which is now buried in sand.

When in A. D. 640 the Chinese traveller Hsuan Tsang visited Kanchi ( Conjevaram ), the capital of the Pallava king, he learned that the kingdom of Chola ( Chu-li-ya ) embraced but a small territory, wild, and inhabited by a scanty and fierce population ; in the Pandya kingdom ( Malakuta ), which was under Pallava suzerainty, literature was dead, Buddhism all but extinct, while Hinduism and the naked Jain saints divided the religious allegiance of the people, and the pearl fisheries continued to flourish.

Though crushed, however, they were not extinguished ; a period of anarchy followed, the struggle between the Chola kings and the Mussulmans issuing in the establishment at Kanchi of an usurping Hindu dynasty which ruled till the end of the 14th century, while in 1365 a branch of the Pandyas succeeded in re-establishing itself in part of the kingdom of Madura, where it survived till 1623.

The Nagarathars ( Tamil: நகரத ் த ா ர ் ச ெ ட ் ட ி ய ா ர ்) is a Chettiar forward caste community in Shaivism ( Tamil: ச ை வ சமயம ்) that originated in Kaveripoompattinam under the Chola kingdom of India.

The period of known history of the region begins with the Iron age ( 1200 BC to 24 BC ) period during which Chera, Chola, Pandya ruled the South Indian country until 14th century A. D. Inscriptions on Madurai Meenakshi Amman Temple shows that once Pandyan kingdom ruled from Himalayas in North to Kanyakumari in the South.

One of the most powerful rulers of the Chola kingdom was Raja Raja Chola.

The Pandyan kingdom was replaced by the Chola princes who assumed the title as Chola Pandyas in the 11th century.

The collection is particularly rich in art from the Indian subcontinent, including monumental stone sculpture from the Kushana and Gupta periods, and a remarkable group of Chola bronzes from southern India.

There are inscriptions that record the contributions of the Chola kings Raja Raja and Kulottunga III, Pandya King Maravarman and many rulers of the Vijayanagar dynasty including Ramaraja Venkatapathiraja and Vira Venkatapathy.

Later the Tamil Chola Rajas ruled Southern Karnataka ( including Tulunad and Coorg ), Tamil Nadu, Kerala and parts of Andhra.

The South Asian Galleries feature statuary from a broad spectrum of periods including some fine Chola bronzes.

Purananuru states that he participated in the Battle of Talaiyalam-Kanam allied with Chola ruler Killivalavan and five other small rulers including Ezhini, Thithiyan, Irungo Vaenmaan, Porunan and Erumaiyuran against Nedum Chezhian.

The resuscitation of the Sinhalese Sangha after the destructive effects of the Chola conquest owned a great deal to Bhikkus from upper Burma sent over for this purpose by the Burmese King at the request of Vijayabahu I.

Sometimes Chola seafaring led to outright plunder and conquest as far as Southeast Asia.

Rajendra Chola I completed the conquest of Sri Lanka, invaded Bengal, and undertook a great naval campaign that occupied parts of Malaya, Burma, and Sumatra.

The hold over Vengi was quite firm and Kalinga was under the Chola rule for the conquest of which and the levying of tribute over Alipurdoar areas of Bengal, Kulothunga I claims in his inscriptions to have built two temples dedicated to Sun god, namely the Suryanaar Koils of Nagapattinam and Pudukkottai.

Aditya I () ( c. 871 – c. 907 CE ), the son of Vijayalaya, was the first great Chola king of South India who extended the Chola dominions by the conquest of the Pallavas.

The Thamiraparani-Ghadananadi river areas were colonized during the Chola conquest of Pandya country in the 10th century.

The irrigation canal ( Kannadiyan Canal ) at Kallidaikurichi, which made Kallidaikurichi very fertile, must have come into being only after Chola conquest was reversed by the second Pandyan Empire.

Rajaraja Chola began his military career with the conquest of the Cheras in the Kandalur War.

During the next three years, he subdued Quilon and the northern kingdom of Kalinga with the help of his son Rajendra Chola I. Rajendra later completed the conquest of Sri Lanka, crossed the Ganges, and marched across Kalinga to Bengal.

However, Mahavamsa records indicates that Chola invasion and conquest of Lanka as a carnage wrought by the pillaging Chola army in the Sinhala country.

Many of Jayasimha-II's generals, called Mahasamantas and Dandanayakas paid with their lives for the intransigence of their inept king, as described in the Tiruvalangadu plates of Rajendra I. Rajendra routed Jayasimha thoroughly with the result the Chalukya king ran away from his capital and was forced to flee and rule from Etagiri. Rajendra Chola I describes his victory over Jayasimha as under: " the seven and a half lakshas of Iratta-padi, ( which was ) strong by nature, ( through the conquest of which ) immeasurable fame arose, ( and which he took from ) Jayasimha, who, out of fear ( and ) full of vengeance, turned his back at Muyangi and hid himself ".

For his conquest of territories in the Ganges-Hooghly belt on the North and Eastern part of India as well as his victories over the adversaries in Indo-China ( Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia ), Rajendra Chola I earned the famous title of Poorvadesamum, Gangaiyum Kadaramum Konda Ayyan (***).