Book review: A kaleidoscope on Chola polity in an election year in TN

Chennai: Call it by chance or design. A kaleidoscopic overview on the multifaceted “wonders” of the Chola dynasties, – a snapshot from the early Chola kings such as Karikalan in the ‘Sangam Age (roughly 5 BCE to 1 CE)’, the medieval Chola dynasty re-emerging with Vijayalaya Chola in the 9th century when they allied with the Pallavas, to the later Chola Kings who ruled till the latter half of the 13th century-, in a hot election year to the Tamil Nadu Assembly, is quite symbolic in itself.

This very well presented coffee table book by Ram Sankar in a delightfully simple style is also quite different. While focusing on the marvelous architectural and artistic achievements of the Chola Kings, with the ‘Big Temple’ in Thanjavur and a similar grand structure at Gangaikonda Cholapuram near Kumbakonam being their ‘crowning glory’, the author has tried to bring in a fresh perspective on what may be called the larger Chola polity itself, shaped over several centuries.

Notwithstanding the depth and width of the theme that he must have run against, in the backdrop of India’s mainstream historiography largely ignoring the achievements of South India, Ram Sankar’s effort in this colourful 152-page volume looks both daring and catchy.

For the author has sought to distill the essence of the ‘political economy’ of the imperial Cholas, within a limited canvas. He consciously chose to title it ‘Cholanomics’ to highlight the “vibrant socio-economic parameters” that had once informed virtually the entire South India with its growth, military stability, social inclusivity in a largely agrarian economy with its neat system of taxation and an amazingly meticulous land records system.

The activity of temple-building and the countless exquisite temples particularly in the sprawling Cauvery delta, supporting a host of artistic, educational and cultural activities were at the same time ‘emblems of sovereign power’. The latter aspect was also brought out quite engagingly in the epigraphic studies by Prof. Gift Siromoney and Prof. Michael Lockwood of Madras Christian College decades ago. The Chola rulers took along with them other major religions like Buddhism and Jainism- a shining example is a frieze depicting Buddha preaching to his followers in the Big Temple-. Various classes of people – a unity in diversity- were encouraged to settle around temple-centric villages. These have been as Ram Sankar shows, at the heart of ‘Chola polity and society’, secular and ‘desi’ at once.

Tamil was the language used in a large number of inscriptions – a vital historical source-, but there were other languages/script in vogue like Sanskrit, Kannada, Telugu and Granth; a growing maritime trade extending to various parts of South East Asia was backed by a strong naval fleet to protect it from sea piracy. “The control over the sea route in the straits region and their trade missions to China and other places contributed to flourishing international trade,” says the author.

The Cholas saw the need for encouraging local industries too- like the famous cottage industry of bronze casting of icons in Swamimalai-, to spur domestic demand, a Keynesian benign state-intervention of sorts. They had heavily invested in agriculture-related infrastructure like irrigation and rain harvesting tanks and lakes, including Parantaka Chola-I forming a huge lake, now called the ‘Veeranam lake’ and “serving all the way to contemporary Chennai”. All these and more formed a unique politico-economic doctrine, Ram Sankar explains to rub in its contemporary relevance like what goes by the name ‘Reganomics’.    

Inspired by Kalki’s historical novel, ‘Ponniyin Selvan’ and relying substantially on the historical works of the renowned scholar in South Indian history, late Prof K A Nilakanta Sastri, and publications of the State and Central Archaeology departments, ‘Cholanomics’ may well be an entry point to a new, young generation of tech-savvy readers to rekindle interest in a bygone ‘golden era’ in the South. Added by a rich array of photographs and pithy introductions to the great living temples in Tamil Nadu, the soft launch eyes the modern tourists too.
 Several key Chola-era records quoted in this book by Ram Sankar, a chartered accountant by profession and who retired from the Board of Boston Harbour, LLC, New York, including on ‘minimum qualifications to contest’ in an election as laid out in the famous Uthiramerur inscriptions, and judicial temperance that avoids witch-hunting have an instructive import to our own trying and testing times!