4091) Did You Know Series (114): i) Cholas and Pallavas traded with China centuries ago ii) Coins unearthed in Chola territories suggests a link to the thriving trade between the two countries and beyond to Cambodia , Indonesia and Laos etc.:
Links to Posts on the Cholas:
1) Commemorative Stamps on "Indian Ocean & Rajenda Chola I"
2) Celebrating 1000 years of Brihadeeshwarar Temple
Cholas and Pallavas traded with China centuries ago, coins tell the story:
Coins found in the territories of the Cholas (Thanjavur, Thallikottai) recall an age when the Bay of Bengal was a maritime highway, carrying silk and spices, and connecting the Tamil shores with China.
The maritime route not only flourished with trade but also carried cultural influence across Southeast Asia. This route may well be described as the 'Golden Road' that transformed the world.
India’s ancient “Golden Road”, a vast network of Indian Ocean routes, served as the principal conduit for east-west exchange from around 250 BCE to the 13th century CE.
After nearly 1000 years of the reign of Rajendra Chola I, Chinese-origin coins were unearthed in the Chola heartlands -- Thanjavur and Thallikotta.
The coins provided evidence of a trade that once linked the Tamil coast with China. The discovery surprised scholars in India and abroad, since it released that the Chola maritime world had sustained a vast network extending across the Bay of Bengal centuries earlier.
Rajendra I Chola ventured far and conquered distant lands in Southeast Asia. He is believed to have commanded a large navy, which aided him in his expedition towards the east.
From spices to precious stones and other essentials, trade to the east continued to flourish.
Scholars and historians now reconstruct not a single road but entire networks: seasonal winds, merchant fleets, temples, trade guilds, and royal expeditions.
As the Golden Road to the West began to close up, the Eastern branch grew more important, as great fleets of Indian merchants began heading east.
That eastward surge centred on Indian ports and ideas long before the European age of empire.
The Golden Road
PALLAVAS AND CHOLAS MARITIME NETWORKS:
Southern India’s earliest maritime expansion became reality under the Pallava kings (c.6th-9th centuries CE), based at Kanchipuram and Mmallapuram (Mahabalipuram).
By the tenth and eleventh centuries, the Cholas exercised maritime power on a larger scale.
Trade guilds, well-equipped shipyards and organised navies turned ports such as Nagapattinam and Kaveripattinam into hubs linking Sri Lanka, Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula and the Indonesian archipelago.
Sanskrit works of the time reflect a thriving cosmopolitan culture: for example, the 7th-8th century poet Dain (c.680-720 CE) under the Pallava king Narasihavarman II portrays courtly and urban life in a bustling city of Kanchipuram.
Pallava ports on the Coromandel Coast traded with Southeast Asia, carrying Hindu and Buddhist art and ideas.
Rajendra Chola I (r.1014–1044 CE) – sent formidable fleets into the Bay of Bengal and beyond.
Chinese coins unearthed:
Chola campaigns reached Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula: for instance, Rajendra’s 1025 CE expedition overran Srivijaya (in present-day Indonesia/Malaysia) to break the trade monopoly and open the passes for the trade court to far east.
The voyages from the shore of Southern India conveyed more than goods.
Tamil ports like Kveripattinam and Nagapattinam became crucial on the Spice Route.
Buddhist monks from India travelled east and vice versa – evidence of a vibrant intellectual exchange.
Conversely, Indian sages reached China: the 6th-century figure Bodhidharma, according to tradition a South Indian monk, journeyed from South Indian port to Guangzhou in China and is credited with founding Chan (Zen) Buddhism there.
SONG CHINA AND TAMIL NADU: COIN FINDS:
The Chola age also saw direct commerce with Song China (960-1279 CE).
Chinese records and Tamil inscriptions refer to Chola envoys to China (Rajendra I sent missions in 1016, 1033, 1077).
Archaeology has unearthed dramatic proof of this trade: tens of thousands of Chinese coins in South India. In Tamil Nadu alone, coin hoards dating to the Tang and Song dynasties have been found. For example:
A hoard of 20 Chinese copper coins dated between 1073 and 1237 CE was unearthed at Pattukkottai in Thanjavur district.
An even larger find of 1,822 coins spanning 713 to 1265 CE was reported from Thallikottai in Mannargudi taluk of the same district.
The coins of Chinese origin belonged to the 10th to 14th centuries C.E., a few were supposed to belong to an earlier period also.
"The later Cholas also preserved steady relations with China. During the reign of Rajendra Chola I (1016-1033 CE) and again under Kulottunga Chola I (1077 CE), embassies bearing both commercial and political characters were dispatched to the Chinese court", writes KA Nilakanta Shastri in A History of South India.
These coins (mostly round with square holes) testify to Chinese cash currency circulating in Tamil ports for centuries.
Indian numismatist N Sundararajan notes that Chinese annals even mention Rajaraja Chola I by a Chinese-transcribed name in 11th-century records.
CULTURAL EXCHANGE AND THE 'INDOSPHERE':
Trade carried Indian culture deep into Southeast Asia, creating an “Indosphere” of shared religion and art, through the forests of Java or the stone corridors of Cambodia.
Sanskrit was widely used; epigraphs and literature in Sanskrit and Pali record Vedic rituals in Indonesia and Khmer inscriptions in Cambodia.
Sagharakita, carried not only the Buddha’s dharma but also stories that made sense in a farmer’s hut as much as in a palace.
Thai monarchs still take titles like Rama or Indraditya, and a coronation in Bangkok carries echoes of Ayodhya.
Epics like the Hudhud and Darangen carry Mahbhrata themes.
The Buddha in Borobudur does not look like the Buddha of Sarnath; the Rama of the is not the Rama of Tulsidas. Each region took what arrived and made it their own.
Tamil sailors and priests helped transplant elements of Indian urban life into the urban centres of the east.
Maritime trade also carried everyday goods and advancements of the time (rice cultivation techniques, spices, textiles, astronomy), but its enduring legacy was the cosmopolitan culture of a shared Indian heritage.
The 'Golden Road' of the Indian Ocean was thus an avenue not only of commerce but of ideas, ultimately giving these regions Hindu-Buddhist statecraft, written language, and epics that remain at their cultural core.
Links to posts from the East India Company on Trade Dollars:
3) French Trade Dollars: Niue Island in partnership with the East India Company Bullion Ltd. has issued the Fifth Coin in the five-coin series titled "The Trade Dollar Collection" depicting five Trade Dollar Coins which shaped commerce in various parts of the world: A Gold 250 Dollar and a Silver 1 Dollar Coin issued in 2020 depicting the French Trade Dollar
1) The Travels of a silver Mexican Peso:1898 restruck in 1949
2) Ancient Chinese, Indian and Islamic coins at the Shanghai Museum
3) A Road trip to Himachal - Manali, Dharmshala, Simla
4) coins-and-currency-of the SAR of-Hong-Kong
5) Coins and Currency of the SAR of Macau
6) Yuan Shih-Kai or "Fatman" or "Big Head" silver dollar
7) Currency of the People's Republic of China - Yuan, Jiao & Fen
Rajan Trikha has commented:
ReplyDelete"Very detailed and informative post."
Thank you so much Trikha sahab.
DeleteVikram Bhatnagar has commented:
ReplyDelete"A great peek into ancient India's great maritime trading glory!"
Thank you so much Vikram. A Rs 1,000 coin on Rajendra Chola I has been minted by the Mumbai Mint. The amazing part is the he was so popular that the coin was being booked for sale only yesterday. The coin sold within 4 hours.
DeleteI could not book one for myself. He was the Emperor who built the Brihadeeshwarar temple 1000 years ago in 1010. Here every once a week there is a great pilgrimage day.
Even the British could not stop it. India's first 1000 rupee coin was on this temple which I have in my collection.