CDS (I) 2024 General Knowledge · Question 92 of 120

Correct — B, Rajaraja I. The Buddhist monastery at Nagapattinam, known as the Chudamani Vihara, was built early in the eleventh century by Sri Mara-vijayottunga-varman, the Sailendra ruler of Srivijaya, and it was Rajaraja I who supported the project — his copper-plate record, preserved today at Leiden, is the evidence for it. Rajaraja reigned from 985 to 1014, and this grant to a foreign Buddhist foundation on his own coast fits the pattern of a ruler whose power rested as much on maritime trade with Southeast Asia as on land campaigns. The trap in the question is Rajendra I, who a generation later sent a naval expedition against Srivijaya — Rajendra attacked Srivijaya, Rajaraja patronised its vihara.

• (a)Parantaka I — Parantaka I ruled in the tenth century, well before the Chudamani Vihara was founded, and his reign ended with a serious defeat by the Rashtrakutas rather than with maritime patronage.
• (c)Rajendra I — This is the intended trap. Rajendra I is the Chola linked to Srivijaya, but by the naval campaign of about 1025 against it, not by the patronage of its vihara — that was his father Rajaraja I.
• (d)Kulottunga I — Kulottunga I belongs to the later eleventh and early twelfth century. He is connected with a renewal of the Nagapattinam grant, not with the original support for its construction.

The Cholas were a maritime power as much as a land power, and Nagapattinam on the Coromandel coast was their outlet to Southeast Asia. Srivijaya, the Sailendra kingdom controlling the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra and Java, sat astride the same sea route. Relations between the two ran from cordial patronage under Rajaraja I to open naval war under Rajendra I, and the Chudamani Vihara, a Buddhist monastery built at Nagapattinam by the Srivijaya king with Chola support, belongs to the friendly phase.

The question rewards a candidate who keeps father and son apart. Both Rajaraja I and Rajendra I appear in every Srivijaya story, but on opposite sides of it. Rajaraja I, ruling 985 to 1014, backed a Sailendra king's monastery on Indian soil; Rajendra I, about a decade after his father's death, mounted the famous naval raid across the Bay of Bengal. A Saiva Chola supporting a Buddhist establishment is also worth noticing in itself — it tells you that the grant was an act of commercial and diplomatic policy, protecting the trade that ran through Nagapattinam, rather than a religious statement. The paper spells the port as Negapatnam, the older colonial form of Nagapattinam.

• Rajaraja I reigned from 985 to 1014 and built the Brihadisvara temple at Thanjavur.
• The Chudamani Vihara at Nagapattinam was constructed by the Sailendra king of Srivijaya, Sri Mara-vijayottunga-varman, with the support of Rajaraja I.
• The copper-plate record of the grant is preserved at Leiden University in the Netherlands.
• The Chola naval campaign against Srivijaya was led by Rajendra I, roughly a generation later.

• Picking Rajendra I on the strength of the Srivijaya association alone — he is the one who attacked it.
• Assuming a Saiva ruler would not patronise a Buddhist foundation; trade interests cut across sectarian lines.
• Confusing the original grant under Rajaraja I with the later confirmation associated with Kulottunga I.

Asked as a single-ruler identification in which the intended trap is the more famous king from the same dynasty and the same region of contact.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Chudamani Vihara at Nagapattinam was built by a ruler of which kingdom?

  • (a)Srivijaya
  • (b)Champa
  • (c)Kambuja
  • (d)Pagan

  Answer(a) Srivijaya — the Sailendra king Sri Mara-vijayottunga-varman built it with Chola support.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which Chola ruler built the Brihadisvara temple at Thanjavur?

  • (a)Vijayalaya
  • (b)Parantaka I
  • (c)Rajaraja I
  • (d)Kulottunga I

  Answer(c) Rajaraja I — the temple was completed during his reign of 985 to 1014.