Chol / Koli चोल-कोली
The Cholas were a medieval south Indian kingdom based out of Tanjore (Thanjavur in present Tamil Nadu, India).[1] The Chola empire, at its peak, during the reign of Rajaraja Chola and his more illustrious son, emperor Rajendra Chola, transcended the borders of the Indian sub-continent and extended from river Ganges in the north to Sri Lanka[2] in the south, and from Maldives[3] and Lakshwadeep[3] off the southwestern coast of India to Kadaaram (Kedaah, Malaysia) in southeast Asia.[4]
Origin
The origin of the Cholas is not mired in mystery as some historians and scholars would have us believe. The various Chola sovereigns called themselves as Koliyar-Ko, meaning King of Koliyar.
Gandaraditya Chola, who is considered to be the author of some of the poems figuring in the Tiruvisaippa, the ninth volume of the Saivite canon called Tirumurai, describes himself (in Tamil) in these works as “Koli vendan Thanjaiyar kon Gandaradittan”, meaning “King Koli, lord of Thanjai (Thanjavur) Gandaradittan”. Again, in one of his inscriptions (Tamil), Gandaraditya calls himself as “Ko-cholan valan kaveri naadan Koliyar-ko kandan”, that is, “Gandan, the King Cholan, the lord of the fertile kaveri country and the lord of Koliyar”.[5]
Vikrama Chola, the son of Kulothunga Chola and a later Chola king, is described as Koliyar kula Pati or “head of the family of Cholas” in one of his Tamil inscriptions in Kolar district in Karnataka.[6]
What is clear is that the koliyar were one of the artisan communities during the period of the Cholas. Some historians like Vijaya Ramasamy[7], consider the koliyar to be weavers.[8][9] Others like Kenneth Hall consider that the term koliyar denoted leather- workers.[10][11] In one of the Chola inscriptions, the koliyar, along with the kollar (blacksmith), tachchar (carpenter) and tattaar (goldsmith) were categorized as kil-kalanaigal, meaning lower categories of workers.[11]
What is open to speculation is whether the koliyar, that is the Cholas, were Tamil and natives of traditional Tamil lands as they are purported to be or if they were a non-Tamil tribe that gradually migrated to south India, conquered the fertile Kaveri basin and laid the foundation for one of the most formidable empires in the world. According to the Tiruvalangadu plates of Rajendra Chola, the Cholas traced their lineage to the Suryavamsa or the solar dynasty of mythology.[12] Were the koliyar of Chola fame related to the Koliyas, the ancient Kshatriya clan of the mother of Gautama Buddha, who also claim a solar lineage or were they of more humble origins like the north Indian Kshatriya Koli.
