The Rise of the Cholas

Although well known in India today, the Chola Empire remarkably unknown in Europe or the US. That is surprising because they created one of the craziest empires in world history.

To begin with, they were one of the few South Indian Empires to really go global, expanding their influence beyond the Indian Peninsula to Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Indonesia and possibly even the Maldives.

Their armies would march as far north as the Ganges, and their embassies would sail as far afield as China so that, remarkably, a Chola temple survives in the Chinese city of Guangzhou. In doing so they would also change the nature of Asian society.