Sinhalese and Chola armies

[aligern]

Hi, I am currently in Sri Lanka.....anyone know anything good on Sri Lankan and Chola armies around 1000 AD?
Roy

[Duncan Head]

https://sirimunasiha.wordpress.com/about/military-history-of-sri-lanka/
https://sirimunasiha.wordpress.com/about/military-history-of-sri-lanka/weapons/

I'm sure you would enjoy it if you managed to find any of these guys: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/15/angampora-fighting-sri-lanka_n_5585271.html

[aligern]

Not close order types then-:))
Roy

[aligern]

Thanks for the two sirimunasiha references. I have been to the Dambulla caves and missed the stuff they cite. It looks as though the paihted caves with figures are eighteenth century, that, f course may not be wrong as costume does not change much hereabouts. I did get pics of two carved stones supposedly mediaeval that are not on those websites!
Roy

[Dangun]

Roy,

I wrote a piece for Slingshot 299 called Expedition to Srivijaya which looked at the Chola army and their operations in 1017 and 1025. I can send you a PDF copy if you like?

I suggest this for the Chola:

Kulke, H., Kesavapany, K., Sakhuja, V., Ed.s, Nagapattinam to Suvarnadwipa, (Singapore, 2009)
Majumdar, R. C., "The Overseas Expeditions of King Rajendra Cola," Artibus Asiae, Vol. 24, (1961), pp. 338-342
Majumdar, R. C., Suvarnadvipa - Ancient Indian Colonies in the Far East Vol. II, Book II, (Dacca, 1937)
Sastri, K. A. N., The Colas, (Madras, 1935)
Sastri, K. A. N., A History of South India, (Madras, 1955)
Spencer, G. W., "The Politics of Plunder: The Cholas in Eleventh Century Ceylon," The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 35, (1976), pp. 405-419

This is the most important military inscription for the Chola:

Hultzsch, E., Venkayya, V., Sastri, K. A. N., Ed.s, South Indian Inscriptions, Vol. 2, (Madras, 1916), p. 105

Sadly, there is nothing much that describes a Chola OOB.
However, there are many inscriptions which were dedicated by units - giving a basic unit description.

[aligern]

Thanks Nicholas.....any views on figures?  I recall Roundwood used to do a figure or two for Hindu Indians, bowmen and javelinmen IIRC.
Swordsmen look to be in separate and perhaps elite units.
Later pictures have either a long white skirt or perhaps lycra like shorts and lots of jewellery.
I did see in the info about the Sirigaya rock paintings, that the more upper class you were the less you wore, so the queen is shown bare, and magnificently, breasted, whereas her servant has that short crop top coloured T shirt upper garment.
I would be interested to know if the Cholas took elephants with them on expeditions across the sea?
Roy

[Duncan Head]

Thanks Nicholas.....any views on figures? 

Have you looked at the Outpost "Hindu and Tamil" range?

[aligern]

No, I did not realise they had such a range. I do worry with Outpost that they tend to be rangy figures and the Sinhalese and Tamils are generally not tall...
But I will look!
Thanks
Roy

[Dangun]

I would be interested to know if the Cholas took elephants with them on expeditions across the sea?

As far as I have read, there is no mention of them either having taken or not taken elephants.
But the sheer impracticality of transporting elephants over that distance suggests there would be significantly fewer elephants than in a regular India-based army.

[aligern]

Hi Nicholas, I found Slingshot 299 with your excellent article within it.  Would you see the Cholas  as having light infantry? I can see that they had skirmish bowmen from the forest peopkes, but wonder if they had anything more like a pelotas. You put Konga Valar in your army list, citing them as 'inexperienced troops'.  What was your thinking behind them being light infantry rather than levies ir new recruits?
Thanks
Roy

[Dangun]

Hi Nicholas, I found Slingshot 299 with your excellent article within it.  Would you see the Cholas  as having light infantry? I can see that they had skirmish bowmen from the forest peopkes, but wonder if they had anything more like a pelotas. You put Konga Valar in your army list, citing them as 'inexperienced troops'.  What was your thinking behind them being light infantry rather than levies ir new recruits?
Thanks
Roy

A couple of thoughts...

1. We have very little information to work with, far less than the information we have for the Classical Indians of Poros, and rarely do we have any information regarding arms or armour which might help us with classification
2. This leads us to our first interpretive dilemma, for an army list that stretches over such a long period of time, if we want to focus on the Cholas do we: a) rely on the detailed sources which are temporally distant, or b) do we rely on the sparse sources which are temporally close? I chose option (b).
3. The inscriptions are pretty much the only source that from the Chola period that bear on the topic
4. The inscriptions do not mention levies. Of course this is not definitive, but what else do we have?
5. The inscriptions do mention garrisons and garrison towns suggesting some kind of permanent or standing army
6. Whatever army got sent overseas, whether they began as levies or not, certainly didn't go home to harvest any crops They became - effectively - professional

In regards to the konga valor in particular, I think we have enough to say that there was a relatively less capable type of infantry.
But I haven't seen anything so precise as to lead us to either levies or lights.