Navy
The Chola Navy comprised the naval forces of the Chola Empire along with several other Naval-arms of the country. The Chola navy played a vital role in the expansion of the Chola Empire, including the conquest of the Ceylon islands and Sri Vijaya (present day Indonesia), the spread of Hinduism, Dravidian architecture and Dravidian culture to South east Asia and in curbing the piracy in Southeast Asia in the 900CE.
There is evidence to suggest that even at the time of Parantaka I, there was a considerable navy involved in the numerous invasions of Lanka. Rajendra Chola's naval victories in Srivijaya were a culmination of centuries of naval tradition. All the Tamil kingdoms had some sort of navies in their arsenal.
The Cholas continued the ancient tradition and gave much attention to developing their naval strength. The conquest of Sri Lanka and Maldives and the embassies sent to China show the success of the Chola navy. The Chola Admirals had acted as ambassadors in many South East Asian Kingdoms during this time.
During RajaRaja Chola I and his son Rajendra Chola I it is said that the Cholan navy to have more than one million naval soldiers.
Many types of ships & Shipboard weapons were employed in the navy.
Read more about this topic: Chola Military
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