The Chola Navy was composed of ships used for transporting the land army overseas.[1]: 251 The Cholas did not have a standing navy in the modern sense. The maritime force of Cholas was formed by using ships used for trade, as they did not have a dedicated ship for naval combat.[2][3]
The Cholas were at the height of their power from the latter half of the 9th century CE through the early 13th century CE.[4]: 5 Between 1010 and 1153 CE, Rajaraja's successors continued the expansion, making the Chola Empire a military, economic and cultural power in South and South-East Asia.[3]: 215 During this period, the Chola Navy helped expand the empire with Naval expeditions to the Pala of Pataliputra, along the Ganges and the Chola invasion of Srivijaya (present-day Indonesia) in 1025 CE,[5]: 61 as well as repeated embassies to China.[4]: 158 The Chola Navy declined in the 13th century when the Cholas fought land battles with the Chalukyas of Andhra-Kannada area in South India, and with the rise of the Pandyan dynasty.[4]: 175
^Cite error: The named reference MajumdarHistCult3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Sakhuja, Vijay; Sakhuja, Sangeeta (2009). "Rajendra Chola I's Naval Expedition to Southeast Asia: A Nautical Perspective". In Kulke, Hermann; Kesavapany, K.; Sakhuja, Vijay (eds.). Nagapattinam to Suvarnadwipa: Reflections on the Chola Naval Expeditions to Southeast Asia. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. pp. 76–90. ISBN978-981-230-937-2.
^Sen, Tansen (2009). "The Military Campaigns of Rajendra Chola and the Chola-Srivija-China Triangle". In Kulke, Hermann; Kesavapany, K.; Sakhuja, Vijay (eds.). Nagapattinam to Suvarnadwipa: Reflections on the Chola naval expeditions to Southeast Asia. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. pp. 61–75. ISBN978-981-230-937-2.
