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Anirudh Kanisetti is a public historian. He is the author of ‘Lords of Earth and Sea: A History of the Chola Empire’, and the award-winning ‘Lords of the Deccan’. He hosts the Echoes of India and Yuddha podcasts. He tweets @AKanisetti and is on Instagram @anirbuddha.
Evryone knows krishnadevaraya ಕೃಷ್ಣ ದೇವ ರಾಯ rulef the richest kingdom. Forget about self appraisal by kings, other historians have wrotten that diamonds were being sold on the streets of vijaya nagara which was the capital of karnata samrajya. There are seven volumes of inscriptions on donations made by the kings in the past to Lord Venkateshwara. One entire volume is about donations made by Krishnadevaraya, that mostly constituted gold jewellery. Probably one gold jewelry is worth 100 gold coins.
Rajaraja Chola was an idiot who made the Islamic conquest of India easier. Instead of fighting the armies of Islam, he attacked his Hindu neighbouring rulers. Instead of defeating the Islamic invaders with nefarious designs on India, he plundered and pillaged Indian rajas.
So much for being a great warrior. He was a useful idiot who helped Islam in it’s pursuit of dominance over the Indian subcontinent.
Rajaraja Chola had the foresight to invest in crypto. Thus he became the richest king.