Hisar: Empires tend to look grander the further away they are. The Cholas, too, are known for their exquisite temples, benevolent kings and a golden age of culture.
But for historian Anirudh Kanisetti, the real Chola world was a landscape of power struggles and temple politics. It also had, he added, its quirks, like all kingdoms. Sheep’s ghee offerings and aristocrats who ate everything from pork to rats.
Speaking at a discussion on the Great Cholas, led by entrepreneur Sameer Sandhir at the Jindal Literature Festival at the Vidya Devi Jindal School in Hisar Saturday, Kanisetti underscored that history is not meant to comfort us but to unsettle us—dynasties thrive on alliances, inscriptions, and political theatrics, not on moral purity.
“We talk about the past as if it were cleaner than the present, but the truth is far messier, and it becomes even darker when today’s politicians exploit it for their benefit,” said Kanisetti.
Delving into the Sengol, popularly linked to Chola history and now enshrined in the new Parliament building, Kanisetti punctured a widely circulated myth—“We don’t actually know what a Chola Sengol looked like.”
Holding up his book, Lords of the Earth and Seas, he showed the audience one of the imagined Chola-era sceptres on its cover. The design, he explained, was reconstructed from surviving bronze and temple sculptures, including lions, tigers, and the iconography of the Brihadeeswara temple. All those artefacts and symbols helped “imagine how a Chola sceptre might feel alive”, rather than replicate an authentic one, which no longer exists, he said.
“Today, we often think of empires as neatly defined, like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, but historical empires rarely looked that way. Unlike modern nation-states with built communication networks, medieval kingdoms operated very differently,” said Kanisetti.
“The empire had a core area where the king’s authority was strongest, surrounded by a diffused zone where control was maintained by sending princes or queens to govern.
Beyond that was a broader region of indirect influence, where power was exercised through alliances and temple connections. This layered structure made medieval empires dynamic and complex, unlike the fixed borders we imagine today.”
The temples of politics
Temples under the Cholas were not simply places of worship. They were the very institutions where political power was exercised and sustained. Inscriptions carved into temple walls functioned as primary historical records and were deliberately installed by kings to reinforce their authority and shape their legacy.
Kanisetti explained, “Temples were constructed not just for religious purposes, but also as platforms for political, social, and cultural influence. For the kings, building and supporting temples demonstrated devotion and acted as a way to publicly broadcast their divine right and reinforce their rule.”
Even the offerings reflected this connection. The sheep were raised in the temple complex for their ghee, which fuelled temple lamps. Temple floors were covered with cow dung rather than stone.
‘River rats’ as royal delicacy
Chola royal cuisine was far from the sanitised fare or vegetarian, as some might like to imagine. Kings feasted on a variety of meats, including peacock, crow, swan, pork, and even river rats cooked with blood and intestines.
“The king was seen as the lord of the earth, so he had to know how to consume everything. Interestingly, staples like chillies, potatoes, and tomatoes were introduced much later by Europeans; they are not native to ancient South India,” said Kanisetti.
Women played a crucial yet often overlooked role. They did the hard labour of pounding rice—an exhausting task with low pay, which was half the usual wage. Meanwhile, the actual cooking in the elite households was typically done by high-status cooks.
ThePrint is the official media partner for the Jindal Literature Festival.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)