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Contents: Foreword. 1. The naval expeditions of the Cholas in the context of Asian history/Hermann Kulke. 2. Medieval commercial activities in the Indian Ocean as revealed from Chinese Ceramic Sherds and South Indian and Sri Lankan inscriptions/Noboru Karashima. 3. The Military Campaigns of Rajendra Chola and the Chola-Srivijaya-China Triangle/Tansen Sen. 4. Rajendra Chola I's Naval expedition to Southeast Asia: a Nautical perspective/Vijay Sakhuja and Sangeeta Sakhuja. 5. A note on the Navy of the Chola State/Y. Subbarayalu. 6. Excavation at Gangaikondacholapuram, the Imperial Capital of Rajendra Chola, and its significance/S. Vasanthi. 7. New perspectives on Nagapattinam: the medieval Port City in the context of political, religious, and commercial exchanges between South India, Southeast Asia and China/Gokul Seshadri. 8. South Indian Merchant Guilds in the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia/Noboru Karashima. 9. Anjuvannam: a maritime trade guild of medieval times /Y. Subbarayalu. 10. Rajendra Chola's Naval expedition and the Chola trade with Southeast Asia/A. Meenakshisundararajan.  11. Cultural Implications of the Chola maritime fabric trade with Southeast Asia/Hema Devare. 12. Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia during the period of the Polonnaruva Kingdom/Anura Manatunga.13. India and Southeast Asia: South Indian Cultural links with Indonesia/P. Shanmugam. 14. Rajendra Chola's invasion and the rise of Airlangga/Ninie Susanti. 15. Rethinking Community: the Indic carvings of quanzhou/Risha Lee. Appendices.
    

"The expansion of the Cholas from their base in the Kaveri Delta saw this growing power subdue the kingdoms of southern India, as will as occupy Sri Lanka and the Maldives, by the early eleventh century. It was also during this period that the Cholas initiated links with Song China. Concurrently, the Southeast Asian polity of Sriwijaya had, through its Sumatran and Malayan ports, come to occupy a key position in East-West maritime trade, requiring engagement with both Song China to the north and the Chola kingdom to its west. The apparently friendly relations pursued were, however, to be disrupted in 1025 by Chola naval expeditions against fourteen key port cities in South east Asia. This volume examine the background, course and effects of these expeditions, as well as the regional context of the evens. It brings to light many aspects of this key period in Asian History."