freinds, i do not know whether this had been discussed earlier. i have been reading from various sources for the past 20 years that tamil-cholan influence in SOUTH-EAST ASIA is undisputable.
politically talking, rajendra and his succesor kulothunga were responsible for the weakening of srivijaya kingdom in java. this led to muslim invasions and subsequent islamisation of ASEAN.
rajendra is compared to napoleon or alexander in south-east asia. that is he was over-ambitious and ruthless too. south east asian historians though admiting their place in strait of malacca are carefull not to eulogise him as we do.
there were sculptures depicting cholan army invasion into combodia in one of the vat temples. the burmese king is beleived to have visited cholan capital during the 11th century. thailand received engineers and scholars from tanjore. merchant guilds were permanently eatabilished southern china. malay penisula had a permanent chola army station.
2 years ago a thai scientist visited chidambaram. she claimed that she was a descendant of cholan mercenaries stationed in thailand in 11th century. tamil recitations were prevalent even 50 years ago in the budhist monasteries of bangkok but they are fast dissapearing.
the philipines parliament wanted to change its country name in 70's. the old name for those islands are a cholan one-"maharlika" meaning ( mahalinga). the idea was dropped after the christian country learnt that it is a hindu gods name.
south east asian cholan influence lasted a century- that is the whole of rajendra and kulothunga periods. their influence in ASEAN is not palatable to them. it is almost like how we hate islamic invasions of malik-kafur. ASEAN-SOUTHINDIA history had some commonality even during vijay-nagar period. the malakka chettys are descendents of chettiars who stayed there in 16th century.
the last srilankan king who ruled from kandy was a telugu-nayakkar descendant and a hindu. his ancestors were married to the sinhalese royal family from madurai nayakar dynasty. there were times sinhalese army supported pandians and fought cholans. pandians and sinhalese royals exchanged brides.
a study in south india-ceylon and ASEAN relationships may help larger economical and political cooperation in the indian ocean.