Rajendra Chola I

Rajendra Chola I inherited an already-powerful empire from his father and expanded it dramatically. Around 1019–1023 CE he led a military campaign north across the Indian peninsula that reached the banks of the Ganges river, after which he took the title Gangaikonda Chola ('the Chola who took the Ganges') and founded a new capital, Gangaikonda Cholapuram, where he built a temple rivaling his father's at Thanjavur. His most remarkable achievement was a naval expedition in 1025 CE against the Srivijaya empire, a maritime power controlling the Malacca and Sunda straits in what is now Indonesia and Malaysia — a campaign that remains one of the only recorded instances of an Indian dynasty projecting military power by sea across more than 2,000 nautical miles. The expedition secured Chola trading interests across the Southeast Asian sea lanes for decades afterward. Rajendra's reign represents the peak of Chola imperial and maritime power.