India's medieval navy struck 14 cities across Southeast Asia in one campaign. The empire your history books deleted — the Cholas.

A thousand years before modern India debates the Andaman Islands, a Tamil king named Rajendra Chola had already solved the Malacca chokepoint — with a fleet that crossed two seas. The Chola civilisation built a 2,000-year-old dam still in use today, a granite temple with an 80-tonne capstone, and multinational merchant guilds with their own armies and legal codes — five centuries before the East India Company existed.

When Malik Kafur's forces arrived in 1311, they stripped centuries of wealth in weeks. When the British Raj arrived, it dissolved what remained through paperwork. The deities removed are not 'artefacts.' Under Indian law, they are living legal persons — still worshipped, still absent.

India's maritime history didn't begin with colonialism. It was erased by it.

00:00 How Did Cholas Rule the Indian Ocean?00:26 Who Were the Cholas? Origins Explained00:50 How Cholas Rose to Power in South India01:16 What Did Raja Raja Chola Build?01:44 How Was Brihadeeshwara Temple Constructed?02:39 Chola Administration & Economic System03:11 How Cholas Conquered Sri Lanka & Maldives04:34 Did a South Indian King Conquer North India?05:03 Medieval India's Multinational Trading Guilds06:23 Greatest Naval Attack in Medieval Asian History07:16 Why Didn't Cholas Colonize Southeast Asia?08:08 Why Were Indian Ships Superior to European Ships?10:07 How Did the Chola Empire Fall?12:43 Is Chola Culture Still Alive Today?