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THE INDIAN NAVY’S INSPIRATION. A RATHER LIMITED ONE.

Mohan Guruswamy 

The note explaining the rationale for the Indian Navy’s new ensign states that the inspiration was derived from the royal seal of Chhatrapati Shivaji and describes him as “the first Indian to cultivate the Navy”. What rubbish.”! The Maratha Navy was primarily a coastal "green water" navy, compared to an ocean-going or "blue water" navy. Their ships were dependent on land/sea breezes. The Maratha did not build ships large enough to engage the British out at sea far from the coastal waters.

The Cholas ruled an Indian kingdom had a far bigger blue water navy that dominated the Indian Ocean, from the east coast of Africa to the South China Sea. If the Indian Navy was truly looking for an inspiration they should have gone further back in history to the Cholas who were at the height of their power for 1580 years (300BC–1279AD).  

The zenith was during the reign of RAJARAJA Chola (947CE to 1014CE) and his son Rajendra Chola and between 1010 and 1153 CE, Rajaraja's successors continued the expansion, making the Chola Empire a military, economic and cultural power in South and South-East Asia.

During this period, the Chola Navy helped expand the empire with naval expeditions to the Pala of Pataliputra, along the Ganges and the Chola invasion of Srivijaya (present-day Indonesia) in 1025 CE, as well as repeated embassies to China.

Romila Thapar wrote in the Encyclopaedia Britannica : “A naval campaign led to the conquest of the Maldive Islands, the Malabar Coast, and northern Sri Lanka, all of which were essential to the Chola control over trade with Southeast Asia and with Arabia and eastern Africa. These were the transit areas, ports of call for the Arab traders and ships to Southeast Asia and China, which were the source of the valuable spices sold at a high profit to Europe."

The Cholan thalassocracy was even bigger in area that the Greek thalassocracy. The Chola navies also stormed and captured overseas port citadels, like Sri Vijaya (Sumatra).

One doesn’t think even the modern Indian Navy can claim this dominance. It would have been better if they were inspired by the Cholans and used the Cholan coins below as its inspiration for the new ensign.

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