Rajendra Chola builds Gangaikonda Cholapuram

1026

To commemorate his northern expedition to the Ganges, the Tamil emperor founded a new capital and built a great sandstone temple to Shiva. The temple would stand for a thousand years as a monument to one of medieval South Asia's greatest imperial ventures, its sculpted walls still vivid today. Rajendra's military campaigns had carried Chola banners from Sri Lanka to the banks of the Ganges itself.