The main port of the Chola empire on the Bay of Bengal, from which ships sail to Srivijaya, Burma, China and the Malay coast, and where Arab, Persian and Tamil Muslim merchants live.
It holds the Chudamani Vihara, a Buddhist monastery built under Srivijaya patronage with the leave of Rajaraja I (1006) and endowed with the village of Anaimangalam, and the Nagapattinam hoard of Buddhist bronzes (eleventh to sixteenth centuries) shows that Buddhism lived here on. The Hindu shrines of Kayarohanaswami and Soundararaja Perumal stand in the town. The Chinese pagoda of Nagapattinam is a later tradition and is not on the ground in 1200.
Who holds it
- Name
- Kulottunga III Chola; the crown's port officers, the nagaram and the foreign merchants' headmen
- Title
- see the lord or tenant line below
- Born
- not known
- Confidence
- medium
Lord in 1200
Kulottunga III Chola; the crown's port officers, the nagaram and the foreign merchants' headmen
How things stand that morning
A prosperous port, the gate of the Chola Bay trade.
Wealth
Customs, brokerage, the shipping trade, the Vihara's endowed village.
Military
Harbour guards; no figure.
Threats
- Famine from July 1200
- Cyclones on the Coromandel coast in the north-east monsoon
- Piracy in the Bay
Charter
Customs privileges for foreign merchants under royal grants; no charter text is known to me
Council
The crown's port officers (the harbour's accountants), the headman of the nagaram and the heads of the foreign quarters; none named
Communities
Tamil merchants, Arab, Persian and local Muslim traders, Buddhists of the Chudamani Vihara, Hindu temple communities, Srivijayan visitors, Chinese traders
Fairs and markets
Seasonal: ships arrive on the monsoon winds
Militia
A port guard; no figure
Walls and castle
Harbour and warehouse quarters; no wall is described in the pages we read
Trade and crafts
The Bay trade: cloth to Southeast Asia, horses and spices in, camphor, aromatics and Chinese goods; shipbuilding and repair
What the year holds
What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.
- November 1200 to January 1201The north-east monsoon season: ships cannot cross the Bay; cyclones on the coast.Depends on: The season. Stopped by: None.
- From about 7 July 1200Famine in the delta cuts the grain trade.Depends on: A failed monsoon. The famine is a regnal-year statement found only in the brief and the campaign board's calendar (no page read confirms it). Stopped by: A good monsoon.
Places of note
- Karaikal: Small Chola port south of the Kaveri mouth.
- Tarangambadi (Tranquebar): Small port; the Danish fort is of the seventeenth century and not here.
- Kaveripattinam (Puhar): The old Sangam port at the mouth of the Kaveri; by 1200 a village with temples, much reduced.
- Kodikkarai (Point Calimere): Headland and lighthouse site on the Palk Strait; navigation mark.
- Vedaranyam: Salt pans and the Vedaranyeswarar temple.
- Mayiladuthurai (Mayavaram): Temple town on the Kaveri.
- Sirkazhi: Brahmapureeswarar temple town of the Tevaram saint Sambandar.
- Tirunallar: Saiva temple town; the Dharbaranyeswarar temple.
- Thirukkadaiyur: Saiva temple town with the Amirthaghateswarar temple.
- Thiruvenkadu: Saiva temple town (Swetharanyeswarar).
- Vaitheeswaran Koil (Pullirukkuvelur): Saiva temple town, a healing shrine.
Where the sources disagree
- The campaign board entry nagapattinam (10.766,79.843) and the gazetteer's Nagapattinam municipality (10.80,79.83) differ by about 4 km: the campaign board's point is the port quarter on the coast.
- The campaign board's chudamani-vihara-nagapattinam is covered in the religious array.
Evidence: The Vihara and the port are well attested; the 1200 officers are not.
"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.
Primary sources for Chola empire
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- The Lesser Chronicle (the continuation of the Mahavamsa), Dhammakitti and later monks of the Mahavihara tradition (the first continuation about the 13th century (chapters 37 to 79), carried on in stages to the 18th century). The only narrative source for Lanka in 1200. Read online
- History of Song, chapters 488 and 489: Jiaozhi, Dali, Champa, Zhenla, Pagan, Srivijaya, Java, Brunei, Chola and Tambralinga, Toqto'a (Tuotuo) and the Yuan history office, from the Song court records (1343 to 1345, from Song veritable records and court diaries). The Chinese court's record of its southern neighbours, compiled from Song archives. Read online
- The Leiden grants of Rajaraja I and Kulottunga I concerning the Srivijaya vihara at Nagapattinam, The Chola chancery (Rajaraja I, Rajendra I, Kulottunga I) (the Larger plates about 1005 to 1014 (completed under Rajendra I); the Smaller plates 1090). Background documents for the relations between the Cholas and the Malay world. Read online
- Corpus of Inscriptions in the Telingana Districts, Various (Kakatiya chancery and temple scribes), edited by P. Sreenivasachar (inscriptions of the 10th to 15th centuries; edited 1940 to 1942). The Kakatiyas of Orugallu (Warangal) are known for 1200 almost entirely from inscriptions, and this Hyderabad Archaeological Series corpus is the main printed collection. Read online
- Epigraphia Carnatica: inscriptions of the Mysore country, Various (Hoysala chancery and temple scribes), edited by B. Lewis Rice and R. Narasimhachar (inscriptions of the 4th to 19th centuries; the series ran from 1886 to 1905, revised from 1972). The Hoysala kingdom of Veera Ballala II (reigning 1173 to 1220) is documented almost wholly by the inscriptions in this series, arranged by district and taluk with full English translations. Read online
- Epigraphia Zeylanica: lithic and other inscriptions of Ceylon, Various (the Polonnaruwa kings' chanceries), edited by D. M. de Zilva Wickremasinghe, H. W. Codrington and S. Paranavitana (inscriptions of the 3rd century BC to the 18th century; the series ran from 1904). Prints with translation the stone records of the Polonnaruwa kings who held or lost the throne around 1200. Read online
- South Indian Inscriptions (Archaeological Survey of India), Various (Chola, Pandya and other chanceries and temple scribes), edited by E. Hultzsch, V. Venkayya, H. Krishna Sastri and successors (inscriptions of the 7th to 17th centuries; the series ran from 1890). The temple inscriptions printed here are the primary record of the Tamil country in 1200. Read online
- Travancore Archaeological Series, Various (Kerala chiefs, temples and merchant guilds), edited by T. A. Gopinatha Rao, K. V. Subrahmanya Aiyer and A. S. Ramanatha Ayyar (inscriptions of the 9th to 18th centuries; the series ran from 1910 to 1938). The main corpus for the Kerala coast. Read online
4 more in the sources library for Southern India and Sri Lanka.
Sources and studies
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.