The Cholas enjoyed a lot of power and prestige during the Sangam age; the Sangam literature describes a number of Chola princes of exemplary character. Gradually, however, they declined in strength and were relegated to the status of a feudatory. They became subordinate to the Rashtrakutas, the Chalukyas and the Pallavas. Around the middle of the ninth century, they asserted their independence, revived their strength and made a determined bid to become the chief power in the South. Their efforts were successful and their empire contained all the territories to the south of the River Tungabhadra along with a number of islands in the Arabian Sea. For more than two hundred years, they were the supreme power of South India influencing the politics, the arts, and the culture of the region.
The founder of the later Chola empire was Vijayalaya, who was at first a feudatory of the Pallavas. He captured Thanjavur in 850. By the end of the ninth century, Vijayalaya’s successor, Aditya I Chola, wiped out the Pallavas of Kanchi and weakened the Pandyas, thus bringing the southern Tamil country under his control. In the beginning, the Cholas were hard put to defend their position against the Rashtrakutas, but towards the end of the tenth century Chola power rapidly rose. Parantaka I (907-955) captured Madurai but was defeated by the Rashtrakuta ruler, Krishna III, at the battle of Takkolam, and he lost Tondaimandalam. But his grandson, Sundara-Chola, overcame the Rashtrakuta ruler and wrested Tondaimandalam from him.
After this the empire began to shrink. By 1118, the Chola Empire was confined to the Tamil region and a relatively small area of the adjoining Telugu districts. Kulottunga III (1178-1210) was the last great Chola monarch, who remained involved in the Pandyan wars of succession and sacked the Pandya capital in 1205.
The Chalukyan Empire disappeared at the end of the 12th century and the Chola Empire tottered at the beginning of the 13th century. The place of the Cholas was taken by the Pandyas and the Hoysalas in the south, and that of the later Chalukyas by the Yadavas and the Kakatiyas. For a century thereafter, the history of South India is the history of these four kingdoms and their mutual antagonisms. Minor powers like the Telugu-Cholas of Nellore played their part as auxiliaries to the chief powers. The period was marked by no striking developments in polity or society, although industry, trade and the arts continued to flourish with their normal vigour. The Muslim invasions of the Deccan which began towards the end of the thirteenth century upset all the four kingdoms and caused a period of confusion terminated by the rise and expansion of the Bahmani and Vijaynagar kingdoms in the second quarter of the 14th century.
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There is not much information about the history of the Chera country during 850-1200. There are inscriptions of the several kings of the ninth century of whom Sthanuravi, a contemporary of Aditya I Chola, was the most important, and the Syrian
Christian Kottayam copper plates are associated with him. He was perhaps succeeded by Vijayaragadeva. Among the kings who followed, Bhaskara Ravivarman (1047-1106) deserves mention. Srivallabhan Kodai and Govardhana Martandavarman of Venad were his contemporaries. Under Rajaraja I Chola and his successors, Chola rale extended over the bulk of Chera country. The region revolted during the troubles preceding the accession of Kulottunga I who reconquered the Chera country and established military colonies in south Chera country. In the twelfth century there are inscriptions of the rulers of Venad, identified with Cheranadu; one of these rulers was conquered by Parantaka Pandya, a feudatory of Vikrama Chola (1118-35).