About this stamp
The Indian Ocean
India Post issued this ₹5 stamp on 20 March 2015 on the Indian Ocean and Rajendra Chola I, a thousand years after his coronation. The brochure begins with the ocean itself, the third largest in the world, with Asia to the north, Africa to the west, Australia to the east and Antarctica to the south. The earliest civilisations of Mesopotamia, Egypt and the Indian subcontinent grew up around it, and in the first centuries CE Roman and Egyptian traders came to the Tamil kingdoms of the south. Today the ports of its rim handle about 30 per cent of global trade, and about two-thirds of the world’s seaborne oil passes across it; old texts called it Ratnakara, “the mine of gems”.
Rajendra Chola I
The rise of the Chola dynasty opened a new chapter, the first time an Indian dynasty set out to rule the high seas with a strong navy. Rajendra Chola I, son of the great Rajaraja Chola I, was crowned in 1014 CE. He carried the Chola empire across the sea to South-East Asia and north to the Ganges, earning the title Gangaikonda, “who took the Ganges”. His naval expeditions also spread trade and Indian culture across the ocean, and the links between India and the nations of South-East Asia can be traced back to his empire.
The stamp was designed by Suresh Kumar; Security Printing Press, Hyderabad printed 0.6 million.
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