Leadership Quality 2/9

Rajendra Chola was like the Alexander of India. During his period, the Chola kingdom extended from up to the banks of Ganges in the North to Srilanka and Maldives in the south, it also included Malay peninsula, Southern Thailand, Sumatra and Java in South East Asia. He was called the ‘Gangai Konda Cholan’ or the Chola who conquered Ganga. Rajendra Cholan had the first biggest Navy in India. He absolutely faced no defeat in any of his conquests. If he had met the Moguls who were sieging cities from the North, history of India would have been re-written.

Raja Raja Chola was the father of Rajendra Cholan. His empire included the Pandya, Chera countries and northern Srilanka. It extended up to Tungabhadra in the north. He built the Tanjore big temple.

Now who among these two are revered more? People would think it would be Rajendra Chola. But it was Raja Raja Chola who is revered more. Why? Rajendra was a king or a conqueror. Raja Raja was a leader. Let us look at some of the interesting facts about Raja Raja.

First, he constructed the Tanjore Big temple. Even today if one were to construct such a temple it would take years, if not decades. It still is functioning. It has stood for more than 1000 years in spite of Mogul and British conquests. Temples that last 1000s of years are a sign of long-term thinking. How many of us have thought about 1000 years ahead?

Second, he brought in quite a few innovations in administration. Probably the world’s first water governing bodies were setup by him. Thousands of lakes were dug to hold rain and river water for use later during this time. We can still see quite a few of them today in Tamil Nadu. He also brought in the district administration system which is still followed. He brought in innovation in sewage and water management with pipelines.

But these are not the reasons why he is revered. Raja Raja is known to have spent time with his soldiers, chatting with them as a commoner. He was very much approachable. The big temple has inscriptions with names of everybody who had contributed monetarily and physically to the construction. When he went for conquests, he installed the existing king back as the ruler. He took care of the needs of conquered as well. When he went to war, he never used the treasury or food from the conquered region for his army. The food would come from Chola territory. He would spend money in restoring lost Buddhist (he was Hindu) temples while on conquest. The citizens from the conquered country were free to go about their lives without any hinderances.

These were also not the reasons why was/is revered. Raja Raja was the darling of the masses then as he is now. When his father Sundara Chola was in his death bed, there was a power struggle to the throne. Raja Raja’s elder brother was assassinated under mysterious circumstances. There were two contenders – Raja raja and his paternal uncle – Uthama Chola. The kingdom should rightfully flow to Raja raja, but he refused. He sacrificed his rights to his paternal uncle Uthama Chola. He would continue to work with Uthama Chola in bringing different changes to Chola kingdom for another 15 years before he becomes the King after Uthama Chola. Raja Raja is revered because he had offered his rightful kingdom to his uncle. It is as generous as one can get. He donated his whole Kingdom. Let us look at the couplet again

Fearlessness, generosity, wisdom, and energy: these four

Are qualities a king adorns for evermore.

Never to fail in these four things, fearlessness, generosity, wisdom, and energy, is the kingly character.

Two questions arise, although Generosity is a good thing to have, is it required in Corporate leadership today? If so, what can we be generous about? We don’t have a kingdom. Nor can we be generous about the organization’s assets.

The yearly appraisals and competitive spirit have taken the toll on humanity in the corporate world today. It is a rat race. Hiring great talent and retaining them have become difficult. Even if there is great talent, the thinking is very short term. There is no stewardship. The change has to start with the leaders. The best anti-dote I can think of is ‘Servant leadership’. Which is, being there for your people to help them reach their potential. This is exactly what Tiruvalluvar meant when he talks about generosity. It is not what is being offered, it is the mindset to be generous.

I would think more than financial generosity, as leaders we should be generous with our praise, with our gratitude for people working with us, more specifically with time and knowledge as well. Although this is leadership 101, very few leaders have time today to spend with their people. Especially when remote work is becoming the new norm, the necessity to spend time with your people becomes very important.

This post is dedicated to all the generous Kings and Leaders of India who inspired followers and helped reached others reach their potential. If you like this post, more than just clicking on the like button, tag a generous leader you have known.

If you like this post, you will also like my other posts in this series.

• Leadership qualities that cut across space, time and scale
• Leadership quality 1/9

Title Images were designed by Snehal : https://www.behance.net/gallery/92935885/Portfolio