Rajaraja Chola is considered the greatest Chola King. He expanded his empire substantially in the south, organized a naval force and stormed northern Ceylon. Rajaraja also built the then tallest structure of Asia - the Brahadeesvara temple, an engineering marvel and still stands proud today.

But arguably, the greatest Chola was his son Rajendra, the Emperor who would end up conquering 58 other Kings and will remain undefeated. Rajendra Chola spent 20 years of his adult life in battlefields. Under him the Chola military gained its peak strength. The army consisted of the Infantry, Cavalry and Elephant corps alongwith specialists like bowmen. The  Chola army is said to have had over two million ie 20 lakh soldiers simultaneously fighting for their kingdom.

In the exact same time when Rajendra was expanding Chola boundaries, there was a very famous raider from modern day Afghanistan. He raided India 17 times, looting and plundering temples all along the way, the last one being the desperation of Somnath temple. The raider was the ruler of Ghazni empire, Mahmud and was the first King to style himself as Sultan in the whole world. Now why am I talking about Mahmud of Ghazni suddenly?

In one of the most curious and unexplainable incidents in history, Rajendra Chola and Mahmud of Ghazni were just 200 kilometres apart - and yet they did not meet at battle. How did Rajendra,  being a staunch Shivite king, not go fight the man who just destroyed the most popular Shiva temple in North of India? And why did Mahmud, whose main aim was to loot, not attack Rajendra and subsequently go South, which was known to have vast wealth in forms of gold & diamonds?