The Chola Raid on Srivijaya was a seaborne military campaign, launched around 1025 CE by the South Indian emperor Rajendra I, that struck the ports of the Srivijaya maritime empire across the Strait of Malacca and Sumatra. It stands out as one of the most striking long-range naval raids ever mounted by a South Asian state, sending a fleet clear across the Bay of Bengal to strike a distant power.
Indian influence usually crossed the ocean without an army. Merchants, monks, and Sanskrit texts carried Indian gods, scripts, and temple styles to Southeast Asia for a thousand years, and almost never a war fleet. The Cholas had already fought their way across the narrow strait to Sri Lanka, yet no Indian power had ever thrown an army this far east. Then, around 1025, Rajendra I loaded soldiers onto ships, sailed them across the Bay of Bengal, and fell on the rich trading empire of Srivijaya. His fleets sacked a string of ports, seized the ruler himself, and carried off a jewelled war-gate as a trophy. And then they sailed home. No governor was left behind, no lasting colony was planted. The farthest-reaching naval raid any South Asian power had ever launched conquered almost nothing, and that puzzle is the whole point.