ABSTRACT
Such finer points aside, the Cōla heartland was the Cauvery Delta, at the head of which Thanjāvūr is located, and which is one of the most important foci of political power in southern India. As the Aśokan inscriptions suggest, the Cōdas had some kind of state organization in the third century B.C. Although no archaeological evidence supports this hypothe sis, a third-century B.C. brick-built wharf, equipped with sturdy wooden poles for anchoring boats at the site of Kāverīpattinam in the Cauvery Delta, suggests that the Cōdas had organized to the point of establishing transportation, and possibly trade routes, with other regions.
