The Chola Empire is one of the most severely underrated pieces of history imo

Basically a South Indian dynasty which started off pretty small but managed to conquer and rule some significant parts of South east Asia around 900-1100 AD. They had one of the best navies in the world at the time.

But overall they were really big on trading and exploring. Thanks to them, western Asia and Europe could have access to Chinese goods, and vice versa.

Something about sea based empires is so cool to me

What the link actually says (emphasis mine):

"Rajendra may have named the city Singapura (“Lion City”), later corrupted to Singapore, or the name may have been bestowed in the 14th century by Buddhist monks, to whom the lion was a symbolic character. According to the Sejarah Melayu, a Malay chronicle, the city was founded by the Srīvijayan prince Sri Tri Buana; he is said to have glimpsed a tiger, mistaken it for a lion, and thus called the settlement Singapura."

I don't see any other sources attributing the naming to Rajendra Chola I. The name change from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temasek to Singapura is generally noted as occuring in the 1300s, centuries after his forays into the area. Most attribute it to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sang_Nila_Utama](Sang Nila Utama), though some scholars contend he didn't even exist. There seems to be general agreement that "lion city" is indeed the meaning, though there are several other proposed etymologies, and how it came to have that name is far from settled.

They have a merlion as a mascot.

A fukkin merlion!

Interesting/kind of sad that the modern city was built entirely from the ground up starting in the mid 19th century. There is absolutely nothing from the older history of the island that remains to this day, architecture wise.

But does it still roar?

Also simba in lionking has the same root word.

Sinha no Singh lol