I won't argue the history beyond saying the Cholas ain't there now! .... they were there 950 - 1200 AD , invading N India, Sri Lanka and SE Asia in their time. In 1022 armies of the Chola king, Rajendra, reached the Ganges. 
I had always read that the main purpose of the Indian Railways was to move soldiers from one part of the sub-continent to another, speedily. Trade was secondary and largely within a couple of hundred miles of the coast. Remember, railways only went back to the 1850's / 60's. India by then was almost entirely British.... even Scind goes back to the 1840's. Bombay, the Gateway to India. 

What is very interesting, and I think you will agree, is that the earlier periods of history of Asia, China, Japan etc as well as Africa are largely unknown. I just happen to have an interest in historical geography.
.... 'History in the beginning is all Geography; the Geography of the past is all History..... my first tutorial essay set me at university nearly 50 years back!!