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Pada umumnya, masyarakat Chola penganut Saivisme dan Hinduisme. Menurut sejarah meraka, mereka tidak dipengaruhi oleh kebangkitan agama Buddha dan agama Jain seperti juga raja-rajanya, Pallava dan Pandya. Chola awal juga mengikut versi awal agama Hindu klassikal. Terdapat bukti di Purananuru mengenai agama Karikala Chola ketika itu baru lahir Hinduism Vedicdi negara Tamil. Kocengannan, seorang lagi raja Chola awal, dirayaikan dua kali iaitu dalam kesusasteraan Sangam dan kemudiannya di Saiva diangkat sebagai seorang wali.

While the Cholas did build their largest and most important temple dedicated to Lord Shiva, it can be by no means concluded that either they were staunch Saivites or followers of Saivism only or that they were not favourably disposed to other faiths. This is borne out by the fact that the second Chola king Aditya I himself built quite a few temples for Siva and for Lord Vishnu. In AD 890, his inscriptions speak of his contributions to the construction of the Ranganatha Temple at Srirangapatnam (now in Mandya district of Karnataka) in the country of Western Gangas who were both his feudatories and had marital relations with him. During the time of Aditya I (871–903 AD) the Gangas of Kannada country had recognized his superiority which he acknowledged by marrying into that family and making grant contributions to the construction of the Sri Ranganatha temple at modern Srirangapatnam. Aditya I regularly gave many endowments to the Sri Ranganatha Temple at Srirangam around AD 896 and issued an inscriptional dictat pronouncing that the great temples of Siva and the Ranganatha temple at Srirangam to be the 'Kuladhanam' of the Chola emperors

Apabila Chola kemudiannya membina kuil terbesar dan terpenting yang ditasbiahkan pada Dewa Shiva, ia tidak bererti bahawa mereka merupakan pengikut Shiva yang kuat mahupun pengikut Shiva semata-mata atau mereka menentang kepercayaan yang lain. Ia dapat dilihat apabila raja Chola kedua, raja Aditya I sendiri membina banyak kuil bagi Siva dan Dewa Visnu. Pada AD 890, inskripsinya menyebut mengenai sumbangannya terhadap pembinaan Kuil Ranganatha di Srirangapatnam (kini dalam daerah Mandya di Karnataka) di negeri Gangas Barat yang kedua-dua merupakan negeri taklukannya dan hubungan perkahwinan dengannya. Semasa tempoh Aditya I (871–903 AD) Gangas dari negeri Kannada telah mengakui kelebihannya yang dia terima dengan membuat perhubungan perkahwinan dan membuat sumbangan pada pembinaan Kuil Sri Ranganatha di Srirangam sekitar  AD 896 dan mengeluarkan inskripsi mengistiharkan bahawa kuil agung Siva dan kuil Ranganatha di Srirangam sebagai 'Kuladhanam' bagi maharaja Chola.

Pengistiharan Aditya I telah disempurnakan dengan taatnya oleh anaknya yang cemerlangParantaka I dan penggantinya di mana ia diistiharkan bahawa dalam titah bahawa Kuil Siva di Chidambaram (pada masa itu kuil Siva agung di Tanjore dan Gangaikonda Cholapuram belum lagi wujud) dan kuil Sri Ranganatha Swami di Srirangam merupakan 'Kuladhanams', iaitu., harta dewa pelidung bagi empayar Chola. Pengistiharan ini diulang sekitar 300 kemudian apabila raja Chola Agung terakhir, Kulothunga III, pembina Kuil Sarabeswarar besar di Tribhuvanam di pinggir Kumbakonam, menyapa Dewa Ranganatha di Srirangam dalam inskripsi di Srirangam Koil, sebagai 'dewa pelindung ("tutelary deity")'. Sebagai jumpaan oleh Dr. Hultzsch, pakar epigraf agung, dalam inskripsi ini akuan dibuat pada raja Chola agung terdahulu,  Parantaka mengenai pengistiharan Chidambaram (Siva) Koil dan Srirangam (Vishnu) Koil sebagai 'Kuladhanams' bagi Cholas – petunjuk pada fakta bahawa dinasti Cholas adalah sekular dan menaungi semua kepercayaan dan sub-sekt dalam ugama yang sama. Satu lagi bukti adalah kewujudan sebanyak hampir 40 Vaishnava Divyadesams dari 108 kuil sedemikian di negeri Chola, yang berfungsi dan berkembang sehingga hari ini.

Chola king Sundara (Parantaka II) was a staunch devotee of the reclining Vishnu (Vadivu Azhagiya Nambi) at Anbil in the banks of Cauvery on the outskirts of Tiruchy, to whom he gave numerous gifts and embellishments, and prayed before him by keeping his sword before the deity, beforeo his proceeding for war for regaining the territories in and around Kanchi and Arcot from the waning Rashtrakutas and while leading expeditions against both Madurai and Ilam (Sri Lanka). Parantaka I and Sundara Chola endowed and built temples for Siva and Vishnu. Rajaraja Chola I patronised Buddhists and provided for the construction of the Chudamani Vihara (a Buddhist monastery) in Nagapattinam at the request of the Srivijaya Sailendra king.The name of the Sailendra king was Sri Chulamanivarman and the Vihara was named 'Chudamani vihara' in his honour. K.A. Nilakanta Sastri, The CōĻas, p 214Majumdar, p 406 While it is true that the biggest and grandest temples of the Cholas were dedicated to Lord Siva, all Chola kings especially from Aditya to Rajendra IV built great temples for Lord Vishnu and gave numerous grants and gifts to them.

During the period of Later Cholas, there were supposedly instances of intolerance towards Vaishnavites, especially towards Ramanuja, the acharya of the Vaishnavites.  Kulothunga Chola II, a staunch Saivite, is said to have removed a statue of Vishnu from the Siva temple at Chidambaram, though there are no epigraphical evidences to support this theory. There is an inscription from 1160 that the custodians of Siva temples who had social intercourses with Vaishnavites would forfeit their property. However, this is more of a direction to the Saivite community by its religious heads than any kind of dictat by a Chola emperor. While Chola kings built their largest temples for Siva and even while emperors like Raja Raja Chola I held titles like 'Sivapadasekharan', in none of their inscriptions did the Chola emperors proclaim that their clan only and solely followed Saivism or that Saivism was the state religion during their rule.K. A. Nilakanta Sastri, The CōĻas, p 645