27. Development in Science and Society

Religion and Formation of Social Classes

• In spite of the existence of towns, the ancient Indian civilization was not as urban as the ancient civilizations of Greece and Rome.
• In comparison with western cultures religion exercised far stronger influence in India. Every field of ancient Indian life- economy, policy, art, literature -was strongly influenced by religion.
• Religion influenced the formation of social classes in India in a peculiar way. In other societies the duties and functions of social classes were fixed by law which was largely enforced by the state.
• But in India varna laws enjoyed the sanction of both the state and religion and were supposed to have been laid down by divine agencies.
• In the course of time varnas or social classes and jatis or castes came to be regarded hereditary in the eyes of law and religion.
• All this was done to ensure that vaisyas produce and pay taxes and sudras serve as labourers so that brahmanas act as priests and kshatriyas as rulers.
• The lower order worked hard in the firm belief that they would deserve a better life in the next world or birth which lessened the intensity and frequency of tensions and conflicts between those who actually produced and those who lived off the producers mainly priests, princes, officials etc.
• Hence the necessity for exercising coercion against lower orders was not so strong in India. What was done by slaves in ancient Greece and Rome under the threat of whip was done by vaisyas and sudras out of conviction formed through brahmanical indoctrination.

 

Philosophical Systems

• Ancient India is considered famous for its contribution to philosophy and spiritualism. But the Indians also developed a materialistic view of the world.
• In the six systems of philosophy which the Indians created we find elements of material philosophy in the sankhya system of Kapila who was born around 580 B.C.
• The sankhya system doesn't recognise the existence of God. According to it the world has not been created by god but by nature and the world and human life are regulated by natural forces.
• Materialistic philosophy received the greatest impetus from Charvaka, who lived in about 6th century B.C. His philosophy is called lokayata and argues that what is not experienced by man through his sensual organs does not really exist.
• The Indians thus developed both the idealistic as well as the materialistic systems of philosophy.

 

Crafts

• The Indian craftsmen were great experts in dyeing and making various kinds of colours which were so shining and beautiful that the beautiful paintings of Ajanta and Ellora are still intact.
• Similarly Indians were great experts in the art of making steel. The Indian steel was exported to many countries of the world and came to be called wootz in later times.

 

Polity

• In political Organisation India was the only country after Greece to practice some kind of democracy.
• In India most of the rulers practiced religious tolerance and stressed that the wishes of the followers of the other religions should be respected.

 

Science and Mathematics

• In ancient times religion and science were inextricably linked together.
• Astronomy made great progress in the country because the planets came to be regarded as Gods and their movements began to be closely observed.

• The science of grammar and linguistics arose because the ancient brahmanas stressed that every Vedic prayer and every mantra should be recited with meticulous correctness.
• In the 4th century B.C. Panini systematized the rules governing Sanskrit and produced a grammar called the Ashtadhyayi.
• In the field of mathematics the ancient Indians made three distinct contributions the notation system, the decimal system and the use of zero.
• The earliest epigraphic evidence for the use of decimal system is in the beginning of 5th century A.D., which was adopted by the Arabs and who spread it in the Western World.
• The famous mathematician Aryabhata (A.D. 476-500) was acquainted with it.
• Zero was discovered by Indians in about the second century B.C. And the Arabs learnt and spread it to Europe.
• As far as Algebra is concerned both Indians and Greeks contributed to it, but in the Western Europe its knowledge was borrowed not from the Greeks but from Arabs who learnt it from Indians.
• In 2nd century B.C., Apastamba describes acute angle, obtuse angle and right angle. Aryabhata produced the rule for finding the area of triangle which led to origin of trigonometry.
• The most famous work of this time is the Suryasiddhanta, the like of which is not found in contemporary ancient East.
• The most renowned scholars were Aryabhata and Varahamihira. The book of Aryabhata is called the Aryabhatiya.
• Varahamihira's well known work is called Brihatsamhita, which belongs to 6th century A.D. It stated that earth rotates around sun and moon around earth.
• The Indian dyers invented lasting colours and they discovered the blue colour.

 

Medicine

• The earliest mention of medicines is in the Atharva Veda.
• In post-Maurya period India produced 2 famous scholars of Ayurveda, Susruta and Charaka.
• In Susrutasamhita he describes the method of operating cataract, stone diseases and several other ailments and laid emphasis on diet and cleanliness in treatment of diseases.
• Charaksamhita is like a encyclopaedia of Indian medicine and describes various types of fever, leprosy, hysteria and tuberculosis.
• The book is useful not only for the study of Indian medicine but also for that of ancient Indian flora and chemistry.

 

Art and Literature

• The ancient Indian masons and craftsmen produced beautiful works of art. The Monolithic pillars erected by Asoka was famous for their shining polish, which matches with the polish on NBP ware.
• In Ajanta which contains as many as 30 cave temples is known as birthplace of Asian art and most of them belong to Gupta times.
• The focal point for the spread of spread of Indian art into Afghanistan and the neighbouring part of Central Asia was Gandhara where it fused with Central Asian and Hellenistic Art to form Gandhara Style Art.
• Similarly temples constructed in South India served in some ways as the models for the construction of temples in South-East Asia.
• In field of education we may refer to the huge monastic establishment of Nalanda which attracted students not only from India but also from Tibet and China.
• In the field of literature the Indians produced the Rig Veda which is the earliest specimen of Indo-Aryan literature and on the basis of which an attempt has been made to determine the nature of Aryan culture.
• In Gupta times the works of Kalidasa , whose play Abhijnanasakuntalam has been translated into all the important languages of the world.

26. Social Change in Ancient India

• In Palaeolithic Age, people lived in small groups in hilly areas and main source of their subsistence was the game they hunted and wild fruits and vegetation roots they collected.
• Man learnt to produce food and live in houses towards the end of stone age and the beginning of metal age.
• The neolithic and chalcolithic communities lived on the uplands not far from hills and rivers.
• Gradually there arose peasant villages in the Indus basin area, and eventually they blossomed into the urban society of Harappa with large and small houses.
• But once Harappan society disappeared, urbanisation didn't appear in India for a thousand years or so.

 

Tribal and Pastoral phase

• The Rig Vedic society was primarily pastoral and their chief possessions consisted of cattle and horses.
• Cattle was considered to be synonymous with and a wealthy person was called gomat. Wars were fought for the sake of cattle and king was called gopati, daughters were called duhitr, one who milks.
• Cattle rearing was the main source of livelihood.
• The main income of a chief or a prince came from the spoils of war, capturing booty from enemy tribes and exacted tributes from hostile tribes and tribal compatriots.
• Periodical sacrifices provided an important occasion for the distribution of gifts and tributes received in war and major portion went to priests as they offered prayers to gods on behalf of patrons.
• Ordinary members of the tribe received a share which was known as amsa or bhaga.
• Although artisans, peasants, priests and warriors appear even in the earlier portions of the Rig Veda society as a whole was tribal, pastoral, semi-nomadic and egalitarian.
• The Rig Vedic society did not have a serving order in the form of the sudras.

 

Agriculture and the Origin if Upper Orders

• When the Vedic people moved from Afghanistan and Punjab to western UP, they became full-fledged agriculturists giving rise to territorial chiefdoms.
• Out of the tributes obtained from peasants and the others, the princes could perform sacrifices and reward their priests. But the later Vedic people could not contribute to the rise of trade and towns.
• The society in which Buddha lived didn't know the use of metallic money.
• The Vedic communities had established neither a taxation system nor a professional army.
• Payment made to the king was not much different from the sacrificial offerings made to the gods.
• The tribal militia of the pastoral society was replaced by the peasant militia of agricultural society.
• In consonance with the tribal practices the rajas were expected to extend agriculture and even to lend their hand to the plough so that the gap between the vaisyas and king was not very wide.
• Although the nobles and warriors ruled over their peasant kinsmen, they had to depend upon peasant militia for fighting against enemies and they could not grant land without the consent of the tribal peasantry.
• All this placed them in difficult position and could not sharpen the distinctions between the rulers and the ruled.

 

Varna System of Production and Government

• The use of iron tools for crafts and cultivation created conditions for the transformation of comparatively egalitarian Vedic society into a fully agricultural and class divided social order in 6th century B.C.
• Large territorial states resulted in the formation of Magadhan empire. All this was possible because of iron ploughshare ,sickles and other tools enabling peasants to produce more than needed for subsistence.
• They could now support artisans, who not only supplied peasants with tools, clothing etc. But also weapons and luxury articles to the princes and priests.
• In Vedic times people cultivated their fields with the help of their family members, but slaves and wage-earners engaged in agriculture became a regular feature in the age of the Buddha.
  

• Since peasants now produced more, the king appointed collectors to assess and collect taxes. And to convince people to pay taxes, the varna system was devised.
• The twice-born were entitled to Vedic studies and investiture with the sacred thread, and the fourth varna  or the sudras were excluded from it.
• The vaisyas although members of the twice-born group worked as peasants, herders and artisans and later as traders and paid taxes which maintained kshatriyas and brahmanas.
• The rate of payment and economic privileges differed according to the varna to which the person belonged.
• Since both priests and warriors lived on the taxes, tributes, tithes and labour supplied by peasants and artisans their relation were marked by occasional feuds for the sharing of social savings.

 

Social Crisis and Rise of Landed Classes

• The climax of old order was reached in about 3rd century as old social order was afflicted with deep crisis reflected in the description of Kali age in Puranas.
• It is characterised by varna-samkara i.e. intermixing of varnas or social orders, vaisyas and sudras declined to pay taxes and refused labour and refused to perform producing functions assigned to them.
• On account of this situation the epics emphasize the importance of danda or coercive measures and Manu lays down that the vaisyas and sudras should not be allowed to deviate from their duties.
• The kings who were regarded as the upholders and restorer of varna system, instead of extracting taxes directly, the state found it convenient to assign land revenues to priests, officials, administrators etc. for their support.
• This development was in sharp contrast to the Vedic practice as formerly only the community had the right to give land to priests and possibly to princes.
• To solve the new fiscal and administrative problems, new lands from tribal and backward areas were brought under cultivation and granted to brahmanas who could tame tribal people and make them amenable to discipline.
• In backward areas land grants to brahmanas and others spread agricultural calendar, diffused the knowledge of Ayurveda medicine and thus contributed to increase in overall agricultural production.
• These grants led to increase in large number of aboriginal peasants who came to be ranked as sudras, who began to be called peasants and agriculturists in early medieval texts.
• But in developed areas these land grants depreciated the position of independent vaisya peasants and thus vaisyas and sudras came closer to each other from Gupta times onwards socially and economically.
• But the most significant consequence of the land grants was the emergence of a class of landlords living on the produce of the peasants.
• This prepared the ground in about the 5th-6th centuries A.D., for a new type of social formation which can be called feudal.

25. Transformation of the Ancient Phase

Social Crisis and the Origin of Land Grants

• The varna society was based on the producing activities of the peasants who were called vaisyas and of the labourers who were called sudras.
• The taxes collected by the royal officers from the vaisyas enabled the kings to pay salaries to their priests and purchase luxury and other items.
• But in 3rd and 4th century A.D., the lower sections refused to pay taxes and render labour services. This led to varna-samkara or intermixture of social classes. This state of affairs is referred to as Kaliyuga.
• Several measures were adopted to overcome these crises such as to grant land to priests and officials in lieu of salaries and remuneration.
• In this way the burden of collecting taxes and maintaining law and order in the donated areas was passed on to the beneficiaries.
• Moreover by implanting brahmanas in the conquered tribal areas the tribal people could be taught the brahmanical way of life and the need of obeying the king and paying taxes to him.

 

Decline of Central Control

• Land grants became frequent from the fifth century A.D., and that too free of taxes and beneficiaries were given the right to govern the people living in the donated villages.
• Villages were granted to the brahmanas forever so the power of the king was heavily undermined from the end of the Gupta period.
• Royal control was further eroded through the payment of govt. officials by the land grants.
• Accordingly from the time of Harsha public officials were paid in land revenues. The governors, ministers, magistrates and officers were given portions of land for their personal upkeep.
• All this created vested interests at the cost of royal authority.

 

New Agrarian Economy

• Land beneficiaries could not cultivate land themselves, nor could they collect revenue themselves.
• The actual cultivation was entrusted to the peasants and sharecroppers mainly sudras who were attached to the land but did not legally own it but occupied it temporarily.
• When villages were granted in the tribal areas the agriculturists were placed under the control of religious beneficiaries mainly brahmanas in the backward and mountainous areas like Orissa, Deccan etc.
• From there the practice spread to the basin of the Ganga. In north India also artisans and peasants were asked not to leave the villages granted to the beneficiaries.

 

Decline of Trade and Towns

• Trade with the western part of Roman empire ended in 3rd century and silk trade with Iran and the Byzantine stopped in middle of 6th century.
• The decline of trade can be demonstrated by practical absence of gold coins in the country after the 6th century.
• The decline of trade led to the decay of towns especially after the Gupta period. Due to which to meet their needs gave rise to smaller units of production, each unit meeting its own needs.
• Some changes also happened in social organisation after 6th century as in Gangetic basin, the vaisyas were regarded as free peasants, but the land grants created landlords with peasants on one hand and king on the other, so that vaisyas became as good as the sudras.
• This modified order spread throughout the north India even to Bengal and later even to south India.
• In the outlying areas there were only two orders, the brahmanas and the sudras.

Changes in the Varna System

• Frequent seizures of power and land grants gave rise to several categories of landed people.
• When a person acquire land and power he naturally sought a high position in society even though he might be from low varna.
• Thus formerly all things in society were graded according to the varnas, but now they came to be determined according to the landed possessions of a person.
• From the 7th century onwards numerous castes were created, the sudras and the untouchables were divided into countless sub-castes.
• Although people living in different areas followed the same occupation, they became divided into sub-castes according to the territory to which they belonged.
• Many new tribal people who were admitted into Hindu society because of land grants were enrolled as sudras and mixed castes.
• Every tribe was now given the status of a separate caste in Hindu society.

 

Cultural Developments

• In about the 6th-7th centuries started the formation of sub-national units such as Andhra, Assam, Bengal, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Orissa etc. As recognised by Hsuan Tsang and even Jaina texts.
• Sanskrit continued to be used by the ruling class from 2nd century A.D. And from 7th century the style of language became more verbose and ornate as found in writings of Banabhatta.
• From 7th century onwards there's a remarkable development in linguistic history of India such as Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati, Oriya, Assamese and Hindi etc.
• It seems that each region came to develop its own language on account of its isolation from the others because of the decline in trade and lack of communication.
• From 7th century every region came to have its own script and hence nobody can read post Gupta inscriptions found in different parts of the country unless he learns several scripts.

 

Bhakti and Tantricism

• In sculpture and construction of the temples every region came to evolve its own style from the 7th and 8th centuries.
• Particularly south India tended to become the land of stone temples.
• Although the same gods and goddesses were worshipped throughout the country, people of every religion portrayed them in sculptures in their own way.
• Hindu divinities came to be arranged according to their grades in the hierarchy with Vishnu, Siva and Durga occupying higher positions.
• The monastic organisations also came to be divided into 5 ranks with the Acharya being the head.
• In this period the Bhakti cult spread throughout the country which meant that people made all kinds of offerings to god in return for the favour of the god.
• It meant the devotees completely surrendered to the god.
• The most remarkable development in religious field from the 6th century A.D. was the spread of tantricism.
• It admitted both women and sudras into its ranks and laid great stress on the use of magic rituals.
• The rituals were intended to satisfy the material desires of the devotees for physical possessions and cure the day-to-day illness and injuries.
• The brahmanas adopted many of the tribal ritual and charms, which were now officially compiled, sponsored and fostered by them.
• In course of time these were distorted by the brahmanas and priests to serve the interests of their rich clients.
• Many medieval manuscripts found in different parts of the country deal with tantricism and astrology, and the two are completely mixed with each other.

24. Contact with South-East Asia

• India maintained contacts with its Asian counterparts since Harappan times. From the beginning of Christian era India maintained commercial contacts with China, South-East Asia, West Asia and the Roman empire.
• In addition to this India sent its missionaries, conquerors and traders to the neighbouring countries where they founded settlements.
• The propagation of Buddhism promoted India's contacts with Sri Lanka, China, Burma and Central Asia.
• In early Christian century, Buddhism spread from India to Burma where the Theravada form of Buddhism was developed and many temples were erected in honour of the Buddha.
• The Burmese and Sri Lankan Buddhists produced a rich corpus of Buddhist literature, not to be found in India.
• Beginning with the reign of Kanishka a large number of Buddhist missionaries went to China, Central Asia and Afghanistan for preaching their religion.
• From China, Buddhism spread to Korea and Japan. A Buddhist colony cropped up at Tun Huang, which was the starting point of the companies of merchants going across the desert.
• The Indians learnt the art of growing Silk from China and the Chinese learnt the art of Buddhist painting from India.
• The two great centres of Buddhism in ancient times were Afghanistan and Central Asia. Begram and Bamiyan situated in north of Afghanistan are famous for such relics.
• Bamiyan possessed the tallest Buddha statue and thousands of Buddhist monks lived in natural and artificial caves there till the 7th century when it was supplanted by Islam.
• As a result of the extension of the Kushan rule Prakrit written in Kharosthi script spread to Central Asia where a large number of Prakrit inscriptions and manuscripts belonging to 4th century A.D. Are found.
• Indian culture also spread to South-East Asia but not through the medium of Buddhism except in Burma, it mostly diffused through the Brahmanical cults.
• The name Suvarnabhumi was given to Pegu and Moulmein in Burma and merchants from Broach, Banaras and Bhagalpur traded with Burma.
• From first century A.D., India established close relations with Java in Indonesia, which was called Suvarnadvipa by ancient Indians.
• In early centuries of Christian era, the Pallavas founded their colonies in Sumatra, which eventually flowered into the kingdom of Sri Vijaya, an important power and centre of Indian culture from 5th to 10th century.
• The Hindu settlements in Java and Sumatra became channels for the radiation of Indian culture.
• In Indo-China, the Indians set up 2 powerful kingdoms in Kamboja and Champa in 6th century A.D.
• They developed Kamboja as a centre of Sanskrit learning, and numerous inscriptions are found in this language. Its rulers were devotees of Siva.
• At Champa which covers modern southern Vietnam, it seems that the traders set up their colonies. The king of Champa was also a Saiva and official language was also Sanskrit.
• Due to intermingling of Indian settlements with the local people a new type of art, language and literature came up which shows a blending of both Indian and indigenous elements.
• The greatest Buddhist temple is not found in India but in Borobudur in Indonesia constructed in the 8th century A.D. And 436 images of Buddha are engraved on it.
• The temple of Ankorvat in Cambodia is larger than that of Borobudur and stories of Ramayana and Mahabharata are written on the walls of the temple.
• The Indonesian language called Bahasa Indonesia contains numerous Sanskrit words.
• Its not that only religion alone contributed to the spread of Indian culture, missionaries were backed by traders and conquerors.
• Trade not only led to exchange of goods but also of elements of culture. And it was a 2-way traffic.
• They learnt the art of growing Silk from China, that of growing betel leaves from Indonesia and several other products from the neighbouring countries.
• Similarly the method of growing cotton spread from India to China and Central Asia. However Indian contribution seems to be more important in art, religion, script and language.
• Just as India retained and developed its own personality in spite of foreign influences, so did these South-East Asian countries evolved their own indigenous culture assimilating the Indian elements.

23. Rise of New States in Peninsula

The New Phase

• The period circa A.D. 300-750 marks the second historical phase in the regions south of Vindhyas while the first historical phase lasted from 200 B.C.- A.D. 300.
• In first phase, Satavahanas rose to ascendancy over the Deccan and Tamil kingdoms in southern districts of Tamil Nadu.
• Now in second phase the northern portion of Tamil Nadu, southern Karnataka, a portion of southern Maharashtra and land between the Godavari and the Mahanadi broadly who earlier owed allegiance to seats of political authority outside their areas, had their own states almost 2 dozen which are known from their land charters.
• Eventually by the beginning of the 7th century the Pallavas of Kanchi, the Chalukyas of Badami and the Pandyas of Madurai emerged to be the three major states.
• Trade, towns and coinage seem to be in state of decline in second phase which is distinguished by a large number of land grants made to the brahmanas free of taxes.
• The grants suggest that many new areas were under cultivation and settlement.
• In the first phase Buddhist monuments came up in both Andhra and Maharashtra and cave inscriptions for Jainism and Buddhism were also found in Karnataka and districts of Tamil Nadu.
• But the new phase marked the beginning of the construction of stone temples for Siva and Vishnu in Tamil Nadu under the Pallavas and Chalukyas.
• Earlier the epigraphs were mostly written in Prakrit with Brahmi script but after A.D. 400 Sanskrit became the official language in the peninsula and most charters were composed in it.

 

States of the Deccan and South India

• In northern Maharashtra and Vidarbha (Berar), the Satavahanas were succeeded by the Vakatakas in which Chandragupta II married his daughter and helped him in overthrowing Sakas from western India.
• But culturally the Vakataka kingdom became a channel for transmitting brahmanical ideas and social institutions to the south.
• The Vakatakas were followed by the Chalukyas of Badami till A.D. 757, when they were overthrown by their feudatories, the Rashtrakutas.
• The Chalukyas set up their kingdom towards the beginning of the 6th century A.D. In western Deccan and established their capital at Vatapi, modern Badami in Karnataka.
• On the ruins of Satavahana power in eastern part of the peninsula arose the Ikshvakus in the Krishna-Guntur region, who left many monuments at Nagarjunakonda and Dharanikota.
• The Ikshvakus were supplanted by the Pallavas meaning creeper, who established their authority in the Tondainadu or the land of the creepers and extended over both southern Andhra and northern Tamil Nadu and setup their capital at Kanchi which became a town of temples and Vedic learning under them.
• The early Pallavas came into conflict with the Kadambas who founded their rule in northern Karnataka in the 4th century A.D.,
• The Kadamba kingdom was founded by Mayurasarman, who defeated Pallavas and established their capital at Vaijayanti or Banavasi in North Kanara district in Karnataka.
• To the west of the Pallavas and to the east of Kadambas in southern Karnataka lay the kingdom of Western Gangas or Gangas of Mysore, a feudatories of the Pallavas with capital at Kolar.
• The Western Gangas made land grants mostly to the Jainas, the Kadambas also made grants to the Jainas but they favoured the brahmanas more.
• But the Pallavas granted numerous villages to the brahmanas exempted from payments of all taxes and forced labour to the state and free from interference of royal constabulary and agents.
• The Pallavas, the Kadambas, the Chalukyas and their contemporaries were great champions of Vedic sacrifices and grants as a result the brahmanas emerged as an important class at the expense of peasantry.

• This situation seems to have proved oppressive and eventually it caused a revolt led by the Kalabhras in the 6th century and are called evil rulers and established their hold in Tamil land.
• They put an end to the brahmadeya rights granted to the brahmanas in numerous villages, held Buddhist persuasions and patronised Buddhist monasteries.
• It is significant that the Kalabhras revolt could be put down only through the joint efforts of the Pandyas, the Pallavas and the Chalukyas.
• The confederacy of the kings against the Kalabhras, who had revoked the land grants made to the brahmanas shows that the revolt was directed against the existing social and political order in south India.

 

Conflicts between the Pallavas and the Chalukyas

• Both the Pallavas and the Chalukyas tried to establish their supremacy over the land between the Krishna and the Tungabhadra.
• Under the reign of Pulakesin II (A.D. 609-642), the most famous Chalukya king known to us from his eulogy written by his court poet Ravikirti in the Aihole inscription, they overthrow the Kadamba and compelled the Western Gangas to acknowledge their suzerainty.
• He also defeated Harsha's army on the Narmada and checked his advance towards the Deccan and even reached the Pallava capital who had to buy peace by ceding their northern province of Vengi.
• In a second invasion of Pallava territory, he was killed by Pallava king Narasimhavarman (A.D. 630-668) in a fight following which he adopted the title of Vatapikonda in A.D. 642.
• He also defeated the Cholas, the Cheras, the Pandyas and the Kalabhras.
• However in first half of the eighth century A.D., the Chalukya king Vikramaditya II(A.D. 733-745) overrun Kanchi three times and in 740 completely defeated Pallavas.
• But their victory was short-lived as their hegemony was brought to an end in 757 by the Rashtrakutas.

 

Temples

• From the 7th century the Alvar saints popularised the worship of the Vishnu as Nayannars did to Shiva.
• The Pallavas built many temples some are seven ratha temples of Mahabalipuram built by Narasimhavarman and also Shore temple and several other temples such as Kailashnath temple in Kanchi.
• The Chalukyas built many temples in Badami and temples like Papanath temple and Virupaksha temple in Aihole.
• Some temples in Karnataka under the Chalukyas were constructed by the Jainas traders.

 

Demands on the Peasantry

• The nature of burdens imposed on the agrarian communities is more or less same in the Vakataka kingdom and the Pallava kingdom.
• In addition to land tax, which was a part of the produce, the king could demand benevolence in the form of cereals and gold etc. from the peasantry.
• The king was also entitled to forced labour or vishti.
• The whole list of imposts would show that the state made heavy demands on the labour and the produce of the peasantry.

 

Rural Expansion

• In this period there came up a number of new states in trans-Vindhyan regions, with every state having a number of feudatory chiefdoms, which were small states within a large states.
• In tribal areas the brahmanas were granted land and the tribal peasantry learnt the value of preserving cattle and better methods of agriculture from them.
• Therefore a large number of grants made to the brahmanas played an important part in spreading new methods of cultivation and increasing the size of the rural communities.

• In this period there were three types of villages in south India, which are:
• Ur : Usual type of village inhabited by peasants castes and perhaps held their land in common and it was village headman duty to collect and pay taxes on their behalf.
• Sabha : These were the brahamadeya villages, those granted to the brahmanas and also the agrahara villages.
• Nagaram : It consisted of the villages settled and dominated by combinations of traders and merchants.
• In the Chalukya areas rural affairs were managed by village elders called mahajana.

 

Social Structure

• Society was dominated by priests and princes. The priests invented respectable family trees for these chiefs and traced their descent from age-old solar and lunar dynasties.
• In this phase priests gained in influence and the authority because of the land grants. Below the princes and priests came the peasantry which was divided into numerous peasant castes.
• If the peasants and artisans failed to produce and render service and payments, it was looked upon as the departure from the established dharma or norm.
• It was the duty of the king to put an end to such state of affairs and restore peace and order which worked in favour of chiefs and priests.
• The title dharma-maharaja therefore was adopted by the Vakataka, Pallava, Kadamba and Western Ganga kings.
• The real founder of the Pallava power, Simhavarman is credited as the rescuer of the dharma from the evil attributes of the Kaliyuga.
• Apparently it refers to his supression of the Kalabhras who upset the existing social order.