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.