HOI – QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

3rd Semester

UNIT 1:
Q1. Nature of Early Medieval state. (Indian Feudalism
debate.)

Ans: The question of feudalism in India is a widely debated topic. A plethora of

arguments supporting and opposing the proposition of a feudal period in Early Medieval
India has been published. The debated period can be roughly put in the time period
from c. 700 CE - c. 1200 CE. Feudalism generally refers to a self-sufficient economy that
existed in Europe in the 5th - 15th century A.D. It had a dominant class of landlords who
extracted surplus product and labour services from peasants by extra-economic means.
Peasants carried on the actual production, and also performed ‘forced labour’. They
were attached to the soil held by these landed intermediaries.

The first proposition mainly put forward by Marx described polity in Early Medieval
India as ‘changeless’, ‘traditional’ or as ‘Oriental despotism’. Marx postulated a special
mode of production in context of India and pre-modern Asia termed as the Asiatic Mode
of Production. However this was challenged by Indian Marxist historians like RS.Sharma
and Irfan Habib. Hermann Kulke even went to the extent of saying that Oriental
Despotism was an outcome of ‘occidental prejudice against an alleged oriental
despotism.’ While the model looked at a changeless society, recent research shows a
society which witnessed the dynamics of change.

In the 1940s, writers like B.N. Datta and S.A. Dange spoke of the growth of feudalism in
India. They however, simply transplanted the European concept of feudalism onto
Indian soil, and spoke of an Indian variant. However, a new genre of substantial works
emerged in the 1950s.

The idea of a changing society was proposed mainly in the post-independence writings.
One of these models which based on the assumption of dynamism or change was
referred to as the ‘Indian Feudalism’ model. The Early Medieval state in India has been
explained in context of Indian feudalism by historians like D.D Kosambi, R.S Sharma,
D.N Jha, B.N.S Yadava and many other famous historians.

One of the first historians to write on the topic was DD Kosambi. He provided a concept
of Feudalism which was based on ‘feudalism from above’ and ‘feudalism from below’.
The former meant a feudal system which arose out of the king granting his sub
ordinates the right to wield power over a territory in return of a tribute and in the latter
a class of land-owners would develop in between the state and the peasantry within the
village to wield armed power over the local population. The second kind according to
him began in the Delhi Sultanate period and the taxes were collected by the
intermediaries of which a fraction passed on to the hierarchy and in the first kind the
taxes were collected directly by the royal officials.

Niharranjan Ray, a contemporary of Kosambi pointed towards the emergence of a new

state structure in Bengal during the Gupta and post Gupta period which was localized in
context. There was a system of Samantas and Mahasamantas and a hierarchical setup.
The economy was locally agrarian in nature. This entire complex was called Medievalism
and Ray associates this with the advent of feudalism.

After DD Kosambi, it was RS Sharma who came out with one of the most important
thesis. He divided Indian feudalism into 3 parts – origins and the first phase (350-750
CE), the phase of the heyday of Indian feudalism (750-1000 CE) and the beginning of its
decline (1000-1200 CE). RS Sharma captures our attention towards an increasing
number of land grants made to Brahmanas, religious institutions and later to
government officials in the post Gupta period. Gradually the ‘communal’ village land
was encroached upon by the grantees and led to large scale peasant exploitation. These
land owners gradually got the power to collect revenues, administrative powers like
awarding punishments and exacting fines. RS Sharma mentions the existence of Vishti or
forced labour. This was exercised by the Brahmanas and the powerful land grantees. As
a result a kind of serfdom emerged in which the agricultural laborers were reduced to
the position of semi-serfs. This is often compared with European feudalism which
established a lord- Vassal relationship.

The earliest epigraphic evidence supporting Sharma’s idea of land grants comes from
the 1st century B.C., but they did not transfer administrative power to the beneficiary.
Administrative rights were perhaps given up for the first time in the grants made to
Buddhist monks by the Satvahana ruler Gautamiputra Satkarni in the 2nd century A.D.
These were – the right to collect taxes from the peasants and enjoy the revenue of the
land along with the immunity from payment of taxes to the king; the right of land not to
be encroached upon by royal officers or the army; judicial rights to punish thieves, as
well as all offences against family, property, person etc. Consequently there was
transfer of rights over resources of the land like pastures forests and wells and the right
to enjoy the hidden treasures of the village, like mines etc.

Grants were also often made to merchant guilds. A set of charters from western India,
dated to the close of the 6th century, addressed a group of traders and granted them
various immunities like exemption from various dues; and freedom to deal with their
laborers and impose forced labour on certain artisans. Sub infeudation also led to
different strata of intermediaries and intensification of the exploitation of the
peasantry. According to Sharma, evidence for the dispossession and impoverishment of
peasantry comes from peasant protests. Migration was difficult and unviable so they
asserted their land rights through revolts. There are some instances of peasant protests,
though we do not find organized peasant revolts. The possibility of a clash is also
indicated in some Bengal grants, but significant cases of localized, rural protest are
found in the records of the Deccan and the South.

Since the rise of feudalism is traced to land grants, the question remains of why such
grants, which gave away the sovereignty of the state, were made. The charters say that
this was probably an action to legitimize the rulers. R.S. Sharma explains them using a
Theory of Causation, citing two crises as the reason for the prevalence of land grants.
The Economic Crisis started with the decline in India’s long-distance trade. Trade with
the Roman Empire ended in the 3rd century A.D. due to its decline; and silk trade with
Iran and the Byzantium stopped in the middle of the 6th century. The coastal areas of
India continued some commerce but this had little impact on the economy of the
country. Paucity in coins is also seen in the country during the period. Accounts of
travelers state that cowries formed the common medium of exchange. Finally officials
were also paid in grants or in kind. This gradually led to decline in urban life and
commerce. So decommercialization, demonetization, and deurbanization made land
grants a device for payment for services in lieu of cash salaries.

Shrimali supports RS Sharma with references to the Vakataka Empire. He argues that
there is a decline in trade and urban economy and asserts that the inscriptions convey
demonetization, small scale village economy, an expansion of rural settlements, a
contraction of urbanism and an early onset of feudalism. There are hardly any
references to urban centres and only about 16 or so settlements could be identified as
urban settlements. He also brings to our notice that there was limited use of money
despite the revival of trade, growth in agricultural activities, urbanization and
multiplication of exchange centres in northern and western India. The use of coins
remained extremely localized and did not permeate deep into the economic sphere.

RS Sharma’s arguments however drew in a lot of criticism from a lot of Historians. D.C
Sircar for instance does not refute that large number of land grants were made during
the period to Brahmans and other religious institutions but there was scant evidence of
existence of land grants of a secular nature. He questions the interpretation made by
Sharma of certain terms used in the inscriptions. He says the key terms were
misunderstood by Sharma, e.g. there is no transfer of ownership rights of the land but
only the transfer of revenue. He also questions the assumption of transfer of artisans
and peasants with the land from the inscriptions. Sircar also raises a very important
point – the overwhelming majority of the land grants are made to the temples and
Brahmanas. Service grants begin to be made only towards 1000-1200 CE onwards.
Building upon this argument by Sircar, Kulke suggests that the purpose of the land
grants was ritual legitimization, and not reflecting a crisis.

B.D Chattopadhyaya has also questioned the theory of urban decay and the decline in
trade in the post-Gupta period, a very essential foundation of the feudalism argument.
He used epigraphic evidence to show that no major de urbanization really took place
during the period. He gives evidence to show a continuation of urbanization in early
medieval India. Certain cities like Ahicchatra, Kaushambi, and Kapilavastu etc. showed a
continuation in occupation. R. Champaklakshmi has similarly demonstrated this for
Tamil Nadu. In fact, in Tamil Nadu, land grants were actually responsible for the spread
of urbanization as they led to agrarian expansion, with led to growth of urban centers.
Chattopadhyaya also says that even if some early medieval cities did decline, agrarian
expansion led to trade and exchange, which led to the development of local exchange
nodes from the 9th century onwards, providing the for a new kind of urbanism in early
medieval times. Markets called hatta became centers around which new towns
developed

Some have been even harsher with their criticism for instance Harbans Mukhia
questions the very existence of Indian Feudalism. He cites a lack of evidence. He points
out that in the European context feudalism emerged due to changes in the society,
whereas in India, it has been attributed to state practice of making land grants. He
believes feudalism could not have been a state imposition. He expresses huge disbelief
in the existence of serfdom. He argued that Indian peasantry had always been
predominantly free. There is free peasant production as the peasant controlled the
process of production. He owned the means of production, e.g. tools, and controlled
decisions such as what to sow and when. According to him, it was the forces of
consumption rather than profit motive which drove pre-capitalist mode of production
and it thus limited its capacity to expand beyond local or regional level and even at
regional level the variations were numerous.

R.S. Sharma responds to Mukhia’s criticism, saying that land does not mean anything
without its products. The peasant may have possessed land, labour, cattle and
agricultural implements but his ‘control’ over the means of production was not effective
as the fruits his labour were enjoyed by the land lord. In fact, land grants leave no
doubt that the landlord largely controlled the means of production. The terms used for
peasants in the inscriptions also do not show him as the owner of the land.

Harbans Mukhia focusses on three main things and compares them with Medieval
Western Europe to drive his argument- ecological conditions, technology available and
the forms of labour used in agriculture in the two regions. Indian soil was much more
fertile, and therefore did not require deep or intensive labour. The plough placed on the
humped Indian bull also made the work of tilling all the more easy, which was not the
case with European bull and the productivity was also much more in the Indian farms as
up to two crops could be cultivated during an year. Thus Mukhia argues that tied or
unpaid labour was seldom part of production. Harbans Mukhia is of the opinion that
Medieval Indian economy was therefore marked by a ‘free peasant economy’ unlike the
feudalism in Medieval Europe where serf labour was used for purposes of agricultural
production, which was set under the control of the lord. The labour of the Indian
counterpart was under his own control; what was subject to state’s control was the
amount of produce of the land in the form of revenue. The resultant tension from the
control of labour in Europe led to the rise of capitalism from the 12th century whereas in
India it happened only in the 20th century under a completely different set of
circumstances.

But Sharma again disagrees with this, and says that though there can be enormous
variations in the nature of feudal societies, certain characteristics remain the same. It is
merely to distribute production and extract surplus. It may have certain traits typical of
a time and territory but it has certain broad universal features.

B.D Chattopadhyaya agrees to the existence of land grants and the presence of
contractual element in these land grants. He however says that this does not explain the
emergence of feudal polity. He considers land grants mainly secular important for
understanding the feudal polity but not the sole criteria. He looked at the inter-
relationship between socio-economic and political processes to understand the polity.
According to him and his followers the process of change has been a result of a gradual
development of a ‘state society’. B.D Chattopadhyaya explains that the establishment of
larger polities took place in nuclear areas.

Hermann Kulke who is proponent of this argument adds saying that this transformation
was based and progressed along with the emergence and spatial expansion of the ruling
lineages. B.D Chattopadhyaya goes on to explain that any large ethnic group could make
an attempt to assume political power by effective mobilization of force. Ruling lineages
thus owed their origin to the expansion of agricultural settlements. The development
was heightened by better technology and transformation of tribal groups in peasant
groups, which led to colonization of new areas and the emergence of a state structure.
New political powers emerged through expansion into new regions. Administrative
measures like brahmadeyas and devadanas helped in providing legitimacy to the
temporal powers in the area occupied by them. The principles of Bhakti became and
instrument for legitimizing state power. This model developed by Chattopadhyaya is
called the ‘Integrative Polity’ which links the formation of polities with economic and
social processes. Chattopadhyaya believes that the Samanta scheme was an instrument
of integration. The expansion of ruling lineages horizontally was brought due to many
factors like a growth in the agricultural settlements and the transformation of the tribes
in peasant groups. This type of polity could sustain only through a hierarchical
feudatory, in this case the Samanta system in which administrative powers and
resources had to be parceled out.
RS Sharma later in his paper called ‘How feudal was Indian feudalism?’ modifies his
earlier stance and expanded its scope to understand feudalism as an economic
formation which evolved from and economic and social crisis in society, thereby
invoking the idea of Kaliyuga. RS Sharma no longer holds the view that feudalism is
nothing but a consequence of state action any more.

BNS Yadava at this point also supports RS Sharma with detailed study of the notion of
Kaliyuga in Early Medieval Indian literature and suggested the notion had all
characteristics of a crisis, which would hasten the process of change. He gives more
evidence of land grants being made to military officials in the post Gupta period, which
affected the mobility of the peasants. Yadava pointed at the political aspect of
feudalism. He focusses his attention on the ‘Samantas’ and ‘Mahasamantas’ whose main
intention was to reinstall the feudatories and court dignitaries in the new conception of
empire. According to Yadava such an empire lacked solidarity, stability and political
unity. The Samantas and Mahasamantas were semi-independent rulers.

B.P Sahu questions the validity of evidence from Kaliyuga as period of crisis. He sees it
as a reassertion of Brahmanical ideology rather than a crisis. He also points out that
evidence points towards forced labour falling into disuse after 1000 CE.

The proponents of Indian feudalism model cite the absence of trade and paucity of
metallic medium of exchange, there came up an essentially self-sufficient and enclosed
village economy. DN Jha says that this led to a decentralized polity and parcellised
sovereignty. They say that the lack of metallic money resulted in service grants being
made to the royal officials who gradually amassed a lot of wealth and became powerful.
This is however being questioned by John Deyell. He says that metals like gold; silver
and copper were not the only form of money but even cowries functioned well as a
medium of exchange. He suggested procuring cowries in India involved long distance
trade for cowrie shells were obtained from far off Maldives and this highlights its
significance. By a study of the coin hoard finds, metrology and metal composition, he
concludes that money production and money circulation in the area between
Afghanistan and middle Ganga basin, and between Kashmir and northern Deccan
extending to the western coast were in full swing and went beyond their localities.

Ranabir Chakravarti agrees that there was an unprecedented agrarian expansion in India
in the Early Medieval period. This resulted in an agrarian surplus, a major prerequisite
for city formation in early India. This expansion led to greater concentration of
population in some villages, which consequently underwent changes leading to
emergence of smaller towns. Thus revisionists feel that the old towns did show signs
decline but many new urban centres came up instead.

The debate on feudalism in India is one of the most vibrant debates in history and has
yielded many arguments, some which have stood the test of time and some others have
perished with newly emerging evidences and counter arguments. RS Sharma without any
argument can be credited with starting this active debate on feudalism in India.
However RS Sharma’s work missed out on many other regions of India which showed
vibrant trade and urbanization during the period. Currently the idea of an integrated
polity in early Medieval India has gained ground among the academic and intellectual
community due to its capacity to be more inclusive and convincing. The feudalism
debate still remains unresolved and one of the most intriguing discourses in History.

______________________________________________________________
UNIT 2:
Q. Nature of Chola state.
The study of medieval South Indian polity has been carried out by numerous scholars,
all of whom postulate a variety of often starkly differing arguments to make sense of
the period from the 7th century ad to the 13th century ad. Due to the copious
inscriptional evidence available for the Cholas, the study of south Indian medieval
polity, society and culture will primarily focus itself on the Cholas and their rise from
the 9th century onwards. In order to get a more coherent spatial picture of this region I
shall begin by describing in detail the geographical and physical boundaries of the
region defined as the south Indian macro region.

South India as described by Burton Stein consists of the regions south of the Karnataka
watershed on the West and the Krishna- Godavari delta on the East. Stein moreover
emphasises the fact that the core region of South India lies in the Coromandel plain,
which is analogous to the Gangetic plain of the north as a cradle of population and
culture. He also stresses that the Deccan cultural region is a separate core area, thus
creating a structure of essentially three core areas, the Gangetic delta, the Deccan region
and the Coromandel plain. He demarcates the boundaries of the Coromandel plain as
extending from the southern tip of the Krishna- Godavari delta eastwards, broken by the
Eastern Ghats. This was a prized region and a region that was fought for often as an
agricultural bounty. The eastern boundary of the Coromandel plain lies along the
eastern coast and evidences trade along this coast until the Period of Muslim stronghold
in the Indian Ocean region. The plain is bounded on the west by the plateau region.

There appears to be a fundamental difference however in the way Burton Stein views the
south Indian region and the way Kesavan Veluthat studies it in his “Political structures
of early medieval south India”. Where Burton Stein categorically highlights the exclusion
of Kerala from his analysis, Veluthat views the same region as a part, though a little
dissociated in terms of polity and culture, of the macro region. This region was ruled by
the Ceras, the more diminutive dynasty in the most prominent four to exist in this
region, the others being the Pallavas, the Pandyas and the Cholas.

During the classical age in south Indian history, the Sangam age, Sangam literature
depicts the presence of small peasant communities proliferating in a scattered manner
right through the region with a concentration in the Kaveri basin. Such peasant
settlements are seen to evolve from what was till this time essentially a tribal, pastoral
society. Society was organised into clans and tribal leaders fought for domination of
cattle and for the protection of the clan. The emergence of small peasant communities
metamorphoses the culture of this region. This process of transformation is helped by
accelerating trade both in terms of internal and external trade particularly in a region
called the “marutam” region in the Sangam literature. Thus chiefdoms existing in this
region progressed and the chieftains emerged as more dominant political rulers. It is
from this region that the three ruling dynasties of the Cholas from Uraiyur, the Cheras
from Vanji and the Pandyas of Madurai materialize. The less fortunate chiefs who were
not affected by the change were left in their decadent formulations of clan based state.
This phase is said to have said to come to a close by the 3rd century Ad. What follows is
a period of histoiorgraphical darkness which extends till the seventh century ad when
we see the emergence and development of the Pallava dynasty centred in the
Tondaimandlama region. This particular period did carry a continuity from the early
time however it was essentially quite unique.
WE see the emergence of large scale cultivation dominated by a non-peasant class of
cultivators and we also witness the appearance of the domination of Brahmans,
migrating from the north, in secular activities of the region. The rulers supported these
Brahmans, who had already establihed themselves by the time of the pallavas, in order
to gain legitimacy. A model of north Indian society is seen being imposed on the south,
carried by the Brahmans who emerge as a major cultural influence on society.

This process of the pallavas is soon repeated in the south by the Pandyas in the
Pondyamandalam region. The Pallavas however begin to decline in power by the eight
century confronted by challenges from the North West, from the newly emerging
dynasties of the Rashtrakuthas in the Deccan and also from the Pandyas in the south. A
period of military strife follows after which we see the rise of the Cholas in the 9 th
century AD with their centre in Colamadnalam in the Kaveri basin under Vijaylaya the
first Chola ruler who takes over the Colamandalam region by defeating the Mattaraiyar
chiefs and driving them out of the Kaveri delta. Soon the Cholas under Aditya Chola
defeated the Pallava ruler Aparajita thus creating a foothold in the Tondaimandalam
region. The Chola power came to bear over the Pandya regions in the south as well.
Parnataka Chola pressed Chola power in several region including Sri Lanka until in 949
AD the Rashtrakuta leader Krishna III brought a temporary stop to Chola expansion.
Despite the setback the Cholas rose to be a major power under the leadership of
Rajaraja I, who helped in reasserting the Chola status and also in extending Chola
dominion over Gangavadi to the North West. Under the successor of Rajaraja, Rajendra
chola, we observe Chola dominion spread even further right up to South East Asia. The
dynasty remains stable till the rule of Kullotunga I when the Cholas lose Gangavadi.
Moreover the Pandyas start to challenge the authority of the Cholas. By the time of
Kullotunga III we observe the collapse of the Chola Empire. Pandyas unite to drive out
the Cholas and there is a resurgence witnessed amongst the Pallavas as well.

Kesavan Veluthat who argues for a feudal model of state in South India says that the
reason for collapse of the Chola dynasty was the centrifugal forces that were a
necessary consequence of the political order. During the period of the demise of the
Cholas we see that the chiefdoms start re-asserting themselves.

This idea of a feudal South Indian order is fairly recent however, and based on evidence
recently analysed by the likes of N.Karashima and Subbarayalu. We observe the
historical analysis of this region beginning with the study of the inscriptions, both
copper plate and stone of this period. In 1886 of the department of epigraphy is
establihed by the government of Madras under Dr. Hultzsch. Further analysis was
carried out through the scrutiny of bhakti hymns and Sangam literature.

This region received exhaustive historical treatment for the first time under Nilakanta
Shastri who wrote in the pre-independence period. Shastri however had the tendency to
glorify and portrayed the state within medieval south India as highly centralized and
bureaucratized. His views were supported blindly by other like Appadorai and went
practically unchallenged for almost forty years until Burton Stein places some very
pertinent questions challenging the “conventional” historical view and answers them
with his theory of Segmentary state, borrowed from Aidan Southall. This view is later
questioned by Kesavan Veluthat who suggests her feudal model based on the work of
R.S. Sharma and Noburu Karashima. Another model of “early state” has been proposed
by Hietzman and Subbarayalu.

In order to fully comprehend and visualize the purport of each of these arguments it
would be important to first describe their most salient features.

The “Conventional” Argument

The first in depth studies carried out by Nilkanta Shastri as I mentioned before
presented the Chola state as a highly centralized state. He describes the state as
consisting of “divisions” and “districts” and the chiefs who rule these kingdoms as
governors. These districts or nadus are described as being artificial divisions. A re-
examination by both Burton Stein and Kesavan Veluthat reveals that these districts were
in fact not artificial divisions for the purpose of administration and also that these
territories were dominated by local chiefs with a considerable degree of autonomy.

The administrative systems of the three kingdoms are divided into central, provincial
and local, by Shastri. The very existence of such administration has been questioned by
Burton Stein. Veluthat argues for the presence of landed magnates who act as
feudatories of the chiefs and of the king and like Burton Stein agrees that the system of
administration was not one centralized bureaucracy. Moreover Conventional
historiography under Shastri, Appadorai and other has ignored entirely the question of
the Ur, the peasant assemblies and the nadu, the agglomeration of the peasant villages.

There was emphasis’ on centralized administration in the collection of land-

revenue. Appadorai studies various taxes and construes terms such as Kadami and
Kudami to mean land revenue paid to the centre. However both Burton Stein and
Veluthat are of the opinion that these taxes aren’t paid directly to the centre. Veluthat
goes on the say that these taxes were not taxes at all, but feudal rents, appropriated
initially in labour and then later through landed rents.

Another argument for the centralized administration stems from the belief in a large
military force consisting of an immense army and a mythic landed navy. The arguments
for the presence of a navy, which are emphasised by Shastri, lie in the description of
conquests of the Cholas in Sri-Lanka and South East Asia. Veluthat however argues that
the occurrence of sea based conquests need not imply the existence of a navy but
merely that the land troops were transported on ships to these regions. The argument
for the existence of the highly centralized army that provided the Cholas with the power
and legitimacy to have centralized rule has been disproved on the basis of empirical
evidence, which as suggested by Veluthat had been misinterpreted by Nilkanta Shastri.

Thus where the scholarship of Nilkanta Shastri was invaluable in terms of providing the
first detailed research on this region, it has been replaced by the later arguments of
Burton stein and Veluthat which are based on empirical fact.

SEGMENTARY STATE

Burton Stein having questioned the validity of the centralized model of state goes on to
suggest his own idea of Pyramidal segmentation of the state within the south Indian
Medieval context.

The basic postulates of his theory are based on the Segmentary state model proposed by
Aidan Southall for the Alur region in east Africa.

The Segmentary state as envisioned by Burton stein had a pyramidal segmented

structure where the pyramid consist of units which in political formation are identical
to the centre. These units which are the foundation blocks of segmentary states are
called Nadus. Every nadu has a separate administrative system that is similar to the one
at the centre. Each unit has identical stratification with the chief on top, followed by the
peasantry, the artisans and finally the labourer. The nadu has its own internal tensions
based on loyalties such as the idangai and velangai divisions.

These units are controlled by the king through his ritual sovereignty. Stein emphasises
Dual sovereignty of the king. One part of the sovereignty being the political power he
enjoys at the centre and the other the ritual power that encompasses the each segment
in the state which he uses to bind the separate units right across the state. Burton stein
has borrowed this formulation from Lingat’s concepts of sastra and rajadharama. The
first stands for the political rule of the king and the second perceives the king as an
actor of limited power who bears the consequences of his own actions and those of his
subjects.

Thus we also see the emergence of two centres: one based on the kings ritual authority
over the state and the other at the numerous loci of administration spread right across
the state.

Based on these centres of power we distinguish two kinds of royal functionaries being
described by Stein as being part of the administration. The first are the political
functionaries of the king within his core region and the second the ritual functionaries
of the king that represent his power in individual segments. The actual spread of ritual
power is described by Burton Stein as taking place through the spread of the Siva cult,
which is being propagated by the brahmadeyas which have been set up by the kings in
order to legitimize their own position. The kings, according to Stein encouraged the
migration of these Brahmans from the north in order to legitimise their authority in the
region.

Burton Stein’s concept of segmentary state is however questioned by Kesavan Veluthat

on a number of points including his interpretation of sastra and rajadharma, both of
which as described by Lingat are dual facets of the same ruler that help in creating a
particular image of the king and are not a realistic embodiment of power.

Veluthat moreover reveals that the agamic religions were present in the country even
before the Cholas, thus rendering Stein’s theory of legitimating through the Siva cut
void. Moreover he shows that the brahmadeyas existed before the domination of Pallava
rulers, clearly indicating that they are not a kingly construct.

He also proves that the replication of small individual units as copies of the centre is
not possible, since where the core region is dominated by the king, the segments apart
from chieftains also consist of landed magnates organised in assemblies such as the
nattar who have a great degree of authority within the nadu. Burton Stein had not
recognised a distinction between the chiefs and the landed magnates and thus proposed
the replication of royal power in the chief.

Veluthat also insists that the duplication of specialised administration in the nadu of
the kind that exists in core region does not bear out with empirical evidence.

Veluthat proposes instead an alternative feudal model of state.

Feudal Model

Previous attempts at delineating the Chola state as feudal were tentative and lacked
concrete and thorough scrutiny. We see Karashima suggesting the feudal nature of state
in the later Chola period. Veluthat proposes to study the feudal potential of the south
Indian Macro region on a more thorough basis along with M.G.S Narayanan.

He first emphasises the major postulates of feudal society in India according to

R.S.Sharma which include the alienation of administrative judicial and political power,
which Veluthat suggests are alienated through religious grants, an erosion of state
power and an elaborate hierarchy of officials between the rulers and the ruled.

Sharma identifies the late-Gupta and the Post-Gupta periods as being feudal. These
periods witness the disintegration of society through the decline of trade and the decay
of urban centres. He argues that the period witnessed the failure of existing means in
the background of the emergence of new means and relations of production. The birth
of a new kind of society is certainly advocated by a number of scholars; however the
theory also received critique from Mukhiya, Kulke and Burton Stein. Stein suggested that
the decline of power of state required the state to posses power in the first place, which
he argues, it didn’t. However R.S.Sharma himself argues the assuming the peasantry to
be a free peasantry would be erroneous as the peasantry were subject to their own
“disabilities”.

Veluthat realizes that in order to place the feudalism model within the South Indian
Medieval context it would require a clear definition of feudalism within that milieu.

He attempts to provide this in a brief model based on a framework provided by Noboru

Karashima, whose work he describes as being more in the Marxist tradition.

To begin the argument Veluthat, basing her ideas on Karashima’s formulation

demarcates a broad stratification of peasant society within the region. He starts by
describing the individual peasant producers of Karashima’s formulation and links these
with the kutis of south India. They appear to be serfs who officially hold the land and
are not slaves but still have to pay a feudal rent. The rent is extracted initially in the
form of surplus, and the later on as a land rent.

Veluthat then describes the landed magnates who have superior rights over the land and
distinguishes them from the Chieftains. These magnates extracted the feudal rent
through extra economic means. It was in fact these landed magnates that formed the
membership of the ur, powerful bodies within the nadu that dealt with the apportioning
of land and such other functions. At the bottom of this chain of peasant hierarchy was
the landed labourer.

Thus Veluthat stratifies his feudal society with the king as the supreme head, followed
by the chieftains in each nadu, followed by the units of the brahmadeya, the nadu and
the nagarams and below them the tenants and finally the labourers.

Veluthat also suggests a similar stratification for the army with the “companions of
honour” or the kings bodyguard at the centre, supplemented by similar forces in each
nadu, enhanced by special forces and finally there were the mercenary troops drawn
from among the peasants and artisans.This graded hierarchy was maintained in society
through the system of jati reaffirmed by the varnasrama dharma and the
bhakti movement.

The final postulate of this model was that the commodity production must be only
under the tutelage of agriculture and this was certainly the case with artisans and
tradesman of the south-Indian region. At the end of his argument Veluthat insists that
the feudal structure describe was not an archetypal analogy of European feudalism but
rather something derived separately for the context of South India.

The feudal model is challenged by James Heitzman who argues against the religious
grants alienating political power.

Moreover there appears to however be an aberration in feudal polity within the Cholas
during the rule of Rajaraja I and the rule of Rajendra Chola. The polity tightens and
becomes more centralized. James Heitzman attributes this change to a process of state
formation that was taking place which he explains with his model of an “early sate”.

Early
State
This model was proposed by Hietzman and subbarayalu and was drawn from a model
created by Henry Claessen and Peter Skalnik which emphasises a centralized state
organisations to deal with a complex stratified society which is divided into at least two
strata- that of the ruler and the ruled. There are three varieties of “early state”

A. Inchoate

B. Typical

C. Transitional

Both Heitzman and Subbaraylu according to Veluthat seem unsure of their arguments.
Subbarayalu describes it only tentatively as an early state as he is aware its incongruity
with the political processes within the Chola state. Hietzman to says that the Chola state
was a segmentary state only in the capacity that its agrarian base and political power of
its elites were in an early stage of expansion.

Veluthat describes this model as being ineffectual in describing the Chola state.

Asiatic mode

This Marxist variant of oriental despotism which was resurrected by Kathleen Gough
talks about the Chola state being archaic but is itself based on outdated evidence and
inconsequential.

Having grasped the most crucial points of the proposed models of state in medieval
south India we can explore the state in detail in order to evoke a vivid understanding of
society, polity, economy and culture within this region. We can start by discussing the
essential political structures within this period.

POLITY WITHIN MEDIEVAL SOUTH INDIA

The king and his functionaries

Conventional histiography viewed the king as an absolute monarch, in complete control

of his state. The king was in direct control of all functionaries of state as well as the
local units.

Burton Stein rejecting this view describes the king as a ritual head of state, with
absolute control only at the centre. As described earlier Stein associates two kinds of
sovereignty with the king: ritual and political. Thus outside of the core-region which in
the case of the Cholas was Colamandalam, focussed around the Kaveri delta, the kings
authority appears to be merely symbolic. There is very little direct contact of the king
outside the core –region.

Kesavan Veluthat however disputes this isolation of the king. Moreover as mentioned
above she states that the dual sovereignty of the king is merely representative of the
role the king establishes in order to legitimize his place. He uses the already established
institution of the brahmadeyas to establish his role by maintaining a status as a
ksatriya.

Veluthat describes the king as a feudal head. This feudal over lordship is reaffirmed
with images created by the king through hero-warrior staus, origin myths linking the
king to either the candravamsa or suryavanmsa line of the Ksatriya. However as we will
see later Burton stein denies the presence of this Ksatriya linkage within the formulation
of the south Indian macro region.
The chieftains

During the sangam age the chiefs were essentially pastoral lords. With the emergence of
agriculture and trade however we have seen that a few chiefdoms grow to become
kingdoms. By the time of the seventh century we see that the chiefs all emerge as rulers
of agricultural land.

For most conventional historians the chief simply represents a governor to the
monarch. The chief has no autonomy.

Burton stein however argues for the autonomy of chiefs and allocates a place for the
chief similar to that of the king in his core area. The chief has a high degree of
autonomy over his chiefdom. He ascribes the titles muvendavelar and araiyan chiefs
ruling the nadus. However as revealed by Veluthat these titles refer to landed magnates
within the nadu. Burton Stein fails to distinguish between the landed magnates and the
chiefs.

Veluthat describes a closer relation between the chief and the king.

Veluthat describes the establishment of cheifdoms through the role played by the
Brahmans in encouraging the deveopement of agriculture well before the establishment
of the Pallavas.

Prominent Cheiftains such as the Banas are seen to constantly change their alliances
from the calukyas , to the Rashtrakutas, to the pallavas and finally to independence
after the decline of the pallavas. Within the cera empire Veluthat describes an
occasional three tier political structure with the local chiefs owing loyalty to the ceras
and the ceras owing loyalty to the cholas, the dominant dynasty within the region.

The autonomy of the chiefs within the chola empire seems to vary. They seem relatively
inconsequential till the 11th century after which there is a rise in the autonomy of the
cheifdoms with the collapse of the cholas. The automony is greatly reduced during a
period of relative centralization under Rajaraja I and Rajendra.

Most of these chiefs according to Veluthat claimed hereditary status. A few looked for
legitimation through the ksatriya status. They also paid a tribute to the king. Moreover
we see evidence for military pacts between the king and the chief. Moreover we also see
that in some cases the chiefs are obliged to attend assemblies convened by the king.
This structure as defined by Veluthat is a feudal structure of polity.

Nadu and the nattar

Conventional historiography views the nadu as a construct of Chola polity and as an

artificial unit of administration.

Burton stein however argues that the Nadu was a grouping of the vellanvagai village and
that the nadu was present before the establishment of the three ruling dynasties. The
nadus are thus not artificial divisions according to him and only came to be used as
units of administration. The nadus for him were the most fundamental unit of
segmentary state and were thus according to him largely autonomous. He describes the
nadu and its assembly the nattar as a body limited to the purview of the nadu and
largely unconnected with the monarchy at the centre.The nattar is described by him as a
self-contained based on endogamous linkages and kin based marriages. Subbarayalu
supports this view.

He also suggests a lack of uniformity within the nadu with some villages being more
important and alleges that the nadu may have been named after the first village which
may also have been the dominant village. He supports the presence of chiefs ruling in
certain nadus.

Stein classifies the nadus as being central, intermediary and peripheral. Veluthat states
that there is no evidence to support this claim.

Stein disagrees with Subbarayalu who argues for the proliferation of the nadus within
the kaveri delta in the period from the 9th-11th century on the basis of the mention of a
large number of new nadus within this region. Stein argues that these “new” nadus were
just a new recognition of chola over lordship.

Veluthat however argues for the proliferation of nadus saying that the nadus mentioned
earlier in the texts appear in the most fertile lands whereas those mentioned later in the
texts appear almost invariably in the less fertile lands.

Veluthat also argues for greater linkage between the nadu and the state and denies the
presence of endogamous linkages that limit the purview of the nattar to the nadu. The
nadu is dominated by the nattar and not by an individual chief. Moreover Veluthat
emphasises the homogeneity of the nadus compostion.

Veluthat discloses evidence to prove that the local functionaries of the king were infact
involved in the functions of the nadu and the nadu was far from dissociated.The nadu is
in fact the basic revenue unit and is directly responsible to the king through the
fictional person of the nattar. The nattar of course is an assembly consisting of the
landed magnates within the nadu. The nadu according to Veluthat lacked a chief as a
head and thus could never be a replica of the centre unlike what Stein argues in his
segmentary model.

The nadu also consists of the Ur which was a fractional element of the Nadu consisting
exclusively of landholders. It generally had a strength of less than ten and was involved
with management of landed property.

Thus according to Veluthat the Nadu emerges as another body within the feudal control
of state.

Nagaram

There is very little evidence for the presence of nagarams. Kenneth hall postulated a
theory by which there is at least one nagaram in every nadu. This was challenged and
disputed vehemently by Champakalakshmi. As described by Veluthat it was a separate
trading community consisting of merchants, craftsmen and artisans. The nagarratar was
a corporate body that consisted only of merchants and handled the affairs of the
nagaram. Unlike the nadus the nagarams were far more autonomous and approporiated
more state power.

The nagarams however are seen to be concerned with matters of land indicating that the
trade industry had not dissociated itself from agriculture. Thus commodity production
is still tied to agriculture and this as stated by Veluthat is a clear indication of the
presence of a feudal influence.

Brahmadeya

There is an abundance of epigraphical data regarding the brahmadeyas as they were

centres for recording information. In fact a large part of information on other units that
existed within this region have been drowned by a deluge of information on the
brahmadeyas.

Burton Stein suggests that brahmadeyas were created by the Cholas to provide them
with ritual legitimacy. Moreover he talks about an alliance between the peasant and the
Brahman which facilitates the brahmadeyas. The Brahmans required support from the
peasants, according to Burton stein , in order to support their lifestyle. Moreover the
emergence of the Bhakti movement further accentuated the necessity to have some
sponsorship. The peasant society on the other hand was expanding and required the
legitimacy of the Brahmans to incorporate newly captured peoples into their system of
hierarchy to ensure a place in society. Thus the brahmadeyas have a major legitimizing
function. Moreover the brahmadeyas also serve according to Stein as educational
centres with their gathas.

Veluthat, on the basis of inscriptional evidence counters Stein stating that the
brahmadeyas in fact existed before the Cholas. He suggest that they would have
developed in the seventh century and would have encouraged the proliferation of
agriculture with the help of experience and knowledge brought in by the migrating
Brahmans from south India. By the 9th century the cera kingdom as described by
Veluthat had been studded with brahmadeyas the last one being recorded towards the
end of the ninth century in Tiruvalla.

In fact according to Veluthat by the time the Cholas established themselves in the 9 th
century there was a large population of Brahman settlers.

Like Stein Veluthat agrees that the brahmadeyas would have been used by the kings to
legitimise their authority. Moreover they also agree that such legitimacy may have been
provided by the bhakti movement. However Stein emphasises that the proliferation of
the Siva cult in the Chola empire would have helped in legitimization. We see the
gradual predominance of Linga worship. Localised cults gradually come to be replaced.
However some elements linger, among these the cults to the female diety which were
deeply rooted in south Indian culture. These local deities were gradually compressed
into the vedic fold by the Chola rulers so that soon the worship of the local deities was
possible within the sanskritized canonical system.

Gradually we also see the growth of temples dedicated to Siva under Rajaraja I and
Rajendra I including the Brimhadesvara temple.

the Brahmans to identify themselves as ksatriyas. However Stein denies the presence of
ksatriyas in the south Indian macro region and uses the presence of Ksatriyas within the
region as a premise to eliminate Kerala from his analysis. His argument is that the
presence of the Ksatriya would not be possible due to the presence of the secular power
of the Brahman.

The Brahman assemblies Sabha, according to Veluthat are responsible for matters
relating to land, and reallocation of funds. The sabha appears to be a powerful
institutions as any abegnator is condemned with ostracism and the confiscation of his
land.

The efforts at legitimization according to James Heitzman result in the notion of god-
king emerging. Moreover he argues that the presence of a number of sprouting temples
allows a wide ritual hegemony for the king . The temples were also funerary shrines for
the Chola rulers and further helped in emphasising the royal identity.

By the eleventh century the brahmadeyas bow out in favour of the temples.

Administration
General

The system of administration linking these systems together has been variedly
discussed by the different schools of thought on South Indian polity. Each system of
administration defines to a great extent the model of state.

Nilkanta Shastri and Appadorai argue for a great deal of reach of a highly centralized
bureaucracy and a vigorous system of administration supported by a massive standing
army. A system of administration to rival the Mauryan .

Burton stein on the other hand denies the presence of any such link and states
categorically that the individual segments are dissociated from the centre and that there
are very few examples of royal functionaries within the nadus.

Veluthat on the other hand does argue for the presence of state functionaries at the
local level. He describes the varying levels of centralization within the bureaucracy of
the chola state. During the reign of the Chola state the administration under Rajaraja I,
is highly centralized. (though it still can’t be described as a bureaucracy)There were two
or three tiers of bureaucracy within the administration during the reigns of Rajaraja I
and Rajendra I. However following the reign of Kullotunga the tiers are rare as the
localities pierce through them. We often observe the direct interference of a royal
functionary within the affairs of the sabha. Veludat describes the functionaries involved
in the passage of an order within the Chola state. These include the tirumandilalai(
committed kings order to writing), Olai-nayagams( compare and check before sending
to the adhikari),Naduvirukkai-(occasionally documents were sent to them), Adhikaris-
(endorse order to be registered in revenue accounts) and the Puravu vari (department-
enter into registers and issue a copy to the recipient).

The conditions of administration were similar within the other states as well. The
Pandyas had similar titles such as: olai, nagayam and adhikaris. Ther is also scanty
evidence that the Pandya officials were responsible to the Cholas.

Military

Nilkanta Shastri describes a massive military force accompanied by a large navy. The
evidence for the navy seems to based on the accounts of the Chola’s conquests in Sri
Lanka and the North East.

Burton Stein says that the military was drawn largely from the peasants and the artisans
and was a mercenary force. This once again complies with his segmentary model.

Kesavan Veluthat complying with his feudal model, describes a tiered army consisting
of the kings body guards, their counterparts in the cheifdoms, specialist troops to assist
them, mercenary forces and Brahmans as the educated and highly trained generals at
the helm.

Revenue

There is mention of a land revenue department within Chola records, however this
functions only as a revenue board at the central level and is not found in the localities

Veluthat quoting Karashima on the empirical evidence regarding revenue terms states
that of the hundreds of revenue terms according we observe that only 27 terms are
repeated over ten times .
 The terms the most frequently repeated in reference to the chola dynasty are
antarayam, Eccoru, Kadamai, Kudimai, Muttaiy-a, Tattar-pattam and vetti

There is a relative increase in numbers of Antarayam, adamai and Muttaiy-al as chola

rule progresses while there is a relative decline in eccoru and vetti, the former being
land tax and the latter being labour tax

.Most of these taxes however are either labour rent or taxes in kind thus the more
appropriate nomenclature for this form of revenue according to veluthat would be
feudal rent.The most important term for land-revenue has been described as kadami.
However the frequency of kadami had gone up in the second half of the chola reign,
possibly indicating more frequent collection of land revenue as the rule of the cholas
progressed.

We do find extraction of land rent in the form of paddy even in the records of the early
chola rulers. The decrease in labour rent and an increase in land rent clearly indicating
that in Marxist terms the civilization had progressed but the ground rent remained the
same. The revenue system is clearly decentralized and the extractions are made locally.

Thus Veluthat describes the revenue that exists within the region as a feudal rent.

Judicial

Nilkanta shastri seems to have appreciated the local and communal value of justice
administration whereas burton stein ignores the question all together. Conventional
historians assume the presence of a central court of justice but that instead that the
juridical functions were usually carried out locally.State authority was only invoked in
as a last resort. Thus judicial admin comes across as being localised.

SOCIETY WITHIN MEDIEVAL SOUTH INDIA

The social stratifications described by both Burton Stein and Kesavan Veluthat have
been defined to a great extent by the emphasis of each of their models.

Burton stein talks about stratification existing within each individual segment. It is this
stratification that within his model seems to provide character to each segment. He
describes social tensions existing within each respective segment. The relative
segmentation of the society in each segment would compose a hierarchy with the
Brahman at the helm followed by the King or the chief and then the landed peasantry
below, followed by the artisan and finally the labourer. Burton stein also neglects the
presence of Ksatriyas within the south Indian macro-region.

He also talks about two factors provided a supra-local connect across the localities of
the southern peninsular:

i.The brahmadeyas- these allowed for the spread of an aryanized CULTURE right across
the whole of south india and thus provided a cultural connection

ii.Dual division of caste- these emerged around the eleventh century and overcame the
isolated localities of the nadu providing a broad SOCIAL connect among a variety of
people

Burton Stein explores this dual division of caste in great detail. The two castes being
Idangai and valangai . The word valangai emerges in the Coromandel plain meaning
right hand. Later the word elangai emerges meaning left hand. The two castes have
violent clashes. The case divisions ad their violent forms spread right across the tamil
country. These castes are known by equivalent terms in Karnataka balagey(right)
and edagey(left). They are also known as kampulu meaning ‘agriculturist’ pertaining to
right hand castes and panchanulu meaning ‘artisans’ and ‘trading classes’ were the
same as the left hand division.Also according to some telugu speakers right hand was
symbollic visnu worship and the left hand-of siva worship.

These caste divisions are seen to cooperate on supra-local matters such as trade and
also co-operation in order to resist another group. Till the 13th century they represented
the sole means by which groups other than Brahmans could transcend the borders of
the nadu.

The velangai are clearly shown as agriculturists and are seen to have emerged as
mercenary forces of the king. The idangai on the other hand are clearly associated with
artisans and traders. They were associated with the five occupational groups of
goldsmiths, silversmiths, blacksmiths, carpenters and the stone cutters. Oil processors
and weavers were occasionally included.

The idangai probably shifted their alliance from heterodoxy to Saivism. This is seen
through the association of certain craftsmen with the title of rathakara, a title of high
status. The craftsmen were attempting to take this title in order to raise their status and
these craftsmen included four of the occupational groups of the idangai. Whatever the
use of the title ranthakar the artists had come to be of a low status by the 11th century.
However by the 12th century there is alleviation in their status. We see the term idangai
velaikarrar indicating that the artisans had acquired armies of their own which were to
become dominant in the next two centuries. Dr.Arokiaswami interprets this saying that
the idangai would have been suppressed by the members of the velangai including the
Vellalas and an intervention by the Chola ruler Kollutunga iii would have turned this
around. This upliftment of the position of the mercantile and craft groups came with
the urbanisation of temples.

Veluthat on the other hand argues for a social stratification with the Brahman on top,
followed by the king and the chieftan who are legitimised by the Brahmans as ksatriyas,
below them are the landed magnates who occasionally seem to enjoy the status of
Brahmans, who are followed by the artisans and the agricultural labourers. Society
appears to be influenced to a large extent by the presence of the Brahmans and their
legitimizing powers.

CULTURE AND ECONOMY WITHIN MEDIEVAL SOUTH INDIA

The evolution as we see clearly from accounts of both Veluthat ans Stein is influenced
greatly by the changes in religion and economy. Culture within the south Indian macro
regions evolves from its Sangam age tribal antecedents to an agrarian culture which is
more settled and comfortable. We also see the emergence of trade along with agriculture
which results in an expansion of the cultural horizons of the region with cross cultural
influences from south eat asia and sri lanka.

In fact this trasition from peasant to non-peasant society witnessed a number of clashes
between the peasants and the non-peasants from the hill regions. Moreover the period
immediately after the sangam age witnesses a growing situation of communal tension.
By the time of the 9th century Brahmanism comes to establish itself and the Jainas and
Buddhists come to beceom the minority.

The peasants follow the tenants of Brahmanism and thus Brahmanism gets established
as the dominant religion. Soon we see the advent of the bhakti movement and a re-
emphasis of the agamic religion. The bhakti movement has been emphasised by veludat
as being a social representation of the feudal reality that existed.

These movements were brought into the macro region from north india by migrating
Brahmans prior to the 7th century AD. These Brahmans helped to legitimize the rulers of
the land with the help of norms from sastric literature. Such legitimation and spreading
of norms began the process of sanskritization of the culture.

Some historians talk about this as a process of meeting of the great traditions of the
Brahmans and the folk traditions of the indigenous peasant population. However Burton
Stein emphasises the lack of validity in calling the Sanmgam traditions “folk” traditions.
The process of sanskritization is in fact a process of fusion, where both cultures blend
into one as in seen in the example quoted earlier dealing with incorporation of local
deities into the the vedic pantheon that had migrated to South India.

Brahmans emerge as the arbiters and propagators of these two traditions through
centres like the gathas in the brahmadeyas.

Towards the end of the twelfth century with the weakening of polity, we witness the
urbanisation of the region. Urban centres according to burton stein come to replace the
brahmadeyas as the hubs of civilisation. The nadus are incorporated into large supra-
localities. It during this period that we witness the proliferation of temples that also
encourages the increasing numbers of the artisans.

Moreover a larger number of non-brahman learners of Sanskrit as well as a deepened

link of the peasants with the high culture of the age.

Thus the culture of the south-indian macro culture has always been closely linked to the
major economic and religios changes of the age and a the constant changes in both have
lent this culture a rich and varied tradition.

______________________________________________________________

UNIT 3:
Q. What were social changes do you discern in the period
from 750 AD-1200 AD? Can it be called a period of
peasantization and proliferation of castes?
(SOCIO-ECONOMIC CHANGES)

A: The period from 750 AD-1200 AD largely corresponds with the early medieval period
of Indian history. It can be distinguished from the period preceding it and following it
by observing certain social changes that took place in this period. These have been
studied by historians like R.S. Sharma, D.N. Jha, B.N.S. Yadava etc. whose views will be
taken up subsequently. In order to assess these changes, we look at a variety of source
material, including copper plate inscriptions of land grants, smriti literature, Puranic
literature, accounts of foreign travelers like Al-Biruni etc.

The context in which social changes took place is one where an economy with feudal
traits had developed, involving large scale transfer of land revenues and land to both
secular and religious elements along with the right to administrate. According to R.S.
Sharma, there was a decline in trade and paucity of coins in circulation which
contributed to a closed village economy or ‘fiscal and administrative islands’. From
those who propagated the concept of Asiatic mode of production, this economy was
seen as the context of an unchanging society. This myth of stagnation of Indian society
was refuted by the likes of Sharma, D.D. Kosambi and D.N. J ha. They have emphasized
that such an economic situation would necessitate social changes as there were
conditions for development of social hierarchy based on unequal distribution of land
and revenues.

In this economy, with its strong sense of ‘localism’, the mobility of peasants and
artisans was affected. Jha likens the attachment of these groups to the soil to that of
serfs in medieval Europe, China and Japan. With the decline of trade and commerce as
pointed out by Sharma, artisans were tied to villages, towns or temples where they had
to serve local clients. This attachment to land began in backward mountainous regions
to meet shortage of labour as mentioned in a Chinese account of 732 AD, and then
spread to other areas. Inhabitants of a village had to carry out orders that they were
given as can be seen from the Nalanda charter ascribed to Samudra Gupta which asks
taxpaying peasants and artisans to not leave the village and not settle in tax-free ones.
Certain Chandella grants talk of categories of artisans transferred to beneficiaries along
with villages. That they were expected to stay in the village can be inferred from the use
of words like jana-sahita ( together with inhabitants and resources) and janata-
samrddha (well populated) . and pratibandhanyojitah. Sharma, too, elaborates on the
immobility of peasants and artisans, which forced a strong sense of localism and a
restriction on independent movement. The picture of immobile Brahmans presented in
medieval Dharmashastras, coupled with regulations regarding sea travel is in keeping
with the idea of closed economic units. Harbans Mukhia, however, disagrees as he talks
of a free peasantry which wasn’t tied to the land as the land-man ratio was very high.

Aside from immobility, other changes were also initiated by the prevailing mode of
production. Yadava talks about the formation of two major classes of the landed
intermediaries and large body of peasantry which was mostly dependant and
impoverished. The former, a dominant class of samanta elite and lesser landed
intermediaries wielding power and authority, emerged with its distinctive character,
symbols, ethics, and style of life. The latter emerged and expanded considerably as a
result of operation of socio-economic forces, inclusion of aboriginal tribes and
acculturation. Yadava, in his discussion of the subjection of peasantry, refers to an
antithesis between ruling aristocracy and peasantry and an oppression of the latter by
the former. They were reduced to tenants with mere occupancy rights, and there was an
increase in size of family, indebtedness, overtaxation and evils of subinfeudation and
famine.

According to Jha, this was a process of enserfment of the peasantry. There is evidence
to suggest use of forced labour or vishti. Vatsyayana in his Kamasutra mentions vishti.
All this added to the woes of the peasantry. Ravisena, in his Padma Purana, refers to the
harrowing poverty and wretched life of krishivalajanah.

Thus we see, the subject peasantry was overburdened by an increase in coercive

authority. R.N. Nandi focuses on the region of South India in highlighting this by the use
of characteristic terms like besa-vagal or bond servant. There was an undermining of
communal rights over land in donated areas. For example, Pala Pratihara records refer to
transfer to donee of all agrarian rights such as use of pasture grounds, fruit trees,
forests etc. There was resentment against encroachment on traditional rights on land,
by non-cultivating brahmanas. Later epigraphic records refer to the sharpening of social
cleavage between landed intermediaries and peasants. Nandi talks of localities where
crisis situations would arise as a result of these tensions, manifesting in the form of
peaceful and violent peasant protests especially in the11th century. Sharma views these
in relation with internal dynamics of society. We look at examples like that of the
Velvikutti grant which speaks of loss of brahmadeya in wake of Kalahari aggression.

Nandi talks of three kind of conflicts. The first kind emerged between Brahmans and
peasants. Peasant action was sometimes in defense, to capture Brahmanical land and to
counter abuse of landlords. The second kind was between samantas and brahmanas.
The refusal of the latter to pay rents and dues incited the wrath of the king and
feudatories. The Sorab Taluk inscription in 1117 AD talks of feudatory, Gavundasvami
Dandanath who attacked immemorial agrahara of Kuppatur, like an asura destroyed
sacrifices of brahmanas and defiled women. The third kind was between peasant and
the feudatory. Sporadic risings, acts of resistance, formation of social alliances & rise of
protestant sects characterized the 11th century. For instance, supra caste unions of
valangai peasants and idangai artisans make their first appearance. The most important
instance of peasant protest is that of Kaivartas in Eastern Bengal who were subjected to
exorbitant taxes and deprived of their plots of as has been described by Sandhyakara
Nandi in Ramacarita.

As we noted, these land grants and the process of subinfeudation led to an unequal
distribution of land and power which in turn created new social groups which did not fit
into the four fold varna system. Sharma elaborates on how certain texts reconcile
property and varna as basis for differentiation while some even wholly ignore varna.
They are guided by relative status of feudal lords or nobles. For example, the
Aparajitapriccha of Bhatta Bhuvanadeva mentions residence of 9 kind of nobles like
mahasamanta, mandalika etc.

Sharma, in his formulation of rise of feudalism put forward the theory of Kali age crisis
which perceives the cyclical movement of society through time. The theory, which
serves as a prelude to the period we are discussing, reflects on the origins of some of
the changes under discussion. It was marked by sharp social conflict and crisis,
weakening of traditional brahmanical order, mixing of varnas or varnasamkara, hostility
between shudras and brahmanas, refusal of vaishyas to pay for sacrifices, oppression of
people with taxes, growing importance of wealth over ritual status and so on. Migration
of people on account of burden of taxes appears to be an important characteristic. It
precipitated pace of transition from classical varna type to modified varna model of a
feudal type. A fundamental change took place in the position of shudras which we will
discuss later. This myth of four yugas each differing from the other, is an expression of
awareness of changes in the material conditions and traditional values. It has been
accepted by Jha and Yadava. But it has been critiqued by B.D. Chattopadhyaya as it
posits collapse of the pre-feudal social order. Jha also points out that this explanation
can be only applicable to heartland or areas where brahmanical order was well-
established. It is best to see the social crisis as an additional agent of change.

In addition to these changes, this period is described as one of ruralisation and

peasantisation. This takes place in the context of extension of agriculture through land
grants. This has been supported and discussed by several historians like Hermann Kulke
and Mukhia. Here, it is important to shed light on the change in relative position of
vaishyas and shudras. In the course of transition to the early medieval period, a
sizeable section of the shudras, including slaves, rose in social and economic status
after getting associated with agriculture. This ascendance was mostly as dependant
peasants and farmhands. Simultaneously, a section of vaishyas, descended to their
level. Yadava asserted that slave labour may have become unprofitable owing to
inefficiency or even easy availability of labour. Towards the middle of millennium, there
was a gathering force of a tendency towards the diminution of slavery. Instead we see
workers being recruited and receiving pay instead of compulsory labour. The term
dasakarmakara in Buddhist texts and in the commentary of Bhattotpala on Brihajjataka
is said to mean dependant worker attached to master, neither as slave nor servant.
Shudras no longer appear as slaves, artisans and agricultural labourers, and instead take
the place of vaishyas as cultivators. A charter from 11th century of Assam refers to
artisans, leatherworkers, and agricultural laboureres becoming peasants, which gives
evidence for the ruralisation of artisans. Most shudras lived on farming and field work,
evidenced by Hsuan Tsang stating that shudras were agriculturists. Al-Biruni notes the
absence of significant differences between the vaishyas and shudras as they lived in
same towns and villages and mixed freely in same houses. This change is also reflected
in some medieval Puranic texts, for instance the Skanda Purana talks of the shudra as a
giver of grain (annada) and householder (grihastha) which is clearly reflective of a rise
in the status or conditions of the shudra. The Medha Tithi of 9th century mentions
shudra living in locality of the twice born and their right to buy their freedom is
recognized. By 6th century AD they lost their identity as a peasant caste. The Skanda
Purana makes a prediction that traders would decline in Kali age. This can be connected
to the decline in trade and commerce as those engaged in it also declined in importance.
Their decline in Bengal is discussed by Niharranjhan Ray, who talks of Lakshmanasena,
who writes the following at the unfurling ceremony of the trader’s banner: “O where are
the traders who once held you aloft? You are now being used as plough or animal-post”.
There was contempt for goldsmiths as dealers in gold were associated with the
disappearance of coinage for centuries on from 650AD. Manual work became more
contemptible in medieval times.

In the discussion on peasantisation, we must give importance to the differentiation

within the shudra community. There was a division of shudras into pure (sat) and
impure (asat) as described by texts like Brahmavaivarta Purana. Many vaishyas who had
been reduced to status of sudras were classified under sat as were those of mixed caste.
There was a phenomenal growth in the number of impure shudras, or untouchables..
This rise plays an important role in the proliferation of castes which we will discuss
later. This increase can be somewhat explained by looking at the economy. As grants
were issued to extend agriculture to peripheral areas, there was an induction of
relatively less developed tribes who inhabited these areas, into the Hindu system
through Brahmanisation and Hinduised Buddhism. They were rendered as untouchables
because of their backwardness. As some were reduced to untouchables, the remaining
were satisfied as they took the place of vaishyas. Chattopadhayaya talks about the
transformation of tribes into peasants as one of the forces in operation throughout
history.

The early medieval period was also characterized by a sporadic increase in castes and
has been described by Sharma as one of proliferation and fragmentation. Existing
varnas broke up into new castes and new tribes and caste were incorporated into the
existing fold. Brihat-Chattivanna was a village where 36 varnas lived as depicted by the
name itself, mentioned in a 10th century Bengal Copper plate.

Proliferation was striking among brahmanas who multiplied with the growth of
localism. Inscriptions refer to 194 gotras, which all came up due to migration and
colonization of new areas. The rise of Srimala or Bhillamala brahmanas was due to
element of localism.

In early medieval times, constant transfer of land, led to the rise and growth of kayastha
community. These were of record keepers and writers, who had to draft documents of
land assignments and maintain records of land, villages and items of revenue given in
the grant. Initially they were drawn from the brahmana group but gradually, from
different varnas. They cut off marriage and other social connections, from the parent
community, and confined themselves to the new community while practicing class
endogamy and family exogamy. Rise of these as professionally literate class,
undermined the monopoly of brahmanas as writers and scribes. Kayastha were also
appointed ministers such as that of Chandella and Kalachuri kingdoms. They were also
resented by brahmanas because they maintained records of land grants with which the
latter were mainly concerned.

In this new social group, there was proliferation as well. Kayasthas came to be divided
into territorial subcastes. At present, Karana kayasthas of Bihar maintain lists of their
numerous mulas like Maithils and Ambastha kayasthas who are divided into more than
100 subcastes. “Lower” castes such as goalas and kurmis were divided into territorial
groups forming subcastes though there is a lack of written records in their case.

In the kshatriya community, proliferation was caused mainly by the emergence of the
new group of Rajputs. By the 12th century, the term Rajaputra came to denote a
collective term for the new clans which emerged. B.D. Chattopadhyaya attributed this
emergence to the widespread phenomenon of proliferation of lineage based states in the
early medieval period. Statements regarding Rajput clans number them to 36, and in
general they represent a mixed caste, consisting fairly large numbers of petty chiefs
holding estates.

Chattopadhyaya posits that it can be juxtaposed with the spate of colonization of new
areas, expansion of agrarian economy and proliferation of settlements. There is
heterogeneity in the kind of transformations taking place, which included disparate
groups Medas who came from a tribal background and Hunas who were foreigners; they
were drawn in due to the rajputisation process of social mobility. Terms like
samskarvarjitah are important as this was a euphemism which meant deprived of
rituals-as these groups gained admission through inferior rites. Bactrian Greeks,
Parthians and others were absorbed into the system as second class kshatriyas. As they
joined ranks, castes multiplied. Major clans which played a politically dominant role in
early medieval India were Pratiharas, Guhilas and Chahamanas. Chattopadhyaya talks of
two stages involved in their development. The first was a political process of disparate
groups seeking political power. The second stage became a comprehensive social
phenomenon, with multiplication of rajaputras, not just as a result of consolidation of
political power, extended to explain growing phenomenon of minor clans and subclans.
According to Sharma this was an important development as they played a role in
superimposing their clan organisation on the existing social structure based on caste.

Shudras gave rise to the largest number of castes in the early medieval period. Earlier
there were 10-15 and by the 5th century AD, there were 61 mixed castes. Conquest of
people living in jungles by brahmanised princes added to shudra castes enormously.
Suppression of Bhillas is mentioned in this conext in an inscription. As tribes were not
absorbed as one caste or varna, we hear of abhira brahmanas, abhira kshatriya, abhira
vaishya. A Kalachuri inscription, of the 12th century talks of deliverance of the Ratanpur
prince, Jajjalladeva II, from the clutches of the tribe, Thirus or Tharus which was
celebrated with the donation of villages to brahmanas. There, brahmanas inducted tribal
people into the cultural fold, supplied material culture of brahmanas, taught the script,
language, plough cultivation, knowledge about crops, seasons etc. These tribal people
were accommodated as pure or impure shudras.

Another significant process was the transformation of crafts into castes. As trade
languished, craft guilds became stagnant, immobile, hereditary and localized. Guilds
turned into closed exclusive groups resembling castes for all practical purposes. Craft
villages are mentioned in medieval inscriptions, such as two refer to kumbharapadraka
which signified potter caste.

Also, as religious affiliations multiplied, there was a parallel multiplication in castes.

Shaivism, Vaishnavism, Buddhism and Jainism broke into numerous sects due to
differences in rituals, food and dress, sustained by regional practices. For instance,
Jainism had 7 in Karnataka. The irony, as pointed out by Sharma was that sects which
had come up to remove caste got swallowed up by the caste system.

Thus we have seen that the early medieval period was characterized by tremendous
social changes, which were set in the context of the economic features of that period.
Aside from witnessing the emergence of new groups like kayastha and rajputs, it also
saw the subjection of the already existing peasantry. There was a peasantisation
population with the extensiuon of agriculture and proliferation of numerous castes.
These changes laid groundwork for further changes that were too take place which have
helped shape our modern day social identities.
UNIT 4:
Q. Explain the rise of Bhakti Movement in South India.
Religious life in South India during the early medieval period was largely characterized
by the tremendous growth and popularity of the Bhakti movement. The study of Bhakti
as a cult that shaped the development of religion in South India and as an important
element of sectarian Puranic religion has been extensive. Besides the concept, origins
and rich poetic and aesthetic appeal of bhakti, recent studies have also begun to
examine the nature south Indian bhakti as a protest against caste hierarchy, status and
privileges.

This essay is also an attempt to study bhakti as a concept that first evolved in the
hymns of the Vaisnava Alvars, and subsequently in those of the Saiva Alvars; how they
grew as an instrument of dissent against brahmana orthodoxy, existing social norms
and inequalities; developed into and ethical principle; and thereby, provided the basis
of the emergence of a dominant ideology.

The Bhakti Movement in South India had a two-fold character. It firstly had two main
currents, i.e., of Saivism and Vaisnavism which flowed parallel to each other. The
second character is that they also mingled occasionally, the Saivas being known as
Nayanars and the Vaisnavas being, Alvars. It is doubtful whether the movement started
as a conscious one but it is likely that several bhaktas appeared simultaneously in
different centres by the 9th century.

Historiography

Most of what has been written about the movement concerns itself with chronology,
identity of the individual saints and some literary / philosophical appreciations.
However recent studies, initiated by scholars such as M.G.S. Narayanan, K. Veluthat and
R. Champalakshmi, have attempted to analyse the movement not only within the
framework of the development of society and culture in South India, but also in its
socio-economic context with special reference to the elements of dissent, protest and
reform. With regard to chronology, there are disputes amongst scholars regarding the
identity and date of individual saints. Historians like S. Krishnaswami, R.G. Bhandarkar
and K.A. Nilakanta Sastri were among those that helped to approximately fix the
chronological timeline of the bhakti movement of the early medieval.

Sources

Historical study of the bhakti cult is majorly drawn from the literary works of the Alvars
and Nayanars themselves, which are in the form of devotional songs and poetry. The
source material may be thus classified into the following:

1. Songs of the Alvars and Nayanars

2. Later compositions by their followers in the form of chronicles and

hagiographies

3. References in contemporary and near-contemporary epigraphs

4. Representations in sculptured panels, paintings and images representing the

lives of the saints
Social Background

So as to understand South Indian bhakti, we must place it within the background from
which it emerged. In the sixth century CE, the Chalukya, Pandya and Pallava dynasties
rose to power. For the next three centuries, they dominated politics in the region:
waging war, upholding Brahmanical hierarchies, and patronizing art and culture.

The new dynasties used inscriptions to make grand statements about their power. While
kings gave grants to brahmanas and temples, in return, brahmanas and temple priests
asserted the king’s divinity and his right to rule. The spread of land grants led to the
expansion of the kingdom as well as the extension of agriculture into dryland areas and
forests. The heterodox faiths, Buddhism and Jainism, began to decline; they were
replaced by the passionate devotion of the bhakti saints and a temple religion which
provided a new set of myths and a new world view.

The Roots of Bhakti in South Indian Religion

While the bhakti movements represented a new trend, they also drew from the earlier
religious traditions of South India. Similarities exist between the bhakti hymns and early
Tamil poetry. Later classical texts such as the Paripatal praise the gods Murugan and
Mayon in terms which anticipate the early medieval hymns. Similarly, the sixth century
poem, theTirumarukarrupattai (‘Guide to the Lord Murugan’) advises devotees to
approach the Lord and seek his grace. Each of the six parts of the poem describes a
sacred site of Murugan or one of his temples. In the earliest Tamil poems, Murugan was
the heroic deity of the mountains, presiding over acts of love and war. But now he
becomes a God to whom the devotee must offer worship.

Thus, bhakti imposed itself upon an earlier network of cults and deities in the region.
The landscape of tinaisor ecological regions was now replaced by a network of temples
and shrines. In this process of absorption, A.K. Ramanujan argues that the bhakti
movements “used whatever they found at hand, and changed whatever they used.”

The Saints of South India

There were two major streams to Tamil bhakti -- the Alvars and Nayanars -- who
expressed their devotion to Vishnu and Shiva respectively. Tradition tells us about the
names and careers of some important saints.

The Alvars

The term 'Alvar' means ‘one who is immersed in God’. The bhakti of the first three
Alvars -- Poykai, Putam and Pey -- was a simple devotion, a rendering of divine grace
after they experienced Vishnu’s presence while sheltering from a storm. Later, they
came to be worshipped as amshas or incarnations of Vishnu.

Periyalvar was born as Vishnuchittan, an untutored brahmana who served Vishnu’s

temple at Puduvai. Legend has it, that transformed by divine grace, he was able to prove
the superiority of Vishnu in a philosophical dispute at the Pandya court.

Tirumangai, a petty chieftain and highway robber, was converted to the path of Vishnu
by the woman he loved. Representations show him carrying a spear and accompanied by
his wife Kumudavalli.

Nammalvar was a lower caste saint who spent his life in fasting and meditation. He
compiled four series of verses to provide poetry to the ordinary people. For this reason,
he is called Nam-Alvar, ‘Our’ Alvar. The Vaishnavites consider his four works equivalent
to the four Vedas.

The Nayanars
There were 63 Nayanars or Shaivite saints. The term ‘Nayanar’ means a ‘leader', in the
sense of God’s chosen apostle. While the early Nayanars led a life absorbed in Shiva,
later saints began to propagate Shaiva bhakti, bringing them into conflict with the
Buddhists and Jains.

Among the 63, the Muvar or ‘the three great hymnists’ - Appar, Sundarar and Sambandar
- are given prominence. Their hymns constitute the major part of the Shaivite canon.

Although Appar was born into an orthodox Shaivite family, he left to join a Jaina
monastery at Pataliputra (modern Patna). But when cured of a painful stomach ailment
by his sister, he returned once more to Shiva’s path. The memory of his betrayal filled
his poems with penitence and humility. For the rest of his days, he travelled across
South India, singing the praises of Shiva.

Sambandar was born into a brahmana family in the Tanjavur district. Invited by queen
Mangaiyarkkarasai to the Pandyan court, he defeated the Jainas through miracles and
debates and converted the kingdom to Shaivism. His hymns speak of the worship of
Shiva not through religious observances but through an emotion that fills the heart and
mind.

Sundarar was the child of poor brahmana parents, adopted and raised by a local
chieftain. His hymns stress the contemplation of Shiva as the one true path to bliss.

Bhakti and the Temple Cult

As temples became central to the new organization of space -- sacred, economic, social
and political -- we need to consider the ways in which bhakti religion worked in tandem
with this system. The space of the shrine is central to the workings of bhakti.

The Paripatal, a Sangam classic, introduces us to a new era in Tamil culture, and a new
milieu in Tamil religion amd worship, namely the temple, which was to become one of
the major symbols of south Indian religious tradition. Bhakti as a concept of devotion
appears here, in this context, though it was to be developed much later by the Alvars
and Nayanars. The idea of the temple as the focus of this devotional cult is crystallized
in the bhakti hymns.

Alvan and Nayanar bhakti bring several strands together, the typical Sangam Tamil
humanism, the emotional, sensual and transcendental character of worshipalong with
several mythological structures. Bhakti thus arose as a so[histicasted expression, that is,
in singing the praise of god, as an emotional seeking of union with the absolute,
symbolized by the temple image. The development of this concept may be traced
through the various stages in Alvar poetry, dominated by Krisna bhakti.

Besides the fact that much of bhakti literature was centred on temples, devotees often
undertook pilgramges to different temples around south India by dancing and singing
with large groups of followers across fields and forests. The institution of the temple
festivals may also be cited as the by-product of the bhakti cult. The Onam festival of
Kerala would remain the best example as it arose during the reign of Kulasekhara Alvar
(9th century). Inscriptions of the 10th century would also demonstrate the popularity of
the festival. Instances such as these go to prove that interests of the bhakti cult and the
temple cult often coincided.

Another specific consequence of the cult was the encouragement it gave to devadasis or
handmaids of the gods. As bhakti spread through media of song, dance and beauty,
these devadasis would play an important role in the popular appeal of the temple.

By the ninth century, the Chola kings systematically began to use bhakti shrines and
centres as sites for their temple building. From a small shrine, the temple became a
towering edifice with many gateways and enclosures and a multitude of
shrines. Temple complexes such as those at Tanjavur and Gangaikondacholapuram
became huge centres, the focus of both sacred and secular enterprise. Temples became
huge landed magnates with tenants and servants, even investing money in land, guilds
and trade.

In the development of the temple, the emergence of hierarchical relations in the

countryside, the concentration of political and economic power, and the extension of
agrarian civilization - the bhakti ideology had an important role to play. It emerges first
in the context of these developments, and subsequently goes on to bolster their
increasingly complex forms.

Dissent, Protest and Reform

There has been a general assumption among the historians and sociologists that the
concept of bhakti, as expressed by the Alvars and Nayanars, initiated a movement of
protest and reform particularly aimed at caste hierarchy and brahmana exclusiveness in
Tamil society.

According to Veluthat and Champalakshmi, this represents an inadequate

understanding of the hymns. It also points to a lack of clear perspective of the historical
processes that made bhakti a major ideological force in the restructuring of the
economy and society with Brahmanical temples as its focus. The presence of lower caste
saints has also led some to argue that bhakti represented a rebellion against the
Brahmanical caste system. The fact remains, however, that one third of the total number
of saints were brahmanas by birth.

However, this is not to say that there was no element of protest or dissent in the Alvar
and Nayanar poetry, representing an attempt to provide avenues of social acceptance
and even mobility to the less privileged castes and economic groups. Though the bhakti
cult was indeed a causative factor as well as a product of the proliferation of the
temples, it had also deviated a good deal from the orthodox philosophy of the
brahmanical sects.

Perhaps, a better inquiry into the question of whether it initiated social reform and what
the reform was is needed to be elucidated. The Bhakti hymns are dominated by three
major themes. Foremost amongst these is the devotion to God. The second is the
protest against orthodox Vedic Brahmanism and its exclusiveness in access to divine
grace and salvation. The third is a vehement denunciation of the Jains and Buddhists as
non-believers and heretics. It is the second theme that needs to be examined from the
point of view of the social base sought by the exponents of bhakti.

The castes and occupational background of the bhakti saints also provide useful insight
into the nature of the ‘movement’. The saints were drawn from various social strata
from Brahmana to paraiya (untouchable). The Shaiva saint Nandanar was in fact an
untouchable engaged in the slaughter of animals for leather and animal gut. His heart’s
desire was to view the image of the dancing Shiva in Chidambaram, but he was denied
access to the temple. Shiva, however, commanded the temple priest to light a fire
before the temple door, and Nandanar passed through it unharmed, disappearing under
the foot of the dancing Shiva.

The Vaishnava saint Tiruppan Alvar was also an untouchable who spent eighty years of
his life singing the praises of Vishnu, standing a mile from the Srirangam temple.
Appearing in a dream, Vishnu asked the temple priest to place Tiruppan Alvar on his
shoulders and carry him into the shrine. Once inside the sanctum, the saint sang one
last song, before merging into the divine image.

Such stories show that lower castes were able to create a space for themselves within
the bhakti tradition, proving that salvation was possible for all who loved God. Yet the
number of these saints was small, and their oppression as a group continued in society.
What the bhakti movements succeeded in doing was to create a few spaces of freedom
without overturning the existing hierarchy.

Also to be noted was the freedom from all rituals, and even rules of the society enjoyed
by the devotees It seems that their individual right to rebellion was legitimized by their
devotion. The badge of bhakti in the form of sacred ashes or sandal paste smeared on
the forehead or chest served as a sign of immunity in this period as would the sacred
thread in others. The same deviation from social norms may be be cited in terms of
status of women.

Women and Bhakti

The inclusion of women within the bhakti tradition marked an important departure from
Brahmanical Hinduism where women were debarred from spiritual attainment and the
ascetic life. While bhakti created space for the self-expression of women, the extent to
which gender boundaries were dissolved needs a closer look.

Clearly, the experience of bhakti was not the same for all women. The Alvar saint Andal
refused to marry anyone but Vishnu. Her poetry is filled with yearning for him and in
the Nachchiyar Tirumozhi she describes a vision of her marriage with him. Legend says
that she disappeared into the idol of Vishnu at Srirangam after having been married to
him. In contrast, the Nayanar saint Karaikkal Ammaiyar was originally the beautiful
Punitavati whose spiritual power so overwhelmed her husband that he left her to seek
another wife. Punitavati then called upon Shiva to take away her beauty so that she
could spend the rest of her life in his service; this wish is granted. From then on, she
dances like a pey, a demoness in the cremation grounds of Tiruvalangadu.

Thus, the bhaktins shaped their lives by adopting two different approaches to sexuality.
Karaikkal Ammaiyar negates her sexuality and is able to transcend it, while Andal
expresses her devotion in the form of ‘bridal mysticism’, disappearing into her chosen
Lord. But while Karaikkal Ammaiyar can continue religious life in the ordinary world,
Andal cannot return.

By denying the bonds of earthly marriage, the bhaktins tried to escape the confines of
patriarchy and Brahmanical religion. In seeking the love of God, they could spend their
lives absorbed in meditation, in a personal relationship that could not even be
considered within the domain of a ‘good wife’.

Yet the difference between women and men could not be completely resolved. The
bhaktins may have freed themselves from the social norms of behaviour, but they still
lived within the confines of their female body. The acceptance of women saints within
orthodox religion was also not an immediate process. Iconographic representations of
Karaikkal Ammaiyar do not appear until the 12th century. While the Tiruppavaiof Andal
is sung on festive occasions, especially marriages, her more erotic Nachchiyar
Tirumozhi is never sung within the temple context.

Although the bhakti movements made spiritual attainment possible for women, there is
an ambivalence towards the position of women saints and the spaces offered to women
were curtailed as time went by. While Andal and Karaikkal Ammaiyar attained
sainthood, the other women mentioned in the sources exist in marginal roles: as devout
mothers, sisters and wives who assist the bhaktas. As Vijaya Ramaswamy points out,
the Periya Puranam is filled with references to the bhaktas bartering, selling and making
use of their wives so as to further their devotion. Kaliyar Nayanar, for instance, tried to
sell his wife in the market so as to buy oil for the temple lamps!
Despite all this, women devotees seem to have made themselves a part of the bhakti
movement, following a call such as that contained in Andal’s Tiruppavai which tells
them that in the worship of Hari they will find only joy.

Bhakti and Indian Feudalism

The linkage between feudalism and bhakti was first advanced by D.D. Kosambi and
scholars have since expanded upon the theme. Bhakti with its ideas of subservience and
devotion was seen as an ideology to uphold the feudal social structure of the period.
Just as the feudal lord demanded service, loyalty and surrender from his vassal in
return for protection, just so was the bhakta tied to his God. R.N. Nandi, for instance,
argues that “faith in an absolute superior was in keeping with the loyalties demanded by
a feudal society.” The doctrine of divine condescension and total surrender represented
by bhakti, he argues, was advanced by the landholding priestly elite to provide a moral
justification for the exploitation and subjugation of the masses.

There are problems with such an understanding in the context of South Indian
bhakti. This linkage is not immediately evident upon reading the texts. To begin with,
while the bhaktas saw themselves as subservient to God, they also assumed a voice of
friendship, familiarity and love. The relationship was not one of divine condescension;
often they talked to God as father, friend or lover. Divine grace is not always shown in
terms of protection, but also involves the destruction of the ego and the deprivation of
the devotee’s material prosperity. There is thus an emotional and metaphysical
dimension to South Indian bhakti which cannot be ignored.

Concluding comments

In discussing the bhakti movement in south India, the following points are made clear
to us.

• The bhakti movements drew upon the earlier religious and literary traditions of
South India, but also transformed them.

• The poems of the Tamil saints are marked by an intense devotion and love of
God. The two streams of the movement were devoted to the worship of Vishnu
and Shiva, and their saints are called the Alvars and Nayanars respectively.

• Although women and lower caste groups used the bhakti movements to harness
spaces of expression otherwise denied to them, the bhakti movements did not
overturn existing hierarchies and became increasingly conservative with time.

• Yet we cannot deny the tremendous popularity of the Tamil saints among all sections of
society alike. The Alvars and Nayanars hymns continue to occupy a sacred space in the
cultural and social life of the Tamil people even today.