EHI - 02

8th Part

Block 9 (Unit 36)

Q. Discuss the factors responsible for the decline of trade in Post Gupta Period

A. Indian foreign trade reached its peak during the post-Mauryan period and trading declined both internal and external Post Gupta period. Some of the factors responsible for the decline were -

1) The decline of the Roman Empire had a devastating impact on trade with India. There is no evidence of Roman and other western coins excavated suggesting the complete collapse of trade with the west.

2) The emergence of the Arabs and the Persians as competitors in trade did not augur well for Indian merchants who couldn’t compete with them.

3) Silk and spices were important items in the Indo-Byzantine trade however by the middle of the sixth century A.D. the Byzantium learned the art of growing silkworms thus badly affecting the trade.

4) Unlike before the Gupta ties with Central Asia were weak and Whatever little remained of the contacts with Central Asia and Western Asia were completely wiped off by the Huna invasions severely affecting the trade. The decline of trade was just not limited to foreign trade. Long-distance internal trade too suffered owing to the weakening of links between coastal towns and the interior towns and further between towns and villages. The decay of towns and shrinkage in urban commodity production and the decline of trade were related problems. The decline of the status of traders and merchants in society during this period also indicates the falling fortunes of trade and commerce. The rise of numerous self-sufficient units dominated by landed beneficiaries also had an adverse effect on trade. In fact, the Kathasaritasagara, a later work, suggests that traders moved through forests to avoid the multiple payments of duties. Sea voyages and long-distance travel were taboo. Such attitudes surely did not promote the cause of trade.

Q. Discuss the major advances made in the field of agricultural technology

A. The detailed instructions about agriculture in texts like Agni Purana, Vishnudharmottara Purana, Krishiparasar, etc. prove the advancements in the field of agriculture. It is mentioned that cow dung and refuge were used for manuring the fields which are to improve the yield of the agricultural land. The Harshacharita tells us about different types of cultivation - plough cultivation, spade cultivation, and slash and bum cultivation, signifying different methods adopted by cultivators. Texts also suggested different methods employed for the treatment of plant and animal diseases. Inscriptions from Bengal mention rivers, rivulets, and channels in the context of rural settlements and their boundaries and we also come across the expression devamatrika (watered by rain7 suggesting the dependence of agriculture on rains and rivers. In South India tanks and reservoirs were built to irrigate the fields. During the rule of the Pallavas in South India, there were elected committees (eri-variyams) in the villages to look after the construction and maintenance of tanks and reservoirs. By the tenth century, araghattas or irrigational wells were in vogue in rural southeastern Marwar in Rajasthan.

Q. Discuss the main features of agrarian relations during the early medieval period.

A. Obligations of the Peasant - Land-grant charters during that period bestowed the beneficiary with superior rights over and above those of the inhabitants in the donated villages. The donee was entitled to collect all kinds of taxes. He could collect regular and irregular taxes and fixed and unfixed payments. This created a situation where the peasantry was subjected to an ever-increasing tax/rent burden. The Vakataka grants list fourteen types of dues. The Pallava records specify eighteen to twenty-two of them. By the turn of the first millennium A.D., the number of taxes increased enormously. The donees were empowered with the right to evict the

peasantry at will and to replace them with new peasants. From the seventh century onwards grants give away water resources, trees, bushes and pastures to the donee. The trend accelerated after the tenth century. The transfer of these resources to the donee not only affected the peasantry of the donated villages adversely but also

strengthened the power of the donees thus crushing the peasants.

Feudal Land Tenure - Landgrants led to hierarchical rights over land and sub-infeudation. The practice gave rise to a hierarchy of landlords, which lived off the surplus produced by the actual cultivators. The religious establishments in eastern India and the south with their enormous donations in the land, cash, livestock, etc. emerged as landed magnates who give it to their dependents which is further sub-leased to actual tillers. This created a class of peasantry that was overburdened with taxes and which was subsistent to a class of dominant landlords with superior rights inland.

Growth of Closed Economy - Early medieval Indian economy experienced the rise and growth of a number of rival settlements which were not linked to exchange networks and long-distance trade. Although the exchange networks did not entirely collapse, the transfer of settlements to various categories of donees had created a congenial atmosphere for the emergence of self-sustaining, closed units of production and consumption. The growing sense of localism and the self-sufficiency of the villages thus led to the growth of a closed economy.

Unit 37

Q. How far were the changes in the social order related to the changing economic patterns in the post-Gupta period.

A. The social changes in the Gupta and post-Gupta times can be related to economic changes. The major economic forces of the period were large scale Land grants, a decline of trade, commerce, & urban life; the paucity of money, agrarian expansion and growing agrarian character of society, and the emergence of relatively closed local units of production and consumption. On this basis evolved a social structure broadly characterized by a sizable ruling landed aristocracy, intermediaries and a large body of the impoverished peasantry. The unequal distribution of landed property and power led to the emergence of new social groups and ranks which cut across varna divisions like a brahmana, kshatriya, vaisya, and sudra. The other important changes in the social structure involved the emergence and proliferation of new castes, the hardening of caste relations and the acculturation of the most. The acculturation of tribes was not simply the result of the movement of Brahmanas into tribal areas as a result of land grants. This was caused by the emergence of local royal families in remote areas, and the Brahmanas were patronized mostly by these royal families with gifts of land, with employment at royal courts and other offers. This implies that when tribes lived there emerged a much more complex society in which social differentiation, represented by different

groups like peasants, Brahmanas, craftsmen, merchants, rulers, etc, were present.

Q. What do you understand by Varnasamskara.

A. Varnasamkara meant the inter-mixing and/or union of varnas/castes, normally not socially approved, leading to the emergence of mixed castes, which symbolized social disorder. With the substantial increase in the number of new castes greater rigidity was introduced into the caste system & inter-caste marriages came to be viewed with disfavor. Earlier, anuloma marriages or marriages between a bridegroom from an upper-caste & a bride from a lower caste were sanctioned. It was the pratiloma marriage (the reverse of anuloma) which was censured. However, increasingly anuloma marriages too were not favored.

Q. Discuss the changes in the Vaishya community with reference to their economic decline.

A. During the heyday of Indian foreign trade in the post-Mauryan times, the Vaisyas got identified with urban occupations and towns. In a predominantly agrarian setting of the post- Gupta period, the vaisya traders and merchants suffered economic loss and social degradation. Many of them crowded into agriculture to earn their living. According to evidence of texts, the lower strata of the Vaisyas who were free peasant landholders till the Gupta period were increasingly reduced to a state of dependence and subjection. The distinction between the Vaisyas and the Sudras got blurred as the differences in their occupations and standards of living faded away. Therefore, in writing of the later period, for example in the writings of Albiruni, both of them were bracketed together.

Q. Discuss the position of women during this period.

A. The position of women in society during this period was that of progressive decline. Marriage of women at an early age was common, pre-puberty marriage was being preferred. Formal education was denied to them and they were generally denied

property rights. The joint references to women and Sudras in contemporary literature such as the Brihatsamhita amply demonstrates the plight of women. They were debarred from various sacrifices & ceremonies. The practice of Sati (or

self-immolation by wife on the funeral pyre of her dead husband) gained social acceptance during this period. The change of women's gotra upon marriage can be dated to the period after the fifth century A.D. This constituted an important development because it marked the curtailment of their rights in their parental

home and symbolized the final triumph of the patriarchal system of a male-dominated society.

Q. The proliferation of castes was an important development in the Gupta and post-Gupta periods. Explain in 15 lines.

A. One important development which took place during this period was that the number of castes or jatis increased substantially. This development affected even the Brahmanas, the kshatriyas (and later the Rajputs), the Sudras and the untouchables as well. The existing varnas were split into many castes and many tribes that became transformed into castes were included in them. Differences within the varnas intensified as Brahmanical society expanded. Hierarchy emerged within each varna because of the acculturation and incorporation of various groups of people and communities at varying levels of cultural growth. Unequal access to economic and political power also helped the crystallization of caste distinctions

during this period. While a number of castes came to be incorporated within each varna, there are also examples of earlier cohesive communities breaking up into many varnas, jatis/castes. The Abhira tribe provides a good example as it fragmented

into Abhira Brahmanas, Abhira kshatriyas and Abhira sudras.

The Brahmanas

The number of castes that emerged among the Brahmanas was considerable. Brahmanas who "commercialized" their priestly services, those who came in contact with the aboriginals or those who could not entirely avoid physical labor stood degraded in the eyes of the srotriya agrahara Brahmanas, who did not engage in

manual labor. Thus there is the formation of different ranks within the brahmana varna. The same process was true also of the Kayastha.

The Kshatriyas

Among the kshatriyas, the proliferation of caste was caused by the emergence of new ruling houses from among the local tribes and the incorporation of foreign ethnic groups, wielding political power, into the mainstream of society. Among the foreign ethnic groups, the Bactrian Greeks, Sakas, Parthians, Hunas, etc. were accommodated in the varna system as second class kshatriya. Many ruling dynasties in the post-Gupta period emerged from humble origins and subsequently graduated to kshatriya status. The Pallavas and Chalukyas of peninsular India, Palas of Bengal and

Bihar and many sub-regional dynasties in Orissa had tribal origins. In the subsequent centuries, most Rajputs emerged from a tribal and/or pastoral base.

The Sudras

Endogamous groups coming from various communities and regions vastly expanded the base of the sudra varna. Petty peasant castes, rich peasants. share-croppers and artisanal castes, with unequal access to economic power, were included in the sudra varna in Gupta and post-Gupta times. Thus, sudra varna included widely disparate groups and came to comprise the largest number of castes. Tribes became castes as a consequence of their gradual transformation as peasants and these peasant groups were incorporated into the Brahmanic society as Sudras. This is how the number of people in Sudra Varna increased tremendously.

Unit 38

Q. Discuss the main differences between the Mauryan polity & the polity during 300 A.D. - 700 A.D.

A. When compared to the Mauryan polity the King's government during this period did not possess effective powers and control throughout its territory. In the outlying areas, the feudatory chiefs or Samanta had their administrative jurisdiction & their recognition of the King's authority was only nominal. The Mauryan gov't had

a large number of higher officials to control each and every social and economic activity in the major part of the empire. This was not so in the case of the Gupta empire or other contemporary polities, where many things were outside the state control. For example, while craft and merchant guilds were kept under strict government vigilance in the Mauryan state, they were more or less autonomous in the Gupta age. Even the laws pertaining to each guild were given due recognition in the latter case. Such fragmentation of Kingly powers during this period is to be attributed to certain major changes emerging in the socio-economic organization. Another feature, unlike the Mauryan period, was the emergence of feudalism in the country during the Gupta period. By granting land to priests and officials for their maintenance, generally, the King not only gave the land but also parted with some of his administrative rights like taxing the people, punishing the criminals, etc. The granted territories were also given immunity from the entry of the King's army. Naturally, the grantees of such lands became almost independent of the King and became Samanthas themselves. Thus Gupta period onward the political organization which developed in India represented a feudal-type of political organization.

Q. Write in about five lines the role of Samanthas in the polity.

A. Semi-independent local chiefs called Samanta led to the decentralized polity in the Gupta empire. Samudragupta conquered & subjugated a number of territories. Some of the rulers of these territories which were on the fringes of the Gupta empire were made subordinate allies of the King. They became feudatories, of the Gupta King paying periodical tribute to the latter. They were obliged to pay homage to the King by personally attending his court. The King, in turn, recognized their right to continue to rule over their own territories and for this he also gave them charters.

These subordinate rulers were also obliged to send their men to fight in the King's army during times of war. Subject to the above obligations the feudatories or Samantha's were left to look after the administration of their territories thus leading to decentralization of power.

Unit 39

Q. In what ways did the Bhakti Movement in the South differ from Brahmanism.

A. Unlike the Brahmanas who propagated Hinduism through esoteric theories and the use of Sanskrit, the hymnal saints sang in easily understood forms using only the popular language, Tamil. Their Bhakti was not a reverence for a transcendent deity, but ecstatic love for an imminent one. Whereas the Brahmanas were obsessed with caste regulations, the Bhakti movement not only ignored caste but also including men and women of all castes. Among the Nayanmar 'Karaikkal, Ammai was a woman and Nandanar was a member of the depressed class. Among the Alvars, Andal was a woman and Tiruppan was a hymnist from a "low caste". Thus the whole movement carried elements of protest and reform. The Bhakti cult emerged out of the various religious cults and became very strong in South India. It ignored caste regulations and women had a higher status in the Bhakti movement when compared to Brahmanism.

Q. Discuss the main features of Tantrism.

A. In the Tantric practices of the early medieval period, there were three important features, all of them interconnected. They are a higher status given to women, sexual rituals, and the presence of many female deities. Women enjoyed a higher status in all the tribal belts, unlike Sanskrit texts where they were bracketed with Shudras Similarly, among the primitive people in India and outside, sexual rites formed an important part of their religious rites. It was believed by the tribals that such rites promoted the fertility of the earth. The reason for the importance of female deities in Tantrism is that in all the tribal belts the cult of the mother goddesses was widely prevalent. The priests of Tantrism challenged the exclusive

rites of the Brahmanas. Tantrism served an important social purpose by generally providing for the initiation of lower castes and women, who were held to be of inferior status by the Brahmanical system.

Q. Discuss the relationship of Tantrism with other heterodox religions

A. Early Buddhism and Jainism tried their best to check the infiltration of these Tantric practices into their cults. In the earliest phase of their history, Buddhism and Jainism launched a systematic campaign against the cult of image worship, rituals and sacrifices as destructive of all morals. Slowly tantrism penetrated the two

religions. Mahayanism, a major development of Buddhism adopted image worship during the Kushana period. Mahayanism is said to have developed into Mantrayanism or Vajrayanism in the Andhra region by adopting Tantric practices. Many Tanmc texts emerged since the third century A.D. from Andhra and Kalinga and spread to Vanga and Magadha where Nalanda developed as a center of Tantric study in the reign of the Palas. In the early medieval age, Tantrism infiltrated into Jainism on a significant scale. As a result, Jainism developed a pantheon of Yakshas and Yakshis (the attendant demi-gods and goddesses of the Tirthankaras) together

with a number of mantras (magical formulae) to propitiate them. Many Jaina Tantric texts, which incorporated elements of magic and miracle, glorified the cult of Yakshis. The Yapaniya sect of the Jainas was the foremost in propagating Tantric mode of worship in early medieval Karnataka.