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The European scholars who reconstructed early Indian history in the 19th century regarded it as essentially static and Indian society as concerned only with things spiritual. Indologists, such as the German Max Müller, relied heavily on the Sanskritic tradition and saw Indian society as an idyllic village culture emphasizing qualities of passivity, meditation, and otherworldliness. In sharp contrast was the approach of the
Scottish historian James Mill and the
Utilitarians, who condemned Indian culture as irrational and inimical to human progress. Mill first formulated a periodization of Indian history into Hindu, Muslim, and British periods, a scheme that, while still commonly used, is now controversial. During the 19th century, direct contact with Indian institutions through administration, together with the utilization of new evidence from recently deciphered inscriptions, numismatics, and local archives, provided fresh insights. Nationalist Indian historians of the early 20th century tended to exaggerate the glory of the past but nevertheless introduced controversy into historical interpretation, which in turn resulted in more precise studies of Indian institutions. In more recent
times, historians have reconstructed in greater detail the social, economic, and cultural history of the
subcontinent—though politics has continued to influence the study of Indian history.
A major change in the interpretation of Indian history has been a questioning of an older notion of Oriental despotism as the determining force. Arising out of a traditional European perspective on Asia, this image of despotism grew to vast proportions in the 19th century and provided an intellectual justification for colonialism and imperialism. Its deterministic assumptions clouded the understanding of early interrelationships among Indian political forms, economic patterns, and social structures.
A considerable change is noticeable during this period in the role of institutions. Clan-based societies had assemblies, whose political role changed with the transformation of tribe into state and with oligarchic and monarchical governments. Centralized imperialism, which was attempted
under the Mauryan
empire (c. 325–185
BCE), gave way gradually to decentralized administration and to what has been called a feudalistic pattern in the
period—i.e., from the 7th century
CE. Although the village as an administrative and social unit remained constant, its relationship with the mainstream of history varied. The concept of divine kingship was known but rarely taken seriously, the claim to the status of the caste of royalty becoming more important. Because conformity to the social order had precedence over allegiance to the state, the idea of representation found expression not so much in political institutions as in caste and village assemblies. The pendulum of politics swung from large to small kingdoms, with the former attempting to establish empires—the sole successful attempt being that of the Mauryan dynasty. Thus, true centralization was rare, because local forces often determined historical events. Although imperial or near-imperial periods were marked by attempts at the evolution of uniform cultures, the periods of smaller kingdoms (often referred to as the Dark Ages by earlier historians) were more creative at the local level and witnessed significant changes in society and religion.
These small kingdoms
also often boasted the most elaborate and impressive monuments.
The major economic patterns were those relating to land and to commerce. The transition from tribal to peasant society was a continuing process, with the gradual clearing of wasteland and the expansion of the village economy based on plow agriculture. Recognition of the importance of land revenue coincided with the emergence of the imperial system in the 4th century
BCE; and from this period onward, although the imperial structure did not last long, land revenue became central to the administration and income of the state. Frequent mentions of individual ownership, references to crown lands, numerous land grants to religious and secular grantees in the
period, and detailed discussion in legal sources of the rights of purchase, bequest, and sale of land all clearly indicate that private ownership of land existed. Much emphasis has been laid on the state control of the irrigation system; yet a systematic study of irrigation in India reveals that it was generally privately controlled and that it serviced small areas of land. (See hydraulic civilization.) When the state built canals, they were mainly in the areas
affected by both the winter and summer monsoons
, in which village assemblies played a dominant part in revenue and general administration, as, for example, in the
Cola (Chola) kingdom of
southern India.
The urban economy was crucial to the rise of civilization in the Indus
valley (c. 2600–2000
BCE). Later
the 1st millennium
BCE saw an urban civilization in the Ganges
(Ganga) valley and still later in coastal
south India. The emergence of towns was based on administrative needs, the requirements of trade, and pilgrimage centres. In the 1st millennium
CE, when commerce expanded to include trade with western Asia, the eastern Mediterranean, and Central and Southeast Asia, revenue from trade contributed substantially to the economies of the participating kingdoms, as indeed Indian religion and culture played a significant part in the cultural evolution of Central and Southeast Asia. Gold coins were issued for the first time by the
Kushan dynasty and in large quantity by the Guptas; both kingdoms were active in foreign trade. Gold was imported from Central Asia and
the Roman Republic and Empire and later perhaps from eastern Africa because, in spite of India's recurring association with gold, its sources were limited. Expanding trade encouraged the opening up of new routes, and this, coupled with the expanding village economy, led to a marked increase of knowledge about the subcontinent during the
period. With increasing trade, guilds became more powerful in the towns. Members of the guilds participated in the administration, were associated with politics, and controlled the development of trade through merchant embassies sent to places as far afield as Rome and China. Not least, guilds and merchant associations held envied and respectable positions as donors of religious institutions.
The structure of Indian society was characterized by caste. The distinguishing features of a caste society were endogamous kinship groups (
jatis) arranged in a hierarchy of ritual ranking, based on notions of pollution and purity, with an intermeshing of service relationships and an adherence to geographic location. There was some coincidence between caste and access to economic resources. Although ritual hierarchy was unchanging, there appears to have been mobility within the framework. Migrations of peoples both within the subcontinent and from outside encouraged social mobility and change. The nucleus of the social structure was the family, with the pattern of kinship relations varying from region to region. In the more complex urban structure, occupational guilds occasionally took on
jati functions, and there was a continual emergence of new social and professional groups.
Religion in early Indian history did not constitute a monolithic force. Even when the royalty attempted to encourage certain religions, the idea of a state religion was absent. In the main, there were three levels of religious expression. The most widespread was the worship of local cult deities vaguely associated with major deities, as seen in fertility cults, in the worship of mother goddesses, in the
Shakti cult, and in Tantrism. (See Shaktism.) Less widespread but popular, particularly in the urban areas, were the more puritanical sects of Buddhism and Jainism and the bhakti tradition of Hinduism. A third level included classical Hinduism and more abstract levels of Buddhism and Jainism, with an emphasis on the major deities in the case of the first and on the teachings of the founders in the case of the latter two. It was this level, endorsed by affluent patronage, that provided the base for the initial institutionalization of religion. But the three levels were not isolated; the shadow of the third fell over the first two, the more homely rituals and beliefs of which often crept into the third. This was the case particularly with Hinduism, the very flexibility of which was largely responsible for its survival. Forms of Buddhism, ranging from an emphasis on the constant refinement of doctrine
on the one hand
to an incorporation of magical fertility cults in its beliefs
on the other, faded out toward the end of this period.
Sanskrit literature and the building of Hindu and Buddhist temples and sculpture both reached apogees in this period. Although literary works in the Sanskrit language continued to be written and temples were built in later periods, the achievement was never again as inspiring.
By about 1500 BC BCE an important change began to occur in the northern half of the Indian subcontinent. The Indus Civilization civilization had declined by about 2000 BC BCE (or perhaps as late as 1750 BC BCE), and the stage was being set for a second and more lasting urbanization in the Ganges Valleyvalley. The new areas of occupation were contiguous with , but seldom identical to, and sometimes overlapping the core of the Harappan area. There was continuity of occupation in the Punjab and GujarātGujarat, and a new thrust toward urbanization came from the migration of peoples from the Punjab into the Ganges Valleyvalley.
In addition to the archaeological legacy discussed above, there remains from this period the earliest literary record of Indian culture, the Vedas. Composed in archaic, or Vedic, Sanskrit, generally dated between 1500 and 800 BC BCE, and transmitted orally, the Vedas comprise four major texts—the Rig- (Ṛg-), Sāma, the Sama-, the Yajur-, and Atharvavedasthe Atharvaveda. Of these, the Rigveda is believed to be the earliest. The texts consist of hymns, charms, spells, and ritual observations current among the Indo-European-speaking people known as Aryans (from the Sanskrit ārya arya, "noble"), who presumably entered India from the Iranian regions.
Theories concerning the origins of the Aryans, whose language is also called Aryan, relate to the question of what has been called the Indo-European homeland. In the 17th and 18th centuries AD CE, European scholars who first studied Sanskrit were struck by the similarity in its syntax and vocabulary to Greek and Latin. This resulted in the theory that there had been a common ancestry for these and other related languages, which came to be called the Indo-European group of languages. This , in turn , resulted in the notion that the Indo-European-speaking people peoples had had a common homeland from which they had migrated to various parts of Asia and Europe. The theory stirred unlimited intense speculation, which continues todayto the present day, regarding the original homeland and the date period or periods of the dispersal from it. The study of Vedic India is still beset by "the Aryan problem," which often clouds the genuine search for historical insight into this period.
That there was a migration of Indo-European speakers, possibly in waves, dating from the 2nd millennium BC BCE, is clear from archaeological and epigraphic evidence in western Asia. Mesopotamia witnessed the arrival , in about 1760 BC, BCE of the Kassites, who introduced the horse and the chariot and bore Indo-European names. A treaty from about 1400 BC BCE between the Hittites, who had arrived in Anatolia at about the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC BCE, and the Mitanni empire invoked four several deities—Indara, Uruvna, Mitira, and the Nāsatyas Nasatyas (names that occur in the Rigveda as Indra, VaruṇaVaruna, Mitra, and the AśvinsAshvins). An inscription at BoYazköy Bogazköy in Anatolia of about the same date contains Indo-European technical terms pertaining to the training of horses, which suggests cultural origins in Central Asia or the southern Russian steppes. Clay tablets dating to about 1400 BC BCE, written at Tell Elel-Amarna (in Upper Egypt) in Akkadian cuneiform, mention names of princes that are also Indo-European.
Nearer India, the Iranian Plateau plateau was subject to a similar migration. Comparison of Iranian Aryan literature with the Vedas reveals striking correspondences. Possibly a branch of the Iranian Aryans migrated to northern India and settled in the Sapta Sindhu region, extending from the Kābul River in the north to the Sarasvatī and Upper Ganges-Yamuna Sarasvati and upper Ganges–Yamuna Doab in the south. The SarasvatīSarasvati, the sacred river at the time, is thought to have dried up during the later Vedic Periodperiod. Conceived as a goddess (see Sarasvati), it was personified in later Hinduism as the inventor of spoken and written Sanskrit and the consort of BrahmāBrahma, promulgator of the Vedas. It was in the Sapta Sindhu region that the majority of the hymns of the Rigveda were composed.
The Rigveda is divided into 10 maṇḍala mandalas (books), of which the 10th is believed to be somewhat later than the others. Each maṇḍala mandala consists of a number of hymns, and most maṇḍala mandalas are ascribed to priestly families. The texts include invocations to the gods, ritual hymns, battle hymns, and narrative dialogues. The 9th maṇḍala mandala is a collection of all the hymns dedicated to soma, the unidentified hallucinogenic juice that was drunk on ritual occasions.
Few events of political importance are related in the hymns. Perhaps the most impressive is a description of the battle of the 10 chiefs or kings: when SudāsSudas, the king of the preeminent Bharatas of southern Punjab, replaced his priest Viśvāmitra Vishvamitra with VasiṣṭhaVasishtha, Viśvāmitra Vishvamitra organized a confederacy of 10 tribes, including the PūruPuru, Yadu, TurvaśasTurvashas, Anu, and Druhyu, which went to war against SudāsSudas. The Bharatas survived and continued to play an important role in historical tradition. In the Rigveda , the head of a clan is called the rājā raja; this term commonly has commonly been translated as "king," but more recent scholarship suggests has suggested "chief" as more appropriate in this early context. If such a distinction is recognized, the entire corpus of Vedic literature can be interpreted as recording the gradual evolution of the concept of kingship from earlier clan organization. Among the clans there is little distinction between Aryan and non-Aryan, but the hymns refer to a people, called the dāsa dasyus, who are said to have had an alien language and a dark complexion and to worship strange gods. Some dāsa dasyus were rich in cattle and lived in fortified places (purpuras) that were often attacked by the god Indra. In addition to the dāsa dasyus, there were the wealthy PaṇisPanis, who were hostile and stole cattle.
The Early early Vedic was the period of transition from nomadic pastoralism to settled village communities intermixing pastoral and agrarian economies. Cattle were initially the dominant commodity, as indicated by the use of the word words gotra ("cowpen") to signify the endogamous kinship group and gaviṣṭi gavishti ("searching for cows") to denote war. A patriarchal extended family structure gave rise to the practice of niyoga ("levirate"levirate), which permitted a widow to marry her husband's brother. A community of families constituted a grāma grama. The term viś vish is generally interpreted to mean "clan." Clan assemblies appear to have been frequent in the early stages. Various categories of assemblies are mentioned, such as vidatha, samiti, and sabhā sabha, although the precise distinctions among between these categories are not clear. The clan also gathered for the yājña yajna, the Vedic sacrifice conducted by the priest, whose ritual actions ensured prosperity and imbued the chief with valour. The chief was primarily a war leader with responsibility for protecting the clan, for which function he received a bali ("tribute"). Punishment was exacted according to a principle resembling the wergild ("man payment") of ancient Germanic law, whereby the social rank of a wronged or slain man determined the compensation due him or his survivors.
The principal literary sources from this period are the SāmaSama-, the Yajur-, and the Atharvaveda (mainly ritual texts), the Brāhmaṇas Brahmanas (manuals on ritual), and the Upanishads (UpaniṣadsUpanisads) and Āraṇyakas Aranyakas (collections of philosophical and metaphysical discourses). Associated with the corpus are the sūtra sutra texts, largely explanatory aids to the other works, comprising manuals on sacrifices and ceremonies, domestic observances, and social and legal relations. Because the texts were continually revised, they cannot be dated accurately to the early period. The Dharma-sūtrasutra texts of this period became the nuclei of the sociolegal socio-legal Dharma-śāstras shastras of later centuries.
Historians formerly assigned the two major Indian epics, the Mahābhārata Mahabharata and the Rāmāyaṇa Ramayana, to this period, but subsequent scholarship has rendered these dates less certain. Both works are mixtures of the historical and the legendary, both were rewritten and edited, both suffered from frequent interpolations even as late as the early centuries AD CE, and both were later converted into sacred literature with the deification of their heroes. Consequently, important as they are to the literary and religious tradition, they are not easily identified with a historical period. The central event of the Mahābhārata Mahabharata, whose geographic setting is the Upper Ganges-Yamuna upper Ganges–Yamuna Doab and adjoining areas, is a war between two groups of cousins—the Kauravas and the PāṇḍavasPandavas. Though the traditional date for the war is about 3102 BC BCE, most historians would prefer a later one. The events of the Rāmāyaṇa Ramayana relate to the middle Ganges Valley valley and central India, with later interpolations extending the area southward.
The geographic focus of the later Vedic corpus moves from the Sapta Sindhu region into the Ganges-Yamuna Ganges–Yamuna Doab and the territories on its fringe. The areas within this land of the ārya aryas, called ĀryāvartaAryavarta, were named for the ruling clans, and the area encompassed within Aryavarta gradually expanded eastward. By the end of the period, clan identity had changed gradually to territorial identity, and the areas of settlement came eventually to form states. The people beyond the Āryāvarta Aryavarta were termed the mlecchas (or mlechchhas), the impure barbarians unfamiliar with the speech and customs of the ārya aryas.
The literature is replete with the names of clans. The most powerful among them, commanding the greatest respect, was the Kuru-PañcālaPancala, which incorporated the two families of Kuru and Pūru Puru (and the earlier Bharatas) and of which the Pañcāla Pancala was a confederation of lesser-known tribes. They occupied the Upper upper Ganges–Yamuna Doab and the Kurukṣetra Kurukshetra region. In the north the KāmbojaKamboja, GandhāraGandhara, and Madra groups predominated. In the middle Ganges Valley valley the neighbours and rivals of the Kuru-Pañcālas Pancalas were the KāśīKashi, KośalaKoshala, and Videha, who worked in close cooperation with each other. The Magadha, AṅgaAnga, and Vaṅga Vanga peoples in the lower Ganges Valley valley and delta were (in that period) still outside the Aryan pale and regarded as mlecchas. Magadha (Patna and Gaya districts of BihārBihar) is also associated with the vrātya vratya people, who occupied an ambiguous position between the ārya aryas and mlecchas. Other mleccha tribes frequently mentioned include the Sātvants Satvants of the Chambal River valley and, in the Vindhyan and northern Deccan region, the ĀndhraAndhra, Vidarbha, NiṣādhaNishadha, Pulinda, and ŚabaraShabara. The location of all these tribes is of considerable historical interest, because they gave their names to the enduring geographic arearegions.
By the 5th century BC BCE, clan identity had changed to territorial identity, and the areas of settlement changed from chiefdoms to kingdoms in some cases. The state was emerging as a new feature. Assemblies such as the sabhā sabha and pariṣad parishad continued as political institutions into later periods. The larger assemblies declined. Rudimentary notions of taxation were the genesis of administration, as were the ratnins ("jewels"), consisting of representatives of various professions advising the chief. A major transformation occurred in the notion of kingship, which ceased to be merely an office of a war leader; territorial identity provided it with power and status, symbolized by a series of lengthy and elaborate ceremonies—the abhiṣekha abhishekha, generally followed by major sacrificial rituals, such as the aśvamedha ashvamedha. This ceremony was a famous horse sacrifice, in which a specially selected horse was permitted to wander at will, tracked by a body of soldiers; the area through which the horse wandered unchallenged was claimed by the chief or king conducting the sacrifice. Thus, theoretically at least, only those with considerable power could perform this sacrifice. Such major sacrificial rituals involved a large amount of wealth and a hierarchy of priests. The ceremonies lasted many days and involved a reciprocal economy of gift exchange between the chief and the priest, by which the latter received wealth in kind and the former established status, prosperity, and proximity to the gods.
The conspicuous display and consumption of these ceremonies has have elicited comparison with the potlatch of the Kwakiutl and related North American Indian indigenous peoples. The assumption of such sacrifices was that the clan had settled in a particular area, marking the end of nomadism. This led eventually to the claim of ownership by kings of the wastelands, although a ruler's right to collect taxes was viewed not as a consequence of his ownership of wasteland but as his wage for protecting society. The new trends emphasized the importance of the priests and the aristocracy (Brahmans and KṣatriyasKshatriyas), who were the mainstay of kingship. The introduction, through royal sacrifices, of notions of divinity in kingship further strengthened the role of the priests. This was also the period in which kingship became hereditary.
The technology of iron, or kṛṣṇa āyas krishna ayas ("dark metal"), as it was apparently called in later Vedic literature, and the migration into the Ganges Valley had valley helped in the stabilization of stabilizing agriculture and of settlements. Some of these settlements along the rivers evolved into towns, essentially as administrative and craft centres. By the middle of the mid-1st millennium BC, BCE the second urbanization—this time in the Ganges Valley—had begunvalley—was under way.
The development with the most far-reaching consequences for Indian culture is the structure of society that has come to be called caste. A hymn in the Rigveda contains a description of the primeval sacrifice and refers to the emergence of four groups from the body of the god Prajāpati—the Prajapati—the Brahmans (Brāhmaṇas), Kshatriyas (Kṣatriyas (Kshatriyas), Vaishyas (Vaiśyas (Vaishyas), and Sudras (Śūdras (Shudras). This is clearly a mythologized attempt to describe the origin of the four varṇa varnas, which came to be regarded as the four major castes of classes in Indian society.
The etymology of each is of interest: Brahman is one who possesses magical or divine knowledge (brahmabrahman); Kṣatriya Kshatriya is he who is endowed with power or sovereignty (kṣatra); and VaiśyaVaishya, derived from viś (vish, "settlement"), was is a person settled on the land or a member of the clan. The derivation of the term ŚūdraSudra, however, denoting a member of the group born to serve the upper three varṇa varnas, is not clear, which may suggest that it was is a non-Aryan word. In addition to varṇa varna there are references to jāti jati (birth), which gradually came to acquire a close association with caste and appears to mean the endogamous kinship group.
In the course of time the Brahmans became the preeminent priestly group, the intermediaries with the gods at the sacrificial rituals, and the recipients of large donations for priestly functions; in the process they acquired a number of privileges, such as exemption from taxes and inviolability. The KṣatriyasKshatriyas, who were to become the landowning families, assumed the role of military leaders and of the natural aristocracy having connections with royalty. The Vaiśyas Vaishyas were more subservient, and, although their status was not as inferior as that of the ŚūdrasSudras, they appear to have been crucial to the economy. The traditional view of the Śūdras Sudras is that they were non-Aryan cultivators , who came under the domination of the Aryans and in many cases were enslaved and therefore had to serve the upper three castesgroups. But not all references to the Śūdras Sudras are to slaves. Sometimes rich Śūdras wealthy Sudras are mentioned, and in later centuries some of them even became kings.
The traditional view that varṇa reflected varna reflects the organization of Indian society has recently been questioned; it has been suggested that the rules of varṇa varna conform to a normative or presumptive model, and that the concept of jāti jati is more central to caste functioning. This view is strengthened by the fact that the non-Brahmanical literature of later periods does not always conform to the picture of caste society depicted in the Dharma-śāstrasshastras.
For this phase of Indian history a variety of historical sources are available. The Buddhist canon, pertaining to the period of the Buddha (c. 6th–5th century BC BCE) and later, is invaluable as a cross-reference for the Brahmanic sources. This also is true, though to a more limited extent, of Jaina Jain sources. In the 4th century BC BCE there are secular writings on political economy and accounts of foreign travelers. The most important sources, however, are inscriptions of the 3rd century BC. BCE. (See Buddhism; Jainism.)
Buddhist writings and other sources from the beginning of this period mention 16 major states (mahājanapadamahajanapada) dominating the northern part of the subcontinent. A few of these, such as GandhāraGandhara, KāmbojaKamboja, Kuru-PañcālaPancala, Matsya, KāśīKashi, and KośalaKoshala, continued from the earlier period and are mentioned in Vedic literature. The rest were new states, either freshly created from declining older ones or new areas coming into importance, such as ĀvantiAvanti, AśvakaAshvaka, ŚūrasenaShurasena, Vatsa, Cedi, Malla, VṛjjiVrijji, Magadha, and AṅgaAnga. The mention of so many new states in the eastern Ganges Valley valley is attributable in part to the eastern focus of the sources and is partly the antecedent to the increasing preeminence of the eastern regions. (See map, India c. 500 BC.)
Gandhara lay astride the Indus and included the districts of Peshāwar Peshawar and the lower Swāt Swat and Kābul valleys. For a while its independence was terminated by its inclusion as one of the 22 satrapies of the Achaemenian Empire of Persia (c. 519 BC BCE). Its major role as the channel of communication with Iran and Central Asia continued, as did its trade in woolen goods. Kāmboja adjoined GandhāraKamboja adjoined Gandhara in the northwest. Originally regarded as a land of Aryan speakers, Kāmboja Kamboja soon lost its important status, ostensibly because its people did not follow the sacred Brahmanic rites—a situation that was to occur extensively in the north as the result of the intermixing of peoples and cultures through migration and trade. Kāmboja Kamboja became a trading centre for horses imported from Central Asia.
The Kekayas, Madras, and ŪṣīnārasUshinaras, who had settled in the region between Gandhāra Gandhara and the Beās Beas River, were described as descendants of the Anu tribe. The Matsyas occupied an area to the southwest of present-day Delhi. The Kuru-PañcālaPancala, still dominant in the Ganges-Yamuna Ganges–Yamuna Doab area, were extending their control southward and eastward; the Kuru capital had reportedly been moved from Hastināpura Hastinapura to Kauśāmbī Kaushambi when the former was devastated by a great flood, which excavations show to have occurred about the 9th century BC BCE. The Mallas lived in eastern Uttar Pradesh. Āvanti Avanti arose in the Ujjain-Narmada Valley valley region, with its capital at MahiṣmatīMahishmati; during the reign of King Pradyota, there was a matrimonial alliance with the royal family at KauśāmbīKaushambi. Śūrasena Shurasena had its capital at MathurāMathura, and the tribe claimed descent from the Yadu clan. A reference to the Sourasenoi in later Greek writings is often identified with the Śūrasena, Shurasena and the city of Methora with MathurāMathura. The Vatsa state emerged from KauśāmbīKaushambi. The Cedi state (in Bundelkhand) lay on the a major route to the Deccan. South of the Vindhyas, on the Godāvari Godavari River, Aśvaka Ashvaka continued to thrive.
The mid-Ganges Valley valley was dominated by Kāśī Kashi and KośalaKoshala. Kāśī Kashi maintained close affiliations with its eastern neighbours, and its capital was later to acquire renown as the sacred city of Vārānasi Varanasi (Benares). Kāśī Kashi and Kośala Koshala were continually at war over the control of the Ganges; in the course of the conflict, Kośala Koshala extended its frontiers far to the north and the south, ultimately coming to comprise Uttar (northern) and Dakṣina Dakshina (southern) KośalaKoshala. The new states of Magadha (Patna and Gaya districts) and Aṅga Anga (north northwest of the delta) were also interested in controlling the river and soon made their presence felt. The conflict eventually drew in the Vṛjji Vrijji state (Besar Behar and Muzaffarpur districtdistricts). For a while, Videha (modern Tirhut), with its capital at MithilāMithila, also remained powerful. References to the states of the northern Deccan appear to repeat statements from sources of the earlier period, suggesting that there had been little further exchange between the regions.
The political system in these states was either monarchical or a type of representative government that variously has been called republican or oligarchic. The fact that representation in these latter states' assemblies was limited to members of the ruling clan makes the term oligarchy, or even chiefdom, preferable. Sometimes within the state itself there was a gradual change from monarchy to oligarchy, as in the case of VaiśālīVaishali, the nucleus of the Vṛjji Vrijji state. Apart from the major states, there also were many smaller oligarchies, such as those of the Koliyas, Moriyas, JñātṛkasJnatrikas, ŚākyasShakyas, and Licchavis. The Jñātṛkas Jnatrikas and Śākyas Shakyas are especially remembered as the tribes to which Mahāvīra Mahavira (the founder of Jainism) and Gautama Buddha, respectively, belonged. The Licchavis eventually became extremely powerful.
The oligarchies comprised either a single clan or a confederacy of clans. The elected chief or the president (gaṇapati, gaṇarājyaganapati or ganarajya) functioned with the assistance of a council of elders probably selected from the Kṣatriya Kshatriya families. The most important institution was the sovereign general assembly, or pariṣad parishad, to the meetings of which members were summoned by kettledrum. Precise rules governed the seating arrangement, the agenda, and the order of speaking and debate that , which terminated in a decision. A distinction was maintained between the families represented and the others. The broad authority of the pariṣad parishad included the election of important functionaries. An occasional lapse into hereditary office on the part of the chief may account for the tendency toward monarchy among these states. The divisiveness of factions was a constant threat to the political system.
The institutional development within these oligarchies suggests a stabilized agrarian economy. Sources mention wealthy householders (gahapatis) employing slaves and hired labourers to work on their lands. The existence of gahapatis suggests the breaking up of clan ownership of land and the emergence of individual holdings. An increase in urban settlements and trade is evident not only from references in the literary sources but also from the introduction of two characteristics of urban civilization—a script and coinage. Evidence for the script dates at least to the 3rd century BCE. The most widely used script was BrāhmīBrahmi, which is germane to most Indian scripts used subsequently. A variant during this period was KharoṣṭīKharoshti, used only in northwestern India and derived from the Aramaic of western Asia. The most commonly spoken languages were PrākritPrakrit, which had its local variations in Śaurasenī Shauraseni (from which Pāli Pali evolved), and MāgadhīMagadhi, in which the Buddha preached. Sanskrit, the more cultured language as compared with PrākritPrakrit, was favoured by the educated elite. Pāṇini's Panini's grammar, the Aṣṭādhyāyī Astadhyayi, and Yāska's Yaska's etymological work, the Nirukta, suggest considerable sophistication in the development of Sanskrit.
Silver bent bar coins and silver and copper punch-marked coins came into use in the 5th century BC BCE. It is not clear whether the coins were issued by a political authority or were the legal tender of moneyers. The gradual spread in the same period of a characteristic type of luxury ware, which has come to be known as the northern black polished ware, is an indicator of expanding trade. One main trade route followed the Ganges River and crossed the Indo-Gangetic watershed and the Punjab to Taxila and beyond. Another extended from the Ganges Valley valley via Ujjain and the Narmada valley to the western coast or, alternatively, southward to the Deccan. The route to the Ganges delta became more popular, increasing maritime contact with ports on the eastern coast of India. The expansion of trade and consequently of towns resulted in an increase in the number of artisans and merchants; some eventually formed guilds (śreṇishrenis), each of which tended to inhabit a particular part of a town. The guild system encouraged specialization of labour and the hereditary principle in professions, which was also a characteristic of caste functioning. Gradually some of the guilds acquired caste status. The practice of usury encouraged the activity of financiers, some of whom formed their own guilds and found that investment in trade proved increasingly lucrative. The changed economy is evident in the growth of cities and of an urban culture in which such distinctions as pura (walled settlement), durga (fortified town), nigama (market centre), nagara (town), and mahānagara mahanagara (city) became increasingly important.
These The changing features of social and economic life were linked to religious and intellectual changes. Orthodox traditions maintained in certain sections of Vedic literature were questioned by teachers referred to in the Upanishads and Āraṇyakas Aranyakas and by others whose speculations and philosophy are recorded in other texts. There was a sizable heterodox tradition current in the 6th century BC BCE, and speculation ranged from idealism to materialism. The Ājīvikas Ajivikas and the CārvākasCarvakas, among the smaller sects, were popular for a time, as were the materialist theories of the Buddha's contemporary , Ajīta KeśakambalinAjita Keshakambalin. Even though such sects did not sustain an independent religious tradition, the undercurrent of their teachings cropped up time and again in the later religious trends that emerged in India.
Of all these sects, only two, Jainism and Buddhism, acquired the status of major religions. The former remained within the Indian subcontinent; the latter spread to Central Asia, China, Korea, Japan, and Southeast Asia. Both religions were founded in the 6th–5th centuries BCcentury BCE; Mahāvīra Mahavira gave shape to earlier ideas of the Nirgranthas (an earlier name for the JainasJains) and formulated Jainism (the teachings of the Jina, or Conqueror, MahāvīraMahavira), and the Buddha (the Enlightened One) preached a new doctrine.
There were a number of similarities among these two sects. Religious rituals were essentially congregational. Monastic orders (the saṅgha sangha) were introduced with monasteries organized on democratic lines and initially accepting persons from all strata of life. Such monasteries were dependent on their neighbourhoods for material support. Some of the monasteries developed into centres of education. The functioning of monks in society was greater, however, among the Buddhist orders. Wandering monks, preaching and seeking alms, gave the religions a missionary flavour. The recruitment of nuns signified a special concern for the status of women. Both religions questioned Brahmanical orthodoxy and the authority of the Vedas. Both were opposed to the sacrifice of animals, and both preached nonviolence. Both derived support in the main from the Kṣatriya Kshatriya ruling clans, wealthy gahapatis, and the mercantile community; because trade and commerce did not involve killing, the principle of ahiṃsā ahimsa (nonviolence"noninjury") could be observed in these activities. The Jainas Jains participated widely as the middlemen in financial transactions and in later centuries became the great financiers of western India. While both religions disapproved in theory of the inequality of castes, neither directly attacked the assumptions of caste society; even so, they were able to secure a certain amount of support from lower caste groups, which was enhanced by the borrowing of rituals and practices from popular local cults. The patronage of women, especially those of royal families, was to become a noticeable feature.
Political activity in the 6th–5th centuries BC century BCE centred on the control of the Ganges Valleyvalley. The states of KāśīKashi, KośalaKoshala, and Magadha , and the Vṛjjis Vrijjis battled for this control for a century until Magadha emerged victorious. Magadha's success was partly due in part to the political ambition of its king, Bimbisāra. Bimbisara (c. 543–491 BCE). He conquered AṅgaAnga, which gave him access to the Ganges delta—a valuable asset in terms of the nascent maritime trade. Bimbisāra's son Ajātaśatru implemented Bimbisara's son Ajatashatru—who achieved the throne through patricide—implemented his father's intentions within about 30 years. Ajātaśatru Ajatashatru strengthened the defenses of the Magadhan capital, RājagṛhaRajagrha, and built a small fort on the Ganges at PāṭaligrāmaPataligrama, which was to become the famous capital Pāṭaliputra Pataliputra (modern Patna). He then attacked and annexed Kāśī Kashi and KośalaKoshala. He still had to subdue the confederacy of the Vṛjji Vrijji state, and this turned out to be a protracted affair lasting 16 years. Ultimately the VṛjjisVrijjis, including the important Licchavi clan, were overthrown, having been weakened by a minister of AjātaśatruAjatashatru, who was able to sow dissension in the confederacy.
The success of Magadha was not solely attributable to the ambition of Bimbisāra Bimbisara and AjātaśatruAjatashatru. Magadha had an excellent geographic location controlling the lower Ganges and thus drew revenue from both the fertile plain and the river trade. Access to the delta also brought in lucrative profits from the eastern coastal trade. Neighbouring forests provided timber for building and elephants for the army. Above all, nearby rich deposits of iron ore gave Magadha a lead in technology.
Bimbisāra Bimbisara had been one of the earliest Indian kings to emphasize efficient administration, and the beginnings of an administrative system took root. Rudimentary notions of land revenue developed. Each village had a headman who was responsible for collecting taxes and another set of officials who supervised the collection and conveyed the revenue to the royal treasury. But the full understanding of the utilization of land revenue as a major source of state income was yet to come. The clearing of land continued apace, but it is likely that the agrarian settlements were small, because literary references to journeys from one town to another mention long stretches of forest paths.
After the death of Ajātaśatru Ajatashatru (c. 459 BC BCE) and a series of ineffectual rulers, Śiśunāga Shaishunaga founded a new dynasty (see Shaishunaga dynasty), which lasted for about half a century until ousted by Mahāpadma Mahapadma Nanda. The Nandas are universally described as being of low origin, perhaps ŚūdrasSudras. Despite these rapid dynastic changes, Magadha retained its position of strength. The Nandas continued the earlier policy of expansion. They are proverbially connected with wealth, probably because they realized the importance of regular collections of land revenue.
The northwestern part of India witnessed the military campaign of Alexander the Great of Macedon, who in 327 BC BCE, in pursuing his campaign to the eastern extremities of the Achaemenian Empire, entered GandhāraGandhara. He campaigned successfully across the Punjab as far as the Beās Beas River, where his troops refused to continue fighting. The vast army of the Nandas is referred to in Greek sources, and some historians have suggested that Alexander's Macedonian and Greek soldiers may have mutinied out of fear of this army. The campaign of Alexander made no impression on the Indian mind, for there are no references to it in Indian sources. The most A significant outcome of his campaign was that some of his Greek companions, such companions—such as Onesicritus, Aristobulus, and his admiral Nearchus, recorded Nearchus—recorded their impressions of India. Later Greek and Roman authors such as Strabo and Arrian, as well as Pliny and Plutarch, incorporated much of this material into their writings. However, some of the accounts are fanciful and make for better fiction than history. Alexander established a number of Greek settlements, which provided an impetus for the development of trade and communication with western Asia. Most valuable to historians was a reference to Alexander's meeting the young prince Sandrocottos, a name identified in the 18th century as Candra Gupta, which provides a chronological landmark in early Indian history.
The accession (dated to c. 325–c. 321 BC) of Candra Gupta Maurya (Chandraguptareigned c. 321–297 BCE) Maurya is significant in Indian history because it inaugurated what was to become the first pan-Indian empire. The Mauryan dynasty was to rule almost the entire subcontinent (except the area south of present-day KarnātakaKarnataka), as well as substantial parts of present-day Afghanistan.
Candra Gupta overthrew the Nanda power in Magadha and then campaigned in central and northern India. Greek sources report that he engaged in a conflict in 305 BC BCE in the trans-Indus region with Seleucus I ( Nicator), one of Alexander's generals, who, on following the death of Alexander, had founded the Seleucid dynasty in Iran. The result was a treaty by which Seleucus ceded the trans-Indus provinces to the Maurya and the latter presented him with 500 elephants. A marriage alliance is mentioned, but no details are recorded.
The treaty ushered in an era of friendly relations between the Mauryas and the Seleucids, with exchanges of envoys. One among them, the Greek historian Megasthenes, left his observations in the form of a book, the Indica. Although the original has been lost, extensive quotations from it survive in the works of the later Greek writers Strabo, Diodorus, and Arrian. A major treatise on political economy in Sanskrit is the Artha-śāstrashastra of Kauṭilya Kautilya (or CāṇakyaCanakya, as he is sometimes called). KauṭilyaKautilya, it is believed, was prime minister to Candra Gupta Maurya, although this view has been contested. In describing an ideal government, Kauṭilya Kautilya indicates contemporary assumptions of political and economic theory, and the description of the functioning of government occasionally tallies with present-day knowledge of actual conditions derived from other sources. The date of origin of the Artha-śāstrashastra remains problematic, with suggested dates ranging from the 4th century BC BCE to the 3rd century AD CE. Most authorities agree that the kernel of the book was originally written during the early Mauryan Period period but that much of the existing text is post-Mauryan.
According to Jaina Jain sources, Candra Gupta became a Jaina Jain toward the end of his reign. He abdicated in favour of his son BindusāraBindusara, became an ascetic, and traveled with a group of Jaina Jain monks to South southern India, where he died, in the orthodox Jaina Jain manner, by deliberate slow starvation.
The second Mauryan emperor was BindusāraBindusara, who came to the throne about 297 BC BCE. Greek sources refer to him as Amitrochates, the Greek for the Sanskrit amitraghāta amitraghata, the "destroyer of foes." This name perhaps reflects a successful campaign in the Deccan, Candra Gupta having already conquered northern India. Bindusāra's Bindusara's campaign stopped in the vicinity of KarnātakaKarnataka, probably because the territories of the extreme south, such as those of the CoḷasColas, PāṇḍyasPandyas, and CērasCeras, were well-disposed in their relations toward the Mauryas.
Bindusāra Bindusara was succeeded by his son AśokaAshoka, either directly in 272 BC BCE or, after an interregnum of four years, in 268 BC BCE (some historians say c. 265 BC BCE). Aśoka's Ashoka's reign is comparatively well documented. He issued a large number of edicts, which were inscribed in many parts of the empire and were composed in PrākritPrakrit, Greek, and Aramaic, depending on the language current in a particular region. Greek and Aramaic inscriptions are limited to Afghanistan and the trans-Indus region.
The first major event in Aśoka's Ashoka's reign, which he describes in an edict, was a campaign against Kaliṅga Kalinga in 260 BC BCE. The suffering that resulted caused him to reevaluate the notion of conquest by violence, and gradually he was drawn to the Buddhist religion. He built a number of stupas. About 12 years after his accession, he began issuing edicts at regular intervals. In one he referred to five Greek kings who were his neighbours and contemporaries and to whom he sent envoys—these were Antiochus II Theos of Syria, the grandson of Seleucus I Nicator; Ptolemy II Philadelphus of Egypt; Antigonus II Gonatas of Macedonia; Magas of Cyrene; and Alexander (of either Epirus or Corinth). This reference has become the bedrock of Mauryan chronology. Local tradition asserts that he had contacts with Khotān Khotan and Nepal. Close relations with Tissa, the king of Sri Lanka, were furthered by the fact that Mihinda, Aśoka's Ashoka's son (or his younger brother according to some sources), was the first Buddhist missionary on the island.
Aśoka Ashoka ruled for 37 years. After his death a political decline set in, and half a century later the empire was reduced to the Ganges Valley valley alone. Tradition asserts that Aśoka's Ashoka's son Kunāla Kunala ruled in GandhāraGandhara. Epigraphic evidence indicates that his grandson Daśaratha Dasharatha ruled in Magadha. Some historians have suggested that his empire was bifurcated. In 185 BC BCE the last of the Mauryas, BṛhadrathaBrihadratha, was assassinated by his Brahman commander in chief, PuṣyamitraPushyamitra, who founded the Śuṅga Shunga dynasty.
The Mauryan achievement lay in the ability to weld the diverse parts of the subcontinent into a single political unit and to maintain an imperial system for almost 100 years. The financial base for an imperial system was provided by income from land revenue and, to a lesser extent, from trade. The gradual expansion of the agrarian economy and improvements in the administrative machinery for collecting revenue increased the income from land revenue. This is confirmed by both the theories of Kauṭilya Kautilya and the account of Megasthenes; Kauṭilya Kautilya maintained that the state should organize the clearing of wasteland and settle it with villages of Śūdra Sudra cultivators. It is likely that some 150,000 persons deported from Kaliṅga Kalinga by Aśoka Ashoka after the campaign were settled in this manner. Megasthenes writes wrote that there were no slaves in India, yet Indian sources speak of various categories of slaves called dāsa dasas, the most commonly used designation being dāsadasa-bhṛtakabhritakas (slaves and hired labourers). It is likely that there was no large-scale slavery for production, although slaves were used on the land, in the mines, and in the guilds, along with the hired labour. Domestic slavery was common, however.
The nature of land revenue has been a subject of controversy. Some scholars maintain that the state was the sole owner of the land, while others contend that there was private and individual ownership as well. References to private ownership would seem to be too frequent to be ignored. There also are references to the crown lands, the cultivation of which was important to the economy. Two types of taxes were levied—one on the amount of land cultivated and the other on the produce of the land. The state maintained irrigation in limited areas and in limited periods. By and large, irrigation systems were privately controlled by cultivators and landowners. There is no support for a thesis that control of the hydraulic machinery was crucial to the political control of the country.
Another source of income, which acquired increasing importance, was revenue from taxes levied on both internal and foreign trade. The attempt at improved political administration helped to break the economic isolation of various regions. Roads built to ensure quick communication with the local administration inevitably became arteries of exchange and trade.
According to Megasthenes, Mauryan society comprised seven occupational groups: philosophers, farmers, soldiers, herdsmen, artisans, magistrates, and councillors. He defined these groups as endogamous and the professions as hereditary, which has led to their being considered as castes. The philosophers included a variety of priests, monks, and religious teachers; they formed the smallest group but were the most respected, were exempt from taxation, and were the only ones permitted to marry into the other groups. The farmers were the largest group. The soldiers were very well highly paid, and, if Pliny's figures for the army are correct—9,000 elephants, 30,000 cavalry, and 600,000 infantry—their support must have required a considerable financial outlay. The mention of herdsmen as a socioeconomic group suggests that, although the agrarian economy was expanding and had become central to the state income, pastoralism continued to play an important economic role. The artisans probably represented a major section of the urban population. The listing of magistrates and councillors as distinct groups is evidence of a large and recognizable administrative personnel.
The Mauryan government was organized around the king. Aśoka Ashoka saw his role as essentially paternal: "All men are my children." He was anxious to be in constant touch with public opinion, and to this end he traveled extensively throughout his empire and appointed a special category of officers to gauge public opinion. His edicts indicate frequent consultations with his ministers, the ministerial council being a largely advisory body. The offices of the sannidhātṛ sannidhatri (treasurer), who kept the account, and the samāhartṛ samahartri (chief collector), who was responsible for revenue records, formed the hub of the revenue administration. Each administrative department, with its superintendents and subordinate officials, acted as a link between local administration and the central government. Kauṭilya Kautilya believed that a quarter of the total income should be reserved for the salaries of the officers. That the higher officials expected to be handsomely paid is clear from the salaries suggested by Kauṭilya Kautilya and from the considerable difference between the salary of a clerk (500 paṇa panas) and that of a minister (48,000 paṇa panas). Public works and grants absorbed another large percentage of state income.
The empire was divided into four provinces, each under a prince or a governor. Local officials were probably selected from among the local populace, because no method of impersonal recruitment to administrative office is mentioned. Once every five years, the emperor sent officers to audit the provincial administrations. Some categories of officers in the rural areas, such as the rājjūka rajjukas (surveyors), combined judicial functions with assessment duties. Fines constituted the most common form of punishment, although capital punishment was imposed in extreme cases. Provinces were subdivided into districts and these again into smaller units. The village was the basic unit of administration and has remained so throughout the centuries. The headman continued to be an important official, as did the accountant and the tax collector (sthānika sthanika and gopa, respectively). For the larger units, Kauṭilya Kautilya suggests the maintenance of a census. Megasthenes describes a committee of 30 officials, divided into six subcommittees, who looked after the administration of PāṭaliputraPataliputra. The most important single official was the city superintendent (nāgarakanagaraka), who had virtual control over all aspects of city administration. Centralization of the government should not be taken to imply a uniform level of development throughout the empire. Some areas, such as Magadha, GandhāraGandhara, and ĀvantiAvanti, were under closer central control than others, such as the KarnātakaKarnataka, where possibly the Mauryan system's main concern was to extract resources without embedding itself in the region.
It was against this background of imperial administration and a changing socioeconomic framework that Aśoka Ashoka issued edicts that carried his message concerning the idea and practice of dhamma, the Prākrit Prakrit form of the Sanskrit dharma, a term that defies simple translation. It carries a variety of meanings depending on the context, such as universal law, social order, piety, or righteousness; the Buddhists frequently used it with reference to the teachings of the Buddha. This , in part , coloured the earlier interpretation of Aśoka's Ashoka's use of the word to mean that he was propagating Buddhism. Until his inscriptions were deciphered in 1837, Aśoka Ashoka was practically unknown except in the Buddhist chronicles of Sri Lanka—the Mahāvaṃsa Mahavamsa and Dīpavaṃsa Dipavamsa—and the works of the northern Buddhist tradition—the Divyāvadana Divyavadana and the Aśokāvadana Ashokavadana—where he is extolled as a Buddhist emperor par excellence whose sole ambition was the expansion of Buddhism. Most of these traditions were preserved outside India in Sri Lanka, Central Asia, and China. Even after the edicts were deciphered, it was believed that they corroborated the assertions of the Buddhist sources, because in some of the edicts Aśoka Ashoka avowed his personal support of Buddhism. More However, more-recent analyses suggest , however, that, although he was personally a Buddhist, as his edicts addressed to the Buddhist saṅgha (order) sangha attest, the majority of the edicts in which he attempted to define dhamma do not suggest that he was merely preaching Buddhism.
Aśoka Ashoka addressed his edicts to the entire populace, inscribing them on rock surfaces or on specially erected and finely polished sandstone pillars, in places where people were likely to congregate. It has been suggested that the idea of issuing such decrees was borrowed from the Persian Achaemenian emperors, especially from Darius I, but the tone and content of Aśoka's Ashoka's edicts are quite different. Although the pillars, with their animal capitals, have also been described as imitations of Achaemenian pillars, there is sufficient originality in style to distinguish them as fine examples of Mauryan imperial art. (The official emblem of India since 1947 is based on the four-lion capital of the pillar at Sārnāth Sarnath near VāİānasiVaranasi.) The carvings contrast strikingly with the numerous small, gray terra-cotta figures found at urban sites, which are clearly expressions of Mauryan popular art.
Aśoka Ashoka defines the main principles of dhamma as nonviolence, tolerance of all sects and opinions, obedience to parents, respect for the Brahmans and other religious teachers and priests, liberality toward friends, humane treatment of servants, and generosity toward all. These suggest a general ethic of behaviour to which no religious or social group could object. They also could act as a focus of loyalty to weld together the diverse strands that made up the empire. Interestingly, the Greek versions of these edicts translate dhamma as eusebeia (piety), and no mention is made in the inscriptions of the teachings of the Buddha, which would be expected if Aśoka Ashoka had been propagating Buddhism. His own activities under the impact of dhamma included attention to the welfare of his subjects, the building of roads and rest houses, the planting of medicinal herbs, the establishment of centres for tending the sick, a ban on animal sacrifices, and the curtailing of killing animals for food. He also instituted a body of officials known as the dhamma-mahāmattamahamattas, who served the dual function of propagating the dhamma and keeping the emperor in touch with public opinion. (See rock edicts.)
Some historians maintain that the disintegration of the Mauryan empire was an aftermath of Aśoka's Ashoka's policies and actions and that his pro-Buddhist policy caused a revolt among the Brahmans. The edicts do not support such a contention. It has also been said that Aśoka's Ashoka's insistence on nonviolence resulted in the emasculation of the army, which was consequently unable to meet the threat of invaders from the northwest. There is, however, no indication that Aśoka Ashoka deliberately ignored the military wing of his administration, despite his emphasis on nonviolence.
Other explanations for the decline of the empire appear more plausible. Among these is the idea that there may have been a weakening of the economy which acted as an the economy may have weakened, putting economic pressure on the empire. It has been thought that the silver currency of the Mauryas was debased as a result of this pressure. The expense required for the army and the bureaucracy must have tied up a substantial part of the income. It is equally possible that the expansion of agriculture did not keep pace with the expansion of the empire, and, because many areas were nonagricultural, the revenue from the agrarian economy may not have been sufficient for the maintenance of the empire. It is extremely difficult to compute the population of the empire, but , on a purely impressionistic basis, a figure of approximately 50 million can be suggested. For a population of mixed agriculturalists and others to support an empire of this size would have been extremely difficult without intensive exploitation of resources. Recent Relatively recent excavations at urban sites show a distinct improvement in material prosperity in the post-Mauryan levels. This may be attributable to an increase in trade, but the income from trade was unlikely to have been sufficient to supplement fully the land revenue in financing the empire.
It has been argued that the Mauryan bureaucracy at the higher levels tended to be oppressive. This may have been true during the reigns of the first two emperors, from which the evidence is cited, but oppression is unlikely to have occurred during Aśoka's Ashoka's reign, because he was responsible for a considerable decentralization at the upper levels and for continual checks and inspections. A more fundamental weakness lay in the process of recruitment, which was probably arbitrary, with the hierarchy of officials locally recruited.
Allegiance presupposes a concept of statehood. A number of varying notions had evolved by this time to explain the evolution of the state. Some theorists pursued the thread of the Vedic monarchies, in which the clan chief became the king and was gradually invested with divinity. An alternative set of theories arising out of Buddhist and Jaina Jain thought ignored the idea of divinity and assumed instead that, in the original state of nature, all needs were effortlessly provided but that slowly a decline set in and man became evil, developing desires, which led to the notions of private property and of family and finally to immoral behaviour. In this condition of chaos, the people gathered together and decided to elect one among them (the mahāsammata mahasammata, or "great elect") in whom they would invest authority to maintain law and order. Thus, the state came into being. Later theories retained the element of a contract between a ruler and the people. Brahmanic sources held that the gods appointed the ruler and that a contract of dues was concluded between the ruler and the people. Also prevalent was the theory of matsyānyāya matsyanyaya, which proposes that in periods of chaos, when there is no ruler, the strong devour the weak, just as in periods of drought big fish eat little fish. Thus, the need for a ruler was viewed as absolute.
The existence of the state was primarily dependent on two factors: daṇḍa danda (authority) and dharma (in its sense of the social order—i.e., the preservation of the caste structure). The Artha-śāstrashastra, moreover, refers to the seven limbs (saptāṅgasaptanga) of the state as the king, administration, territory, capital, treasury, coercive authority, and allies. However, the importance of the political notion of the state gradually began to fade, partly because of a decline of the political tradition of the republics and the proportional dominance of the monarchical system, in which loyalty was directed to the king. The emergence of the Mauryan empire strengthened the political notion of monarchy. The second factor was that the dharma, in the sense of the social order, demanded a far greater loyalty than did the rather blurred idea of the state. The king's duty was to protect dharma, and, as long as the social order remained intact, anarchy would not prevail. Loyalty to the social order, which was a fundamental aspect of Indian civilization, largely accounts for the impressive continuity of the major social institutions over many centuries. However, it also deflected loyalty from the political notion of the state, which might otherwise have permitted more-frequent empires and a greater political consciousness. After the decline of the Mauryas, the reemergence of an empire was to take many centuries.
The disintegration of the Mauryan empire gave rise to a number of small kingdoms, whose regional affiliations were often to be repeated in subsequent centuries. The Punjab and Kashmir regions were drawn into the orbit of Central Asian politics. The lower Indus Valley valley became a passage for movements from the north to the west. The Ganges Valley valley assumed a largely passive role except when faced with campaigns from the northwest. In the northern Deccan there arose the first of many important kingdoms that were to serve as the bridge between the north and the south. Kaliṅga Kalinga was once more independent. In the extreme south , the prestige and influence of the CēraCera, CoḷaCola, and Pāṇḍya Pandya kingdoms continued unabated. Yet in spite of political fragmentation, this was a period of economic prosperity, resulting partly from a new source of income—trade, both within the subcontinent and with distant places in Central Asia, China, the eastern Mediterranean, and Southeast Asia.
In the adjoining area held by the Seleucids, Diodotus I, the Greek governor of Bactria, rose in rebellion against the Seleucid king Antiochus II Theos and declared his independence, which was recognized by Antiochus about 250 BC BCE. Parthia also declared its independence.
A later Bactrian king, Demetrius (reigned c. 190–c 190–c. 167 BC BCE), took his armies into the Punjab and finally down the Indus Valley valley and gained control of northwestern India. This introduced what has come to be called Indo-Greek rule. The chronology of the Indo-Greek rulers is based largely on numismatic evidence. Their coins were, at the start, imitations of Greek issues, but they gradually acquired a style of their own, characterized by excellent portraiture. The legend was generally inscribed in Greek, BrāhmīBrahmi, and KharoṣṭīKhorosti.
The best-known of the Indo-Greek kings was Menander, known to recorded in Indian sources as Milinda (reigned 155–130 BC BCE). He is featured in the Buddhist text Milinda-pañhapanha ("Questions of Milinda"), written in the form of a dialogue between the king and the Buddhist philosopher NāgasenaNagasena, as a result of which the king is converted to Buddhism. Menander controlled Gandhāra Gandhara and Punjab, although his coins have been found farther south. According to one theory, he may have attacked the Śuṅgas Shungas in the Yamuna region and attempted to extend his control into the Ganges Valleyvalley, but, if he did so, he failed to annex the area. Meanwhile, in Bactria , the descendants of the line of Eucratides, who had branched off from the original Bactrian line, now began to take an interest in Gandhāra Gandhara and finally annexed Kābul Kabul and the kingdom of Taxila (Takṣaśilā). An important Prākrit Prakrit inscription at Besnagar (Bhīlsa Bhilsa district) of the late 2nd century BC BCE, inscribed at the instance of Heliodorus, a Greek envoy of Antialcidas of Taxila, records his devotion to the Vaiṣṇava Vāsudeva Vaishnava Vasudeva sect.
The Bactrian control of Taxila was disturbed by an intrusion of the Scythians, known in Indian sources as the ŚakasShakas (who established the Shaka satrap). They had attacked the kingdom of Bactria and subsequently moved into India. The determination of the Han rulers of China to keep the Central Asian nomadic tribes (the Hsiung-nuXiongnu, Wu-sun, and Yüeh-chihYuezhi) out of China forced these nomadic tribes in their search for fresh pastures to migrate southward and westward; a branch of the Yüeh-chihYuezhi, the Ta Yüeh-chihDa Yuezhi, moved farthest west to the Aral Sea , and this displaced the existing ŚakasShakas, who poured into Bactria and Parthia. The Parthian king Mithradates II tried to hold them back, but after his death (88 BC BCE) they swept through Parthia and continued into the Indus Valleyvalley; among the early Śaka Shaka kings was Maues, or Moga (1st century BC BCE), who ruled over GandhāraGandhara. The Śakas Shakas moved southward under pressure from the Pahlavas (Parthians), who ruled briefly in northwestern India toward the end of the 1st century BC BCE, the reign of Gondophernes being remembered. At Mathurā, Mathura the Śaka Shaka rulers of note were Rājūvala Rajuvala and ŚoḍāsaShodasa. Ultimately the Śakas Shakas settled in western India and Mālava Malava and came into conflict with the kingdoms of the northern Deccan and the Ganges Valley—particularly valley—particularly during the reigns of NahapānaNahapana, CaṣṭanaCashtana, and Rudradāman—in Rudradaman—in the first two centuries AD CE. Rudradāman's Rudradaman's fame is recorded in a lengthy Sanskrit inscription at JunāgadhJunagadh, dating to 150 CE.
Kujūla Kujula Kadphises, the Yüeh-chih Yuezhi chief, conquered northern India in the 1st century AD CE. He was succeeded by his son VīmaVima, after whom came KaniṣkaKanishka, the most powerful among the Kuṣāṇa Kushan kings, as the dynasty came to be called. The date of Kaniṣka's Kanishka's accession is controversialdisputed, ranging from 78 to 248. The generally accepted date of 78 is also the basis for an era presumably started by the Śakas Shakas and used in addition to the Gregorian calendar by the present-day Indian government; the era, possibly commemorating Kaniṣka's Kanishka's accession, was widely used in MālavaMalava, Ujjain, Nepal, and Central Asia. The Kuṣāṇa Kushan kingdom was essentially oriented to the north, with its capital at Puruṣapura Purusapura (near modern Peshāwarpresent-day Peshawar), although it extended southward as far as Sāñcī Sanchi and into the Ganges Valley valley as far as VārānasiVaranasi. Mathurā Mathura was the most important city in the southern part of the kingdom. Kaniṣka's Kanishka's ambitions included control of Central Asia, which, if not directly under the KuṣāṇasKushans, did come under their influence. The Inscriptions fairly recently discovered inscriptions from in the Gilgit area further attest such Central Asian connections. Kaniṣka's Kanishka's successors failed to maintain Kuṣāṇa Kushan power. The southern areas were the first to break away, and, by the middle of the 3rd century, the Kuṣāṇas Kushans were left virtually with only Gandhāra Gandhara and Kashmir. By the end of the century , they were reduced to vassalage by the Sāsānian king of Persiathe Persian Sāsānian dynasty.
Not surprisingly, administrative and political nomenclature in northern India at this time reflected that of western and Central Asia. The Persian term for the governor of a province, khshathrapavan, as used by the Achaemenians, was Hellenized into "satrap" satrap and widely used by these dynasties. Its Sanskrit form was kṣatrapa kshatrapa. The governors of higher status came to be called mahāmaha-kṣatrapakshatrapa; they frequently issued inscriptions reflecting whatever era they chose to follow, and they minted their own coins, indicating a more independent status than is generally associated with governors. Imperial titles also were taken by the Indo-Greeks, such as basileus basileōn ("king of kings"), similar to the Persian shāhanshāh, of which the later Sanskrit form was mahārāıādhirāja maharatadhiraja. A title of Central Asian derivation was the daivaputra of the KuṣāṇasKushans, which is believed to have come originally from the Chinese "son of heaven," emphasizing the divinity of kingship.
Occupying the watershed between the Indus and Ganges valleys, Punjab and Rājasthān Rajasthan were the nucleus of a number of oligarchies, or tribal republics whose local importance rose and fell in inverse proportion to the rise and fall of larger kingdoms. According to numismatic evidence, the most important politically were the AuḍambarasAudambaras, ĀrjunāyanasArjunayanas, MālavasMalavas, Yaudheyas, ŚibisShibis, KuṇindasKunindas, Trigartas, and ĀbhīrasAbhiras. The Ārjunāyanas Arjunayanas had their base in the present-day Bharatpur-Alwar region. The Mālavas Malavas appear to have migrated from the Punjab to the Jaipur area, perhaps after the Indo-Greek invasions; they are associated with the Mālava Malava era, which has been identified with the Vikrama era, also known as the Kṛta Krita era and dating to 58 BC BCE. It is likely that southern Rājasthān Rajasthan as far as the Narmada River and the Ujjain district was named Mālwa Malwa after the MālavasMalavas. Yaudheya evidence is scattered over many parts of the Punjab and the adjoining areas of Rājasthān what is now Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, but during this period their stronghold appears to have been the Rohtak district, north of Delhi; the frequent use of the term gaṇa gana ("group") on Yaudheya coins indicates an adherence to the tribal tradition. References to Śaivite Shaiva deities, especially Kārttikeya Karttikeya or Skanda, the legendary son of ŚivaShiva, are striking. The Śibis Shibis also migrated from the Punjab to Rājasthān Rajasthan and settled at Mādhyamika Madhyamika (near Chitor, modern Chittaugarhnow Chittaurgarh). (See Shaivism.)
Coins of the Kuṇindas Kunindas locate them in the Shiwālik Hills Shiwalik Range between the Yamuna and the Beās Beas rivers. The Trigartas have been associated with the Chamba region of the upper Rāvi Ravi River, but they also may have inhabited the area of Jālandhava Jalandhara in the plains. The Ābhīras Abhiras lived in scattered settlements in various parts of western and central India as far as the Deccan. Most of these tribes claimed descent from the ancient lineages of the PurāṇasPuranas, and some of them were later connected with the rise of Rājpūt Rajput dynasties.
In addition to the oligarchies, there were small monarchical states, such as Ayodhya, KauśāmbīKaushambi, and the scattered Nāga Naga kingdoms, the most important of which was the one at Padmāvatī Padmavati (Gwalior). Ahicchatrā Ahicchatra (now the Bareilly district of Uttar Pradesh) was ruled by kings who bore names ending in the suffix -mitra.
Magadha was the nucleus of the Śuṅga Shunga kingdom, which succeeded the Mauryan. The kingdom extended westward to include Ujjain and VidiśāVidisha. The Śuṅgas Shungas came into conflict with Vidarbha and with the Yavanas, who probably were Bactrian Greeks attempting to move into the Ganges Valleyvalley. (The word yavana derives from the Prākrit yonāPrakrit yona, suggesting that the Ionians were the first Greeks with whom the Persians and Indians came into contact. In later centuries the name Yavana was applied to all peoples coming from western Asia and the Mediterranean region, which included the Romans, Persians, and Arabs.) . The Śuṅga Shunga dynasty lasted for about one century and was then overthrown by the Brahman minister VāsudevaVasudeva, who founded the Kāṇva Kanva dynasty, which lasted 45 years and following which the Magadha area faded out was of greatly diminished importance until the 4th century AD CE.
Kalinga rose to prominence under KhāravelaKharavela, dated with some controversy debate to the 1st century BC BCE. Khāravela Kharavela boasts, perhaps exaggeratedly for a pious JainaJain, of successful campaigns in the western Deccan and against the Yavanas and Magadha and of a triumphal victory over the Pāṇḍyas Pandyas of South southern India.
The Andhras are listed among the tribal peoples in the Mauryan empire. Possibly they rose to being local officials and then, on the disintegration of the empire, gradually became independent rulers of the northwestern Deccan. It cannot be ascertained for certain whether the Andhras arose in the Andhra region (i.e., the Krishna-Godāvari Godavari deltas) and moved up to the northwestern Deccan or whether their settling in the delta gave it their name. There is also controversy as to whether the dynasty became independent at the end of the 3rd century BC BCE or at the end of the 1st century BC BCE. Their alternative name, SātavāhanaSatavahana, is presumed to be the family name, whereas Andhra was probably that of the tribe. It is likely that Sātavāhana Satavahana power was established during the reign of Śātakarṇi Shatakarni I, with the borders of the kingdom reaching across the northern Deccan; subsequent to this the Sātavāhanas Satavahana dynasty suffered an eclipse in the 1st century AD CE, when they were it was forced out of the northern Deccan by the Śakas Shakas and settled resettled in Andhra. In the 2nd century AD, CE the Sātavāhanas Satavahanas reestablished their power in the northwestern Deccan, as evidenced by Śaka Shaka coins from this region overstruck with the name Gautamīputra ŚātakarṇiGautamiputra Shatakarni. That the Andhras did not control Mālava Malava and Ujjain is clear from the claim of the Śaka Shaka king Rudradāman Rudradaman to these regions. The last of the important Andhra kings was Yajñaśrī ŚātakarṇiYajnashri Shatakarni, who ruled at the end of the 2nd century AD CE and asserted his authority over the ŚakasShakas. The 3rd century saw the decline of Sātavāhana Satavahana power, as the kingdom broke into small pockets of control under various branches of the family.
The Sātavāhana Satavahana feudatories then rose to power. The Ābhīras Abhiras were the successors in the Nāshik Nashik area. The Ikṣvākus Iksvakus succeeded in the Krishna-Guntūr Guntur region. The Cūtū Cutu dynasty in Kuṇṭala Kuntala (southern MahārāshtraMaharashtra) had had close connections with the SātavāhanasSatavahanas. The Bodhis ruled briefly in the northwestern Deccan. The Bṛhatphalāyanas Brihatphalayanas came to power at the end of the 3rd century in the Masulipatam area. In these regions the Sātavāhana Satavahana pattern of administration continued; many of the rulers had matronymics (names derived from that of the mother or a maternal ancestor); many of the royal inscriptions record donations made to Buddhist monks and monasteries, often by princesses, and also land grants to Brahmans and the performance of Vedic sacrifices by the rulers.
Significant, historically attested contact between the north and the Tamil regions can be reasonably dated to the Mauryan Periodperiod. Evidence on the early history of the south consists of the epigraphs of the region, the Tamil caṅkam cankam (sangam) literature, and archaeological data.
Inscriptions in Brāhmī Brahmi (recently read as Tamil BrāhmīBrahmi) date to between the 2nd century BC BCE and the 4th century AD CE. Most of the inscriptions record donations made by royalty or by merchants and artisans to Buddhist and Jaina Jain monks. These are useful in corroborating evidence from the caṅkam cankam literature, a collection of a large number of poems in classical Tamil , that, according to tradition, were recited at three assemblies of poets held at Madurai. Included in this literature are the so-called Eight Anthologies (EṭṭutogaiEttutokai) and Ten Idylls (PattuppāṭṭuPattupattu). The grammatical work Tolkāppiyam Tolkappiyam also is said to be of the same period. The literature probably belongs to the same period as the inscriptions, although some scholars suggest an earlier date. The historical authenticity of sections of the caṅkam cankam literature has been confirmed by archaeological evidence.
TamilākamTamilakam, the abode of the Tamils, was defined in caṅkam cankam literature as approximately equivalent to the area south of modern present-day Chennai (Madras). Tamilākam Tamilakam was divided into 13 nāḍu nadus (districts), of which the region of Madurai was the most important as the core of the Tamil speakers. The three major chiefdoms of Tamilākam Tamilakam were those of the Pāṇḍyas Pandya dynasty (Madurai), the Cēras Ceras (Cheras; Malabār Malabar Coast and the hinterland), and the Coḷas Colas (Cholas; Thanjāvūr Thanjavur and the Kāverī Kaveri valley), founders of the Cola dynasty. The inscriptions of the PāṇḍyasPandyas, recording royal grants and other grants made by local citizens, date to the 2nd century BC BCE. The chief Neduñjeliyaṉ Nedunjeliyan (early 3rd century AD CE) is celebrated by the poets of the caṅkam cankam as the victor in campaigns against the Cēras Ceras and the CoḷasColas. Cēra Cera inscriptions of the 2nd century AD CE referring to the Irrumporai clan have been found near Karūr Karur (Tiruchchirāpalli Tiruchchirapalli district), identified with the Korura of Ptolemy. Caṅkam Cankam literature mentions the names of Cēra Cera chiefs who have been dated to the 1st century AD CE. Among them, Nedunjēral Ādan Nedunjeral Adan is said to have attacked the Yavana ships and held the Yavana traders to ransom. His son ŚenguṭṭuvanShenguttuvan, much eulogized in the poems, also is mentioned in the context of Gajabāhu's Gajabahu's rule in Sri Lanka, which can be dated to either the first or last quarter of the 2nd century AD CE, depending on whether he was the earlier or the later GajabāhuGajabahu. Karikālaṉ Karikalan (late 2nd century AD CE) is the best known of the early Coḷa Cola chiefs and was to become almost a kind of eponymous ancestor to many families of the south claiming Coḷa Cola descent. The early capital was at UraiyūrUraiyur, in an area that stretched from the Vaigai River in the south to Toṇḍaimaṇḍalam Tondaimandalam in the north. The three chiefdoms were frequently at war; in addition there were often hostilities with Sri Lanka. Mention is also made of the ruler of Toṇḍaimaṇḍalam Tondaimandalam with its capital at KānchipuramKanchipuram. There is also frequent mention of the minor chieftains, the Vel, who ruled small areas in many parts of the Tamil country. Ultimately all the chiefdoms suffered at the hands of the KalvārKalvar, or Kalabras, who came from the border to the north of Tamilākam Tamilakam and were described as evil rulers, but they were overthrown in the 5th century AD, CE with the rise of the Cālukyas Calukya (Chalukyas) and PallavasPallava dynasties.
Caṅkam Cankam literature reflects the indigenous cultural tradition as well as elements of the intrusion of the northern Sanskritic tradition, which by now was beginning to come into contact with these areas, some of which were in the process of change from chiefdoms to kingdoms. In poems praising the chiefs, heroism in raids and gift-giving are hailed as the main virtues. The predominant economy remained pastoral-cum-agrarian, with an increasing emphasis on agriculture. The Tamil poems divide the land into five ecological zones, or tinais. Among the poems that make reference to social stratification, one uses the word kudi ("group") to denote caste. Each village had its sabhā sabha, or council, for administering local affairs, an institution that was to remain a fixture of village life. Religious observance consisted primarily in conducting sacrifices to various deities, among whom Murugaṇ Murugan was preeminent.
Trade with the Yavanas and with the northern parts of the subcontinent provided considerable economic momentum for the South southern Indian states. Given the terrain of the peninsula and the agricultural technology of the time, large agrarian-based kingdoms like those of northern India were not feasible, although the cultivation of rice provided a base for economic change. Inevitably, trade played more than a marginal role, and overseas trade became a major economic activity. Almost as soon as the Roman trade began to decline, the Southeast Asian trade commenced; in subsequent centuries this became the focus of maritime interest.
Sources Numerous sources from the 1st millennium BC often BCE mention trade between western Asia and the western coast of India. Hebrew texts refer to the port of Ophir, sometimes identified with SopāraSopara, on the west coast. Babylonian builders used Indian teak and cedar in the 7th and 6th centuries BC BCE. The Buddhist Jātaka jataka literature mentions trade with Baveru (Babylon). After the decline of Babylon, Arab merchants from southern Arabia apparently continued the trade, probably supplying goods to Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean. The discovery of the regular seasonal monsoon winds, enabling ships to drive sail a straight course across the Arabian Sea, made a considerable difference to shipping and navigation on the route from western Asia to India. Unification of the Mediterranean and western Asian world at the turn of the Christian era under the Roman Empire brought Roman trade into close contact with India—overland with northern India and by sea with peninsular India. The emperor Augustus received two embassies—almost certainly trade missions—from India in 25–21 BC BCE.
The Periplus Maris Erythraei ("Circumnavigation "Navigation of the Erythrean [i.e., Red] Sea"), an anonymous Greek travel book written in the 1st century AD CE, lists a series of ports along the Indian coast, including Muziris (Cranganore), Colchi (KoṛkaiKorkai), Poduca, and Sopatma. An excavation at Arikamedu (near present-day Puducherry [Pondicherry]) revealed a Roman trading settlement of this period, and elsewhere , too , the presence of Roman pottery, beads, intaglios, lamps, glass, and coins point to a continuous occupation, resulting even in imitations of some Roman items. It would seem that textiles were prepared to Roman specification and exported from such settlements. Graffiti on pottery found at a port in the Red Sea indicates the presence of Indian traders.
Large hoards of Roman coins substantiate other evidence. The coins are mainly of the emperors Augustus (ruled 27 BC–AD 14reigned 27 BCE–14 CE), Tiberius (ruled reigned 14–37), and Nero (ruled reigned 54–68). Their frequency suggests that the Romans paid for the trade in gold coins. Many are overstruck with a bar, which may indicate that they were used as bullion in India; certainly, the Roman savant Pliny the Elder complained that the Indian luxury trade was depleting the Roman treasury. The coins are found most often in trading centres or near the sources of semiprecious stones, especially quartz and beryl. Caṅkam Cankam literature attests the prosperity of Yavana merchants trading in towns such as Kāvēripaṭṭinam Kaveripattinam (in the Kāverī Kaveri delta). The Periplus lists the major exports of India as pepper, precious stones, pearls, tortoise shells, ivory, such aromatic plants as spikenard (Nardostachys jatamansi) and malabathrum (aromatic plantsCinnamomum malabathrum), and silk and other textiles. For these the Romans traded glass, copper, tin, lead, realgar (a red pigment), orpiment (a gold pigment), antimony, and wine, or else they paid in gold coins.
The maritime trade routes from the Indian ports were primarily to the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, from where they went overland to the eastern Mediterranean and to Egypt, but Indian merchants also ventured out to Southeast Asia seeking spices and semiprecious stones. River valleys and the Mauryan roads were the chief routes within India. Greek sources refer to a royal highway built by the Mauryas, connecting Taxila with Pāṭaliputra Pataliputra and terminating at TāmraliptīTamralipti, the main port in the Ganges delta. On the western coast the major port of Bhṛgukaccha Bhrigukaccha (modern BharūchBharuch) was connected with the Ganges Valley valley via Rājasthān Rajasthan or, alternatively, Ujjain. From the Narmada valley there were routes going into the northwestern Deccan and continuing along rivers flowing eastward to various parts of the peninsula. Goods were transported mainly in caravans of oxen and donkeys, but donkeys—but only in the dry seasons, the rains creating impossible conditions for travel. Coastal and river shipping was clearly cheaper than overland transport. The main northern route connected Taxila with Kābul and Qandahār Kandahār and from there branched off in various directions, mainly linking up with routes across Persia to the Black Sea ports and the eastern Mediterranean. The route connecting China with Bactria via Central Asia, which would shortly become famous as the Silk Road, linked the oases of Kashgar, Yarkand, Khotan, Miran, Kucha, Karashahr, and Turfan, in all of which Indian merchants established trading stations. The Central Asian route brought Chinese goods in large quantities into the Indian and west western Asian markets. It is thought that the prosperity resulting from this trade enabled the Kuṣānas Kushans to issue the first Indian gold coins. Another consequence was the popularity of horsemanship.
The commercial economy played a central role during this period. Circuits of exchange developed at various levels among groups throughout the subcontinent. In some regions these patterns extended to external trade. Agrarian expansion was not arrested, and land revenue continued to be a major source of income, but profit from trade made a substantial difference to the urban economy, noticeably improving the standard of living and registering a growth in the number and size of towns.
The social institution most closely related to commercial activity was the śreṇi shreni, or guild, through which trade was channeled. The guilds were registered with the town authority, and the activities of guild members followed strict guidelines called the śrenishreni-dharma. The more wealthy wealthier guilds employed slaves and hired labourers in addition to their own artisans, though the percentage of such slaves appears to have been small. Guilds had their own seals and insignia. They often made lavish donations to Buddhist and Jaina Jain monasteries, and some of the finest Buddhist monuments of the period resulted from such patronage. In some areas, such as the Deccan, members of the royal family invested money with a particular guild, and the accruing interest became a regular donation to the Buddhist saṅgha sangha. This must also have enhanced the political prestige of the guild.
Increasing reliance on money in commerce greatly augmented the role of the financier and banker. Sometimes the wealthier guilds offered financial services, but the more usual source of money was the merchant financier (śreṣṭhinshresthin). Coinage proliferated in the various kingdoms, and minting attained a high level of craftsmanship. The most widely used coins were the gold dīnāra dinaras and suvarṇa suvarnas, based on the Roman denarius (124 grains [about 8 grams]); a range of silver coins, such as the earlier kārṣāpaṇa karshapana (or paṇa pana; 57.8 grains [3.75 grams]) and the śatamāna shatamana; an even wider range of copper coins, such as the māsa (9 grains), kākaṇi (2.25 grains) masa, kakani, and a variety of unspecified standards; and other coins issued in lead and potin, particularly in western India. Usury was an accepted part of the banker's trade, with 15 percent being the typical interest rate, although this varied according to the enterprise for which the money was borrowed. Expanding trade also introduced a multiplicity of weights and measures.
Foreign trade probably had its greatest economic impact in the south, but the interchange of ideas appears to have been more substantial in the north. This latter effect may have been attributable to the north's longer association with western Asia and the colonial Hellenic culture. Greek, along with Aramaic, was widely spoken in Afghanistan and was doubtless understood in Taxila. The spurt of geographic studies in the Mediterranean produced works with extensive descriptions of the trade with India; these included include Strabo's Geography, Ptolemy's Geography, Pliny's Natural History, and the Periplus Maris Erythraei. The most obvious and visible impact occurred in Gandhāra Gandhara art, which depicted Indian themes influenced by Hellenistic and Roman styles, an attractive hybrid that influenced the development of Buddhist iconography. The more prized among objects were the ivory carvings that reached Afghanistan from Central central India.
If art remains are an index to patronage, then Buddhism seems to have been the most-favoured religion, followed by Śaivism Shaivism and the Bhāgavata Bhagavata cult. Buddhist centres generally comprised a complex of three structures—the monastery (vihāravihara), the hall of worship (caitya), and the sacred tumulus (stūpastupa)—all of which were freestanding structures in the north but were initially rock-cut monuments in the Deccan. The Jainas Jains found more patrons in the Deccan. Literary sources of the period mention Hindu temples, but none of comparable antiquity have been found. Apart from the Gandhāra Gandhara style of sculpture, a number of indigenous centres in other parts of India, such as MathurāMathura, KārlīKarli, NāgārjunakoṇḍaNagarjunakonda, and AmarāvatiAmaravati, portrayed Buddhist legends in a variety of local stones. The more popular medium was terra-cotta, by then changed from gray to red, depicting not only ordinary men and women and animal figures but also large numbers of mother goddesses, indicating the continued popular worship of these deities.
The practice of Buddhism was itself undergoing change. Affluent patronage endowed the large monasteries with land and slaves. Association with royalty gave Buddhism access to power. Under the proselytizing consciousness that had gradually evolved, Buddhist monks traveled as missionaries to Central Asia and China, western Asia, and Southeast Asia. New situations inevitably led to the need for new ideas, as is most clearly seen in the contact of Buddhism with Christianity and Zoroastrianism in Central Asia. Arguments over the original teaching of the Buddha had already resulted in a series of councils called to clarify the doctrine. The two main sects were the TheravādaTheravada, centred at KauśāmbīKaushambi, which compiled the Pāli Pali canon on Buddhist teachings, and the SarvāstivāẖaSarvastivada, which arose at MathurāMathura, spread northward, and finally established itself in Central Asia, using Sanskrit as the language for preserving the Buddhist tradition. (See Tipitaka.) A fourth council , held in Kashmir during the reign of Kaniṣka, Kanishka ratified the separation of the two main schools of Buddhism—the Mahāyāna Mahayana (Greater Vehicle"Greater Vehicle") and the Hīnayāna (Lesser VehicleTheravada (or Hinayana, "Lesser Vehicle"). The impressive dominance of Buddhism did not arise without hostility from the patrons of other religions.
Jainism had by now also split into two groups—the groups: the Digambara (Sky"Sky-Clad—iClad"—i.e., naked), the more orthodox, and the Śvetāmbara Shvetambara (White"White-CladClad"), the more liberal. The Jainas Jains were not as widespread as the Buddhists, their main centres being in western India, Kaliṅga Kalinga for a brief period, and the Mysore (modern KarnātakaKarnataka) and Tamil country.
Brahmanism also underwent changes with the gradual fading out of some of the Vedic deities. The two major gods were Vishnu (Viṣṇu) and ŚivaShiva, around whom there emerged a monotheistic trend perhaps best expressed in the Vaiṣṇava BhagavadgītāVaishnava Bhagavadgita, which most authorities would date to the 1st century BC BCE. The doctrine of karma and rebirth, emphasizing the influence of actions performed either in this life or in former lives on present and future lives, became central to Hindu belief and influenced both religious and social notions. Vedic sacrifices were not discontinued but gradually became symbols of such ceremonial occasions as royal consecrations. Sacrificial ritual was beginning to be replaced by the practice of bhakti, a form of personal devotion whereby the worshiper shares in the grace of the deity.
Popular epics, such as the Mahābhārata Mahabharata and the Rāmāyaṇa Ramayana, were injected with didactic sections on religion and morality and elevated to the status of sacred literature. Their heroes, Krishna (Kṛṣṇa) and RāmaRama, were incorporated into Vaiṣṇavism Vaishnavism as avatars (avatāras; incarnations) of Vishnu. The concept of incarnations was useful in subsuming local deities and cults.
The epics also served as a treasury of stories, which provided themes and characters for countless poems and plays. The works of the dramatist BhāsaBhasa, notably Svapnavāsavadatta Svapnavasavadatta and Pratijñāyaugandharāyaṇa Pratijnayaugandharayana, were foundational to the Sanskrit drama. AśvaghoṣaAshvaghosa, another major dramatist who wrote in Sanskrit, based his works on Buddhist themes. The popularity of drama necessitated the writing of a work on dramaturgy, the NāṭyaNatya-śāstrashastra ("Treatise on Dramatic Art") of the sage-priest Bharata. The composition of Dharma-śāstras shastras (collections of treatises on sacred duties), among which the most often quoted is ascribed to Manu, became important in a period of social flux in which traditional social law and usage were important as precedent. A commentary on the earlier Sanskrit grammar of Pāṇini Panini was provided by the Mahābhāṣya Mahabhasya of PatañjaliPatanjali, timely because even the non-Indian dynasties of the north and west made extensive use of Sanskrit. Of the sciences, astronomy and medicine were foremost, both reflecting the interchange of ideas with western Asia. Two basic medical treatises, composed by Caraka and SuśrutaSushruta, date to this period.
The presence of foreigners, most of whom settled in Indian cities and adopted Indian habits and behaviour in addition to religion, became a problem for social theorists because the newcomers had to be fitted into caste society. It was easier to accommodate a group rather than an individual into the social hierarchy, because the group could be given a jāti jati status. Technically, conversion to Hinduism was difficult because one had to be born into a particular caste, and it was karma that determined one's caste. The theoretical definition of caste society continued as before, and the four varṇa varnas were referred to as the units of society. The assimilation of local cults demanded the assimilation of cult priests, who had to be accommodated within the Brahmanic hierarchy. The Greeks and the ŚakasShakas, clearly of non-Indian origin and initially the ruling group, were referred to as "fallen KṣatriyasKshatriyas." The Vaiśya Vaishya and Śūdra Sudra groups did not pose such a serious problem, because their vague definition gave them social mobility. It is likely that in such periods of social change some lower-caste groups may have moved up the ladder of social hierarchy.
Historians once regarded the Gupta Period period (c. 320–540) as the Classical Age classical age of India, the period during which the norms of Indian literature, art, architecture, and philosophy were established. It was also thought to have been an age of material prosperity, particularly among the urban elite, and of renascent Hinduism. Some of these assumptions have been questioned by more-extensive studies of the post-Mauryan, pre-Gupta period. Archaeological evidence from the earlier Kuṣāṇa Kushan levels suggests greater material prosperity, to such a degree that some historians argue for an urban decline in the Gupta Periodperiod. Much of Gupta literature and art derived from that of earlier periods, and renascent Hinduism is probably more correctly dated to the post-Gupta time. The Gupta realm, although less extensive than that of the Mauryas, did encompass the northern half and central parts of the subcontinent. The Gupta Period period also has been called an imperial age, but the administrative centralization so characteristic of an imperial system is less apparent than during the Mauryan Periodperiod.
The Guptas, a comparatively unknown family, came from either Magadha or eastern Uttar Pradesh. The third king, Candra Gupta I (Chandragupta I; reigned c. 320–c. 330), took the title of mahārājādhirāja maharajadhiraja. He married a Licchavi princess—an event celebrated in a series of gold coins. It has been suggested that, if the Guptas ruled in Prayāga (modern Allahābād Prayaga (present-day Allahabad in eastern Uttar Pradesh), the marriage alliance may have added Magadha to their domain. The Gupta era began in 320, but it is not clear whether this date commemorated the accession of Candra Gupta or the assumption of the status of independence.
Candra Gupta appointed his son Samudra Gupta (reigned c. 330–c. 380) to succeed him about 330, according to a long eulogy to Samudra Gupta inscribed on a pillar at AllahābādAllahabad. The coins of an obscure prince, KāchaKacha, suggest that there may have been contenders for the throne. Samudra Gupta's campaigns took him in various directions and resulted in many conquests. Not all the conquered regions were annexed, but the range of operations established the military prowess of the Guptas. Samudra Gupta acquired PāṭaliputraPataliputra (present-day Patna), which was to become the Gupta capital. Proceeding down the eastern coast, he also conquered the states of Dakṣinapatha Dakshinapatha but reinstated the vanquished rulers.
Among those he rendered subservient were the rulers of ĀryāvartaAryavarta, various forest chiefs, the northern oligarchies, and border states in the east, in addition to Nepal. More-distant domains brought within Samudra Gupta's orbit were regarded as subordinate; these comprised the "king of kings" of the northwest, the ŚakasShakas, the MuruṇḍasMurundas, and the inhabitants of "all the islands," including Sinhala (Sri Lanka), all of which are listed in the inscription at AllahābāẖAllahabad. It would seem that the campaign extended Gupta power in northern and eastern India and virtually eliminated the oligarchies and the minor kings of central India and the Ganges Valleyvalley. The identity of the islands remains problematic, as they could either have been the ones close to India or those of Southeast Asia, with which communication had increased. The Ganges Valley valley and central India were the areas under direct administrative control. The campaign in the eastern coastal areas may have been prompted by the desire to acquire the trading wealth of these regions. The grim image of Samudra Gupta as a military conqueror is ameliorated, however, by references to his love of poetry and by coins on which he is depicted playing the lyre.
Samudra Gupta was succeeded about 380 by his son Candra Gupta II (reigned c. 380–c. 415), though there is some evidence that there may have been an intermediate ruler. Candra Gupta II's major campaign was against the Śaka Shaka rulers of Ujjain, the success of which was celebrated in a series of silver coins. Gupta interest lay not merely in the political control of the west but in the wealth the area derived from trade with western and southeastern Asia. Gupta territory adjoining the northern Deccan was secured through a marriage alliance with the Vākāṭaka Vakataka dynasty, the successors of the Sātavāhanas Satavahanas in the area. Although Candra Gupta II took the title of Vikramāditya Vikramaditya (Sun "Sun of ValourValour"), his reign is associated more with cultural and intellectual achievements than with military campaigns. His Chinese contemporary Faxian, Fa-hsien, a Buddhist monk, traveled in India and left an account of his impressions.
Administratively, the Gupta kingdom was divided into provinces called deśa deshas or bhuktis, and these in turn into smaller units, the pradeśa pradeshas or viṣaya vishayas. The provinces were governed by kumārāmātya kumaramatyas, high imperial officers or members of the royal family. A decentralization of authority is evident from the composition of the municipal board (adhiṣṭhānaadhishthana-adhikaraṇaadhikarana), which consisted of the guild president (nagara-śreṣṭhinshreshthin), the chief merchant (sārthavāhasarthavaha), and representatives of the artisans and of the scribes. During this that period the term sāmanta samanta, which originally meant neighbour, was beginning to be applied to intermediaries who had been given grants of land or to conquered feudatory rulers. There was also a noticeable tendency for some of the higher administrative offices to become hereditary. The lack of firm control over conquered areas led to their resuming independence. The repeated military action that this necessitated may have strained the kingdom's resources.
The first hint of a fresh invasion from the northwest comes in the reign of Candra Gupta's son and successor, Kumāra Kumara Gupta (reigned c. 415–455). The threat was that of a group known in Indian sources as the Huns, or Hūṇas as they are called in Indian sources, a branch of Hunas, or Huns, though it is not clear whether this group had any relations to the Huns of European history. They were in any event a branch of a Central Asian group known as the Hephthalites. Skanda Gupta (c. 455–467), who succeeded Kumāra Kumara Gupta, and his successors all had to face the full-fledged invasion of the HūṇasHunas. Skanda Gupta managed to rally Gupta strength for a while, but after his death the situation deteriorated. Dissensions within the royal family added to the problem. Gupta genealogies of this period show considerable variance in their succession lists. By the mid-6th century, when the dynasty apparently came to an end, the kingdom had dwindled to a small size. Northern India and parts of central India were in the hands of the HūṇasHunas.
The first Hūṇa Huna king in India was Toramāṇa Toramana (early 6th century), whose inscriptions have been found as far south as Eran (Madhya Pradesh). His son MihīrakulaMihirakula, a patron of ŚaivismShaivism, is recorded in Buddhist tradition as uncouth and extremely cruel. The Gupta rulers, together with Yaśodharman Yashodharman of MālavaMalava, seem to have confronted Mihīrakula Mihirakula and forced him back to the north. Ultimately his kingdom was limited to Kashmir and Punjab with its capital at Śākala (SiālkotShakala (possibly present-day Sialkot). Hūṇa Huna power declined after his reign.
The coming of the Hūṇas Hunas brought northern India once more into close contact with Central Asia, and a number of Central Asian tribes migrated into India. It has been suggested that the Gurjaras, who gradually spread to various parts of northern India, may be identified with the Khazars, a Turkic people of Central Asia. The Hūṇa Huna invasion challenged the stability of the Gupta kingdom, even though the ultimate decline may have been caused by internal factors. A severe blow was the resultant disruption of the Central Asian trade and the decline in the income that northern India had derived from it. Some of the north Indian tribes migrated to other regions, and this movement of peoples effected changes in the social structure of the Postpost-Gupta Periodperiod. The rise of Rājpūt Rajput families and "Kṣatriya" "Kshatriya" dynasties (see below The RājpūtsRajputs) are is associated by some scholars with tribal chiefs in these new areas.
Of the kingdoms that arose as inheritors of the Gupta territory, the most important were those of Valabhī Valabhi (Saurāṣṭra Saurashtra and KāthiāwārKathiawar); Gujarāta Gujarata (originally the area near Jodhpur), believed to be the nucleus of the later Pratihāra Pratihara kingdom; Nandipurī Nandipuri (near BharūchBharuch); Maukhari (Magadha); the kingdom of the later Guptas (in the area between Mālava Malava and Magadha); and those of Bengal, Nepal, and Kāmarūpa Kamarupa (in the Assam Valley). Orissa (KoṇgodaKongoda) was under the Māṇa Mana and Śailodbhava Shailodbhava dynasties before being conquered by ŚaśāṅkaShashanka, king of Gauḍa Gauda (lower Bengal). In the early 7th century , Śaśāṅka Shashanka annexed a substantial part of the Ganges Valleyvalley, where he came into conflict with the Maukharis and the rising Puṣpabhūti Puspabhuti (Pushyabhuti) dynasty of Thānesar Thanesar (north of Delhi).
The Puṣpabhūti Puspabhuti dynasty aspired to imperial status during the reign of Harṣa Harsha (HarṣavardhanaHarsavardhana). Sthāṇvīśvara Sthanvishvara (ThānesarThanesar) appears to have been a small principality, probably under the suzerainty of the Guptas. Harṣa Harsha came to the throne in 606 and ruled for 41 years. The first of the major historical biographies in Sanskrit, the Harṣacarita Harshacarita ("Deeds of Harṣa"Harsha"), was written by BāṇaBana, a celebrated author attached to his court, and contains information on Harṣa's Harsha's early life. A fuller account of the period is given by the Chinese Buddhist pilgrim Hsüan-tsangXuanzang, who traveled through India and stayed for some time at a monastery at NālandāNalanda. Harṣa Harsha acquired Kannauj (in Farrukhābād Farrukhabad district), which became the eponymous capital of his large kingdom. He waged a major but unsuccessful campaign against Pulakeśin Pulakeshin II, the Cālukya a king of the Calukya dynasty of the northern Deccan, and was confined to the northern half of the subcontinent. Nor was his success spectacular in western India against Valabhl, Nandipurl, and Sindh Sind (lower Indus Valleyvalley). In his eastern campaign, however, Harṣa Harsh met with little resistance (Śaśāṅka Shashanka having died in 636) and acquired Magadha, VaṅgaVanga, and Koṇgoda Kongoda (Orissa). His alliance with Bhāskaravarman Bhaskaravarman of Kāmarūpa Kamarupa (Assam) proved helpful. Although Harṣa Harsha failed to build an empire, his kingdom was of no mean size, and he earned the reputation of being the preeminent ruler of the north. He is remembered as the author of three Sanskrit plays—RatnāvallRatnavall, Priyadarśikā Priyadarshika, and Nāgānanda Nagananda—the theme of the last indicating his interest in Buddhist thought. The T'ang Tang emperor of China, T'ai TsungTaizong, sent a series of embassies to HarṣaHarsha, establishing closer ties between the two realms. After the death of HarṣaHarsha, the kingdom of Kannauj entered a period of decline until the early 8th century, when it revived with the rise of YaśovarmanYashovarman, who is eulogized in the Prākrit Prakrit poem GauḍaGauda-vadha ("The Slaying of [the King of] Gauḍa"Gauda") of Vākpatiby Vakpati. Yaśovarman Yashovarman came into conflict with LalitādityaLalitaditya, the king of Kashmir of the Karkoṭa Karkota dynasty, and appears to have been defeated.
In the 8th century the rising power in western India was that of the Gurjara-PratihāraPratiharas. The Rājpūt Rajput dynasty of the Guhilla had its centre in Mewār Mewar (with Chitor as its base). The Cāpa Capa family were was associated with the city of Aṇahilapāṭaka (modern PātanAnahilapataka (present-day Patan) and are involved in early Rājpūt Rajput history. In the Haryāna Haryana region , the Tomara RājpūtsRajputs (Tomara dynasty), originally feudatories of the Gurjara-PratihārasPratiharas, founded the city of Dhillikā Dhillika (modern Delhi) in 736. The political pattern of this time reveals the genesis a rebirth of regionalism and of new political and economic structures.
In the early 8th century , a new power base was established briefly with the arrival of the Arabs in SindhSind. Inscriptions of the western Indian dynasties speak of controlling the tide of the mleccha, which has been interpreted in this case to mean the Arabs; some Indian sources use the term yavana. The conquest of Sindh Sind marked the easternmost extent of Arab territorial control. A local 13th-century Persian translation of a chronicle from SindhSind, the Chach-nāmanāmeh, gives an account of these events. The initial naval expedition met with failure, so the Arabs conducted an overland campaign. The Arab hold on Sindh Sind was loose at first, and the local chiefs remained virtually independent, but by 724 the invaders had established direct rule, with a governor representing the Muslim caliph. Arab attempts to advance into Punjab and Kashmir, however, were checked. The Indians did not fully comprehend the magnitude of Arab political and economic ambitions. Along the west coast, the Arabs were seen as familiar traders from western Asia. The possible competition with Indian trade was not realized.
In the Deccan , the Vākāṭaka Vakataka dynasty was closely tied to the Guptas. With a nucleus in Vidarbha, the founder of the dynasty, VindhyaśaktiVindhyashakti, extended his power northward as far as Vidiśā Vidisha (near Ujjain). At the end of the 4th century, a collateral line of the Vākāṭakas Vakatakas was established by Sarvasena in Vatsagulma (BāsimBasim, in Akola district), and the northern line helped the southern to conquer Kuṇṭala Kuntala (southern MahārāshtraMaharashtra). The domination of the northern Deccan by the main Vākāṭaka Vakataka line during this period is clearly established by the matrimonial alliances not only with the Guptas but also with other peninsular dynasties such as the Viṣṇukuṇḍins Visnukundins and the KādambasKadambas. The Vākāṭakas Vakatakas were weakened by attacks from Mālava Malava and Kośala Koshala in the 5th century. Ultimately, the Cālukyas Calukyas of Vāṭāpi (BādāmiVatapi (present-day Badami) ended their rule.
Of the myriad ruling families of the Deccan between the 4th and 7th centuries—including the Nalas, the Kalacuris, the GaṅgasGangas, and the Kādambas—the Kadambas—the most significant were the Cālukyas Calukyas (Chalukyas), who are associated with Vāṭāpi (Bījāpur district) Vatapi in the 6th century AD. The Cālukyas Calukyas controlled large parts of the Deccan for two centuries. There were many branches of the family, the most important of which were the Eastern CālukyasCalukyas, ruling at Piṣṭapura Pishtapura (Pithāpuram modern Pithapuram in the Godāvari Godavari River delta) in the early 7th century; the Cālukyas Calukyas of Vemulavada (near KarīmnagarKarimnagar, Andhra Pradesh); and the renascent later Cālukyas Calukyas of Kalyāṇī Kalyani (between the Bhīma Bhima and Godāvari Godavari rivers), who rose to power in the 10th century. Cālukya Calukya power reached its zenith during the reign of Pulakeśin Pulakeshin II (610–642), a contemporary of Harṣa Harsha (see above Successor states). The early years of Pulakeśin's Pulakeshin's reign were taken up with a civil war, after which he had to reconquer lost territories and reestablish his control over recalcitrant feudatories. Pulakeśin Pulakeshin then campaigned successfully in the south against the KādambasKadambas, the AlūpasAlupas, and the GaṅgasGangas. Leading his armies north, he defeated the LāṭasLatas, MālavasMalavas, and Gurjaras. Pulakeśin's Pulakeshin's final triumph in the north was the victory over Harṣa Harsha of Kannauj. Pulakeśin Pulakeshin then turned his attention to the eastern Deccan and conquered southern KośalaKoshala, KaliṅgaKalinga, PiṣṭapuramPishtapuram, and the Viṣṇukuṇḍin Vishnukundin kingdom. He started the collateral branch of the Eastern Cālukyas Calukyas based at Piṣṭapuram Pishtapuram with his younger brother Viṣṇuvardhana Vishnuvardhana as the first king. Pulakeśin Pulakeshin then launched another major campaign against the powerful South southern Indian kingdom of the Pallavas, in which he defeated their king Mahendravarman I, I—thus inaugurating a Cālukya-Pallava conflict conflict between the two kingdoms that was to continue for many centuries. Pulakeśin Pulakeshin II sent an embassy to the court of the Sāsānian Persian king Khosrow II. Good relations between the Persians and the Indians of the Deccan were of great advantage to the Zoroastrians of Persia, who, fleeing from the Islāmic Islamic persecution in subsequent centuries, sought asylum in India and settled along the west coast of the Deccan. Their descendants today constitute the Parsi community.
Control over both coasts enhanced the Cālukya Calukya king's already firm hold on the Deccan. The major river valleys of the plateau—the Narmada, Tāpi Tapi (TāptiTapti), Godāvari Godavari with its tributaries, and Krishna—were in Cālukya Calukya hands, as were the valuable routes in the valleys. This amounted to control of the west coast trade with western Asia and the Kaliṅga Kalinga and Andhra trade on the east coast with Southeast Asia. The centuries-long conflict between the northern and the southern Deccan, of which the CālukyaCalukya-Pallava conflict was but a facet, also had geographic, political, and economic causes. Any South southern Indian power seeking to expand would inevitably try to move up the east coast, which was not only the most fertile area of the peninsula but was also wealthy from the income of trade with Southeast Asia. Therefore, control of the northern Deccan required control of the east coast as well. With the major maritime activity gradually concentrating on Southeast Asian trade, in which even the west coast had a large share, the control of both coasts was of considerable economic advantage. It was along the east coast, therefore, that the conflict between the two regions often erupted. The next 100 years of Cālukya Calukya power witnessed the continuation of this conflict, weakening both contenders. Ultimately, in the mid-8th century, a feudatory of the CālukyasCalukyas, Dantidurga of the Rāṣṭrakūṭa familyRashtrakuta dynasty, rose to importance and established himself in place of the declining Cālukya Calukya dynasty. The Eastern CālukyasCalukyas, who had managed to avoid involvement in the conflict, survived longer and came into conflict with the RāṣṭrakūṭasRashtrakutas. Another branch of the Cālukyas Calukyas established itself at Lāṭa Lata in the mid-7th century and played a prominent role in obstructing the Arab advance.
The southern part of the peninsula split into many kingdoms, each fighting for supremacy. Cēra Cera power relied mainly on a flourishing trade with western Asia. The Coḷas Colas retired into insignificance in the Uraiyūr Uraiyur (TiruchchirāppalliTiruchchirappalli) area. The Pāṇḍyas Pandyas were involved in fighting the rising power of the Pallavas, and occasionally they formed alliances with the Deccan kingdoms.
The origin of the Pallava dynasty is obscure. It is not even clear whether the early Pallavas of the 3rd century AD were the ancestors of the later Pallavas of the 6th century, who are sometimes distinguished by the title "imperial." It would seem, though, that their place of origin was ToṇḍaimaṇḍalamTondaimandalam, with its centre at Kānchipuram Kanchipuram (ancient KāñcīKanci). Prākrit Prakrit copperplate charters issued by the early kings from Kānchipuram Kanchipuram often mention places just to the north in Andhra Pradesh, suggesting that the dynasty may have migrated to the Kānchipuram Kanchipuram area. The Sanskrit and Tamil epigraphic records of the later kings of the dynasty indicate that the later Pallavas became dominant in the 6th century after a successful attack against the Kalabhras, which extended their territory as far south as the Kāverī Kaveri River. The Pallavas reached their zenith during the reign of Mahendravarman I (c. 600–630), a contemporary of Harṣa Harsha and Pulakeśin Pulakeshin II. Among the sources of the period, Hsüan-tsang's Xuanzang's account serves as a connecting link, as he traveled through the domains of all three kings. The struggle for Veṅgi Vengi between the Pallavas and the Cālukyas Calukyas became the immediate pretext for a long, drawn-out war, which began with the defeat of the Pallavas. Apart from his campaigns, Mahendravarman was a writer and artist of some distinction. The play associated with him, Maṭṭavilāsaprahasana Mattavilasaprahasana, treats in a farcical manner the idiosyncrasies of Buddhist and Śaiva Shaiva ascetics.
Mahendravarman's successor, Narasiṃhavarman Narasimhavarman I Mahāmalla (reigned c. 630–668), also called Mahamall or Mamalla, avenged the Pallava defeat by capturing VāṭāpiVatapi. He sent two naval expeditions from Mahābalipūr (Māmallapuram) Mahabalipuram to Sri Lanka to assist the king Mānavamma Manavamma in regaining his throne. Pallava naval interests laid the foundation for extensive reliance on the navy by the succeeding dynasty, the CoḷasColas. Toward the end of the 8th century, the Gaṅgas Gangas and the Pāṇḍyas Pandyas joined coalitions against the Pallavas. As the Cālukyas Calukyas declined under pressure from the RāṣṭrakūṭasRashtrakutas, the Pāṇḍyas Pandyas gradually took on the Pallavas and, by the mid-9th century, advanced as far as Kumbakonam. This defeat was avenged, but, by the end of the 9th century, Pallava power had ceased to be significant.
Some of the Pallava kings took an interest in the Āḷvārs Alvars and NāyaṉārsNayanars, the religious teachers who preached a new form of Vaiṣṇavism Vaishnavism and Śaivism Shaivism based on the bhakti cult (devotional) cults. Among the Śaivas Shaivas were Appar (who is said to have converted Mahendravarman from Jainism) and MāṇikkavācakarManikkavacakar. Among the Vaiṣṇavas Vaishnavas were Nammāḻvār Nammalvar and a woman teacher, ĀṇḍāḷAndal. The movement aimed at preaching a popular Hinduism, in which Tamil was preferred to Sanskrit, and emphasized the role of the peripatetic teacher. Women were encouraged to participate in the congregations. The Tamil devotional cult and similar movements elsewhere were in a sense competitive with Buddhism and Jainism, both of which suffered a gradual decline in most areas. Jainism found a foothold in KarnātakaKarnataka, RājasthānRajasthan, and GujarātGujarat. Buddhism flourished in eastern India, with major monastic centres at NālandāNalanda, VikramaśīlaVikramashila, and Pāhārpur Paharpur that attracted vast numbers of students from India and abroad. Tibetan and eastern Indian cults, particularly the Tantric cults, influenced the development of Vajrayāna Vajrayana (Thunderbolt Vehicle"Thunderbolt Vehicle") Buddhism. The widespread Śakti Shakti cult associated with Hindu practice was based on the notion that the male can be activated only by union with the female. Thus, the gods were given consorts—Lakṣmī and Śrī consorts—Lakshmi (or Shri) for Vishnu; Parvati, and PārvatīKali, Kālī, and Durgā Durga for Śiva—and Shiva—and ritual was directed toward the worship of the mother goddess. Much of the ritual was derived from the earlier fertility cults and local rites and beliefs that were assimilated into Hinduism.
During the same period, orthodox Brahmanism received encouragement, especially from the royal families. Learned Brahmans were given endowments of land. The performance of Vedic sacrifices for purposes of royal legitimacy gave way to the keeping of genealogies, which the Brahmans now controlled. The new Brahmanism acquired a locality and an institution in the form of the temple. The earliest remains of a Hindu temple, discovered at SānchiSanchi, date to the Gupta Periodperiod. These extremely simple structures consisted of a shrine room, called a garbhagṛha garbhagrha ("womb house," or sanctum sanctorum), which contained an image of the deity and opened onto a porch. Over the centuries, additional structures were added until the temple complexes covered many acres. In the peninsula , the early rock-cut temples imitated Buddhist models. Although the Cālukyas Calukyas did introduce freestanding temples, most of their patronage extended to rock-cut monuments. The Pallavas also began with rock-cut temples, as at MahābalipūrMahabalipur, but, when they took to freestanding temples, they produced the most-impressive examples of their time.
As temples and monasteries became larger and more complex, the decorative arts of mural painting and sculpture flourished. Early examples of mural painting occur at Bāgh (Dhār district) and Sittanavāsal (Pudukkottai districtBagh and Sittanvasal (now in Tamil Nadu), and the tradition reached its apogee in the murals at the Ajanta Caves (Aurangābād districtMaharashtra) during the Vākāṭaka Vakataka and Cālukya Calukya periods. The fashion for murals in Buddhist monasteries spread from India to Afghanistan and Central Asia and ultimately to China. Equally impressive was the Buddhist sculpture at SārnāthSarnath, in Uttar Pradesh. It is possible that the proliferation of Buddhist images led to the depiction of Hindu deities in iconic form.
Temples were richly endowed with wealth and land, and the larger institutions could accommodate colleges of higher learning (ghaṭikā ghatikas and maṭha mathas), primarily for priests. These colleges became responsible for much of the formal education, and inevitably the use of Sanskrit became widespread. There was an appreciable development of Hindu philosophy, which now recognized six major schools: Nyāya, Vaiśeṣika, Sāṃkhyasystems (darshans): Nyaya, Vaishesika, Samkhya, Yoga, MīmāṃsāMimamsa, and VedāntaVedanta. Indicative of the growing domination of Brahmanic intellectual life, the ancient Purāṇas Puranas were now written substantially in their present form under Brahmanic influence. (See Indian philosophy.)
The flowering of classical Sanskrit literature is indicated by the plays and poems of Kālidāsa Kalidasa (AbhijñānaśākuntalaAbhijnanashakuntala, Mālavikāgnimitra Malavikagnimitra, Vikramorvaśīya Vikramorvashiya, Raghuvaṃśa Raghuvamsha, Meghadūta Meghaduta), although Kālidāsa's Kalidasa's precise date is uncertain. In the south , the propagation of Sanskrit resulted in the Kirātārjunīya Kiratarjuniya, an epic written by Bhāravi Bharavi (7th century); in Daṇḍin's DaśakumāracaritaDandin's Dashakumaracarita, a collection of popular stories (6th century); and in Bhavabhūti's Bhavabhuti's play Mālatimādhava Malatimadhava. Tamil literature flourished as well, as evidenced by two didactic works, the Tirukkuṟaḷ and Nālaḍiyār Tirukkural (by Tiruvalluvar) and Naladiyar, and by the more lyrical Siḷappadikaram Silappadikaram and Maṇimekhaḷai Manimekhalai, two Tamil epics. Representing a less common genre of literature in the Gupta Period period was the KāmaKama-sūtrasutra of VātsyāyanaVatsyayana, a manual on the art of love. This was a collation and revision of earlier texts and displays a remarkable sophistication and urbanity. It was a period of literary excellence, though in the other arts such levels of excellence came later. Not all the achievements can be associated with the Gupta dynasty.
The monasteries and temples were centres of formal learning, and the guilds were centres of technical knowledge. The mixture of the theoretical and practical, however, sometimes occurred, as in the case of medicine, particularly veterinary science. Advances in metallurgy are attested in such objects as the Sultānganj Sultanganj Buddha and a famous iron pillar now at Mehrauli (Delhi). Gold and silver coins of the Gupta Period period exhibit a refinement that was not to be surpassed for many centuries. Mathematics was particularly advanced, probably more so than anywhere in the world at the time. Indian numerals were later borrowed by the Arabs and introduced to Europe as Arabic numerals. The use of the cipher and the decimal system is confirmed by inscriptions. With advances in mathematics there was comparable progress in astronomy. ĀryabhaṭaAryabhata I, writing in AD 499, calculated π (pi) to 3.1416 and the solar year to 365.3586… days and stated that the Earth was spherical and rotated on its axis. That European astronomy was also known is suggested by the 6th-century astronomer VarāhamihiraVarahamihira, who mentions the Romaka Siddhānta Siddhanta (School "School of RomeRome") among the five major schools of astronomy.
Legal texts and commentaries were abundant—the better-known being those of YājñavalkyaYajnavalkya, NāradaNarada, BṛhaspatiBrihaspati, and KātyāyanaKatyayana. Earlier texts relating to social problems and property rights received particular attention. The Postpost-Gupta Period period saw considerable and lasting social change, which resulted not only from outside influences but also from the interaction of the elite Sanskritic culture with more-parochial non-Sanskritic cultures. The expanding village economy opened up new areas geographically, and the increasing importance of guilds in the towns indicated fresh perspectives on social life. These activities also incorporated new groups and cultures into the existing norms of Indian society.
The 8th century saw was a time of struggle for control over the central Ganges Valley, focusing on Kannauj, among valley—focusing on Kannauj—among the Gurjara-PratihāraPratihara, the RāṣṭrakūṭaRashtrakuta, and the Pāla Pala dynasties. The Pratihāras Pratiharas rose to power in the ĀvantiAvanti-Jalaor region and used western India as a base. The Cālukyas Calukyas fell about 753 to one of their own feudatories, the Rāṣṭrakūṭas Rashtrakutas under Dantidurga, who established a dynasty. The Rāṣṭrakūṭa Rashtrakuta interest in Kannauj probably centred on the trade routes from the Ganges Valleyvalley. This was the first occasion on which a power based in the Deccan made a serious bid for a pivotal position in northern India. From the east the Pālas Palas also participated in the competition. They are associated with Puṇḍravardhana Pundravardhana (near Bogra district, Bangl.), and their first ruler, Gopāla Gopala (reigned c. 750–770), included Vaṅga Vanga in his kingdom and gradually extended his control to the whole of Bengal.
VatsarājaVatsaraja, a Pratihāra Pratihara ruler who came to the throne about 778, controlled eastern Rājasthān Rajasthan and MālavaMalava. His ambition to take Kannauj brought him into conflict with the Pāla Pala king, Dharmapāla Dharmapala (reigned c. 770–810), who had by this time advanced up the Ganges Valleyvalley. The Rāṣṭrakūṭa Rashtrakuta king Dhruva (reigned c. 780–793) attacked each in turn and claimed to have defeated them. This initiated the so-called a lengthy tripartite struggle. Dharmapāla Dharmapala soon retook Kannauj and put his nominee on the throne. The Rāṣṭrakūṭas Rashtrakutas were preoccupied with problems in the south. Vatsarāja's Vatsaraja's successor, Nāgabhaṭa Nagabhata II (reigned c. 793–833), reorganized Pratihāra Pratihara power, attacked Kannauj, and for a short while reversed the situation. However, soon afterward he was defeated by the Rāṣṭrakūṭa Rashtrakuta king Govinda III (reigned 793–814), who in turn had to face a confederacy of southern powers that kept him involved in Deccan politics, leaving northern India to the Pratihāras Pratiharas and PālasPalas. Bhoja I (reigned c. 836–885) revived the power of the Pratihāras Pratiharas by bringing Kālañjāra (Bānda district)Kalanjara, and possibly Kannauj as well, under Pratihāra Pratihara control. Bhoja's plans to extend the kingdom, however, were thwarted by the Pālas Palas and the RāṣṭrakūṭasRashtrakutas. More serious conflict with the latter ensued during the reign of Krishna II (reigned c. 878–914).
An Arab visitor to western India, the merchant Sulaymān, referred to the kingdom of Juzr (which is generally identified as Gurjara) and its strong and able ruler, who may have been Bhoja. Of the successors of Bhoja, the only one of significance was Mahīpāla Mahipala (reigned c. 908–942), whose relationship with the earlier king remains controversial. RājaśekharaRajashekhara, a renowned poet at his court, implies that Mahīpāla Mahipala restored the kingdom to its original power, but this may be an exaggeration. By the end of the 10th century , the Pratihāra feudatories—Cauhāns Pratihara feudatories—Cauhans (CāhamānasCahamanas), Candellas (ChandelāsChandelas), Guhilas, Kalacuris, ParamārasParamaras, and Caulukyas (also called SolaṅkisSolankis)—were asserting their independence, although the last of the Pratihāras Pratiharas survived until 1027. Meanwhile Devapāla Devapala (reigned c. 810–850) was reasserting Pāla Pala authority in the east and, he claimed, in the northern Deccan. The At the end of the 9th century, however, saw the decline of the Pāla Pala kingdom declined, with feudatories in Kāmarūpa Kamarupa (modern Assam) and Utkala (Orissa) taking independent titles. Pāla Pala power revived during the reign of Mahīpāla Mahipala (reigned c. 988–1038), although its stronghold now was Bihār Bihar rather than Bengal. Further attempts to recover the old Pāla Pala territories were made by RāmapālaRamapala, but Pāla Pala power gradually declined. There was a brief revival of power in Bengal under the Sena dynasty (c. 1070–1289).
In the Rāṣṭrakūṭa Rashtrakuta kingdom, Amoghavarṣa Amoghavarsa (reigned c. 814–878) faced a revolt of officers and feudatories but managed to survive and reassert Rāṣṭrakūṭa Rashtrakuta power despite intermittent rebellions. Campaigns in the south against Veṅgi Vengi and the Gaṅgas Gangas kept Amoghavarṣa Amoghavarsa preoccupied and prevented him from participating in northern politics. The Rāṣṭrakūṭa Rashtrakuta capital was moved to Mānyakheṭa Manyakheta (Malkhed, in Andhra Pradesh), doubtlessly to facilitate southern involvements, which clearly took on more-important dimensions at this time. Sporadic campaigns against the PratihārasPratiharas, the Eastern CālukyasCalukyas, and the CoḷasColas, the new power of the south, continued (see below The CoḷasColas). Indra III (reigned 914–927) captured Kannauj, but, with mounting political pressures from the south, his control over the north was inevitably short-lived. The reign of Krishna III (reigned c. 939–968) saw a successful campaign against the CoḷasColas, a matrimonial alliance with the GaṅgasGangas, and the subjugation of VeṅgiVengi. Rāṣṭrakūṭa Rashtrakuta power declined suddenly, however, after the reign of Indra, and this was fully exploited by the feudatory Taila.
Taila II (reigned 973–997), who traced his ancestry to the earlier Cālukyas Calukyas of VāṭāpiVatapi, ruled a small part of BijāpurBijapur. Upon the weakening of Rāṣṭrakūṭa Rashtrakuta power, he defeated the king, declared his independence, and founded what has come to be called the Later Cālukya Calukya dynasty. The kingdom included southern Karnātakamuch of Karnataka, Konkan, and the territory as far north as the GodāvariGodavari River. By the end of the 10th century, the Later Cālukyas Calukyas clashed with the ambitious CoḷasColas. The Cālukyas' Calukyas' capital was subsequently moved north to Kalyāṇī Kalyani (near Bidar, in BīdarKarnataka). Campaigns against the Coḷas Colas took a more serious turn during the reign of Someśvara Someshvara I (reigned 1043–68), with alternating defeat and victory. The Later CālukyasCalukyas, however, by and large retained control over the western Deccan despite the hostility of the Coḷas Colas and of their own feudatories. In the middle of the 12th century, however, a feudatory, Bijjala (reigned 1156–67) of the Kalacuri dynasty, usurped the throne at KalyāṇīKalyani. The last of the Cālukya Calukya rulers, Someśvara Someshvara IV (1181–creigned 1181–c. 1189), regained the throne for a short period, after which he was overthrown by a feudatory of the Yādava Yadava dynasty.
On the periphery of the large kingdoms were the smaller states such as Nepal, KāmarūpaKamarupa, Kashmir, and Utkala (Orissa) and lesser dynasties such as the Śilāhāras Shilaharas in MahārāshtraMaharashtra. Nepal had freed itself from Tibetan suzerainty in the 8th century but remained a major trade route to Tibet. KāmarūpaKamarupa, with its capital at Prāgjyotiṣapura Pragjyotisapura (near Gauhātipresent-day Gawahati), was one of the centres of the Tantric cult. In 1253 a major part of Kāmarūpa Kamarupa was conquered by the AhomsAhom, a Shan (Myanmar) people. Politics in Kashmir were dominated by turbulent feudatories seeking power. By the 11th century Kashmir was torn between rival court factions, and the oppression by Harṣa Harsha accentuated the suffering of the people. Smaller states along the Himalayan foothills managed to survive without becoming too embroiled in the politics of the plains.
In Rājasthān Rajasthan and central India there arose a number of small kingdoms ruled by dynasties that came to be called the Rājpūts Rajputs (from Sanskrit rājaraja-putra: , "son of a king"). The name was assumed by royal families that claimed Kṣatriya Kshatriya status and linked their lineage either with the Sūryavaṃśi Suryavamshi (solar) or the CandravaṃśiCandravamshi (lunar), the royal lineages of the itihāsaitihasa-purāṇapurana tradition, or else with the Agnikula (Fire fire lineage), based on a lesser myth in which the eponymous ancestor arises out of the sacrificial fire. The four major Rājpūt dynasties—PratihāraRajput dynasties—Pratihara, ParamāraParamara, CauhānCauhan, and Caulukya—claimed Agnikula lineage. The references in Rājpūt Rajput genealogies to supernatural ancestry suggest either an obscure origin—perhaps from semi-Hinduized local tribes who gradually acquired political and economic status—or else a non-Indian (probably Central Asian) origin.
The Caulukyas of Gujarāt Gujarat had three branches: one ruling Mattamayūra Mattamayura (the MālavaMalava-Cedi region), one established on the erstwhile former kingdom of the Cāpas Capas at Aṇahilapāṭaka (PātanAnahilapataka (present-day Patan), and the third at Bhṛgukaccha (BharūchBhrigukaccha (present-day Bharuch) and Lāṭa Lata in the coastal area. By the 11th century they were using Gujarāt Gujarat as a base and attempting to annex neighbouring portions of Rājasthān Rajasthan and Avanti. Kumārapāla Kumarapala (reigned c. 1143–72) was responsible for consolidating the kingdom. He is also believed to have become a Jaina Jain and to have encouraged Jainism in western India. Hemacandra, an outstanding Jaina Jain scholar noted for his commentaries on political treatises, was a well-known figure at the Caulukya court. Many of the Rājpūt Rajput kingdoms had Jaina Jain statesmen, ministers, and even generals, as well as Jaina Jain traders and merchants. By the 14th century, however, the Caulukya kingdom had declined.
Adjoining the kingdom of the Caulukyas was that of the Paramāras Paramaras in MālavaMalava, with minor branches in the territories just to the north (Mount ĀbuAbu, BānswāraBanswara, C̣ūngarpurCungarpur, and BhīnmālBhinmal). The Paramāras Paramaras emerged as feudatories of the Rāṣṭrakūṭas Rashtrakutas and rose to eminence during the reign of Bhoja. An attack by the Caulukyas weakened the Paramāras Paramaras in 1143. Although the dynasty was later re-established, it remained weak. In the 13th century the Paramāras Paramaras were threatened by both rising Yādava Yadava power in the Deccan and the Turkish kingdom at Delhi (see below The coming of the Turks); the latter conquered the Paramāras Paramaras in 1305.
The Kalacuris of Tripurī Tripuri (near Jabalpur) also began as feudatories of the RāṣṭrakūṭasRashtrakutas, becoming a power in central India in the 11th century during the reigns of Gāṅgeyadeva Gangeyadeva and his son LakṣmīkarṇaLakshmikarna, when attempts were made to conquer territories as far afield as Utkala (Orissa), BihārBihar, and the Ganges-Yamuna Ganges–Yamuna Doab. Here There they came into conflict with the Turkish governor of the Punjab, who briefly had extended his territory as far as VārānasiVaranasi. To the west , there were conflicts with Bhoja ParamāraParamara, and the Kalacuris declined at the end of the 12th century.
The Candellas, whose kingdom comprised mainly Bundelkhand (Jejakabhukti), were feudatories of the PratihārasPratiharas. Among the important rulers was Dhaṅga Dhanga (reigned c. 950–1008), who issued a large number of inscriptions and was generous in donations to Jaina Jain and Hindu temples. Dhaṅga's Dhanga's grandson Vidyādhara Vidyadhara (reigned 1017–29), often described as the most powerful of the Candella kings, extended the kingdom as far as the Chambal and Narmada rivers. This brought him There he came into direct conflict with the Turkic conqueror Maḥmūd of Ghazna , when the latter swept down from Afghanistan in a series of raids. But the ensuing battles were indecisive. The Candellas also had to face the attacks of the CauhānsCauhans, who were in turn being harassed by the Turks. The Turkish kingdom at Delhi encroached into Bundelkhand, but the Candellas survived until the 16th century as minor chieftains.
The Gāhaḍavālas Gahadavalas rose to importance in Vārānasi Varanasi and extended their kingdom up the Ganges-Yamuna Doab Gangetic plain, including Kannauj. The king Jayacandra (12th century) is mentioned in the poem Pṛthvīrāja-rāso of Candbardāi Prithviraja-raso by Candbardai, in which his daughter, the princess Sanyogita, elopes with the Cauhān Cauhan king PṛthvīrājaPrithviraja. Jayacandra died in battle against the Turkish leader, Muʿizz al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Sām (Muḥammad of Ghūr), and his kingdom was annexed.
Inscriptional records associate the Cauhāns Cauhans with Lake Śākambharī Shakambhari and its environs (Sāmbhar Sambhar Salt Lake in Jaipur district, Rajasthan). Cauhān Cauhan politics were largely campaigns against the Caulukyas and the Turks. In the 11th century the Cauhāns Cauhans founded the city of Ajayameru (Ajmer) in the southern part of their kingdom, and in the 12th century they captured Dhillikā Dhillika (Delhi) from the Tomaras and annexed some Tomara territory along the Yamuna River. Pṛthvīrāja Prithviraja III has come down both in folk and historical literature as the Cauhān Cauhan king who resisted the Turkish attacks in the first battle at Taraori (Tarain (Tarāorī) in 1191. PṛthvīrājaPrithviraja, however, was defeated at a second battle in the same place in 1192; the defeat ushered in Turkish rule in northern India.
The establishment of Turkish power in India is initially tied up with politics in the Punjab. The Punjab was ruled by Jayapāla Jayapala of the Hindu Shāhiya dynastyShahi family (Shahiya), which had in the 9th century wrested the Kābul Valley valley and Gandhāra Gandhara from a Turkish ShāhiyaShah. Political and economic relations were extremely close between the Punjab and Afghanistan. Afghanistan in turn was closely involved with Central Asian politics. Sebüktigin, a Turk, was appointed governor of Ghazna in 977. He attacked the Hindu Shāhiyas Shahis and advanced as far as PeshāwarPeshawar. His son Maḥmūd succeeded to the Ghazna principality in 998. Maḥmūd went to war with the Shāhiya Shahiya dynasty, and, almost every year until his death in 1030, he led raids against the rich temple towns in northern and western India, using the wealth obtained from the raids to finance successful campaigns in Central Asia and build an empire there. He acquired a reputation as an iconoclast as well as a patron of culture and was responsible for sending to India the scholar al-Bīrūnī, whose study Taʾrīkh al-Hind ("The History of India") is a source of valuable information. Maḥmūd left his governors in the Punjab with a rather loose control over the region.
In the 12th century the Ghūrid Turks were driven out of Khorāsān and later out of Ghazna by the Khwārezm-ShāhsShah dynasty. Inevitably the Ghūrids sought their fortune in northern India, where the conflict between the Ghaznavids and the local rulers provided an excellent opportunity. Muḥammad of Ghūr advanced into the Punjab and captured Lahore in 1185. Victory in the second battle of Tarain Taraori consolidated Muḥammad's success, and he left his mamlūk (slave) general, Quṭb-udal-Dīn Aybak, in charge of his Indian possessions. Muḥammad was assassinated in 1206 on his way back to Afghanistan. Quṭb al-ud-Dīn remained in India and declared himself sultan of Delhi, the first of the Mamlūk (Slave) dynasty.
In the northern Deccan the decline of the Later Cālukyas Calukyas brought about the rise of their feudatories, among them the Yādava Yadava dynasty (also claiming descent from the Yadu tribe) based at Devagiri (DaulatābādDaulatabad), whose kingdom (SeunadeśaSeunadesha) included the Khāndesh (now divided into Dhūle and Jalgaon), the Nāshik, and the Ahmadnagar districtsbroad swaths of what is now Maharashtra state. The kingdom expanded during the reign of Siṃhana Simhana (reigned c. 1210–47), who campaigned against the Hoysaḷa Hoysala in northern KarnātakaKarnataka, against the lesser chiefs of the western coast, and against the Kākatīya Kakatiya kingdom in the eastern Deccan. Turning northward, Siṃhana Simhana attacked the Paramāras Paramaras and the Caulukyas. The YādavasYadavas, however, facing the Turks to the north and the powerful Hoysaḷas Hoysalas to the south, declined in the early 14th century.
In the eastern Deccan the Kākatīya Kakatiya dynasty was based in the Nalgonda and Warangal areas (modern parts of what is now Andhra Pradesh state ) and survived until the Turkish attack in the 14th century. The Eastern Cālukyas Calukyas ruled in the Godāvari Godavari River delta, and in the 13th century their fortunes were tied to those of the CoḷasColas. The Eastern GaṅgasGangas, ruling in KaliṅgaKalinga, came into conflict with the Turks advancing down the Ganges River valley to the delta during the 13th century.
The Coḷas Colas (Cholas) were by far the most important dynasty in the subcontinent at this time, although their activities mainly affected the peninsula and Southeast Asia. The nucleus of Coḷa Cola power during the reign of Vijayālaya Vijayalaya in the late 9th century was ThanjāvūrThanjavur, from which the Coḷas Colas spread northward, annexing in the 10th century what remained of Pallava territory. To the south they came up against the PāṇḍyasPandyas. Coḷa Cola history can be reconstructed in considerable detail because of the vast number of lengthy inscriptions issued not only by the royal family but also by temple authorities, village councils, and trade guilds. Parāntaka Parantaka I (reigned 907–953) laid the foundation of the kingdom. He took the northern boundary up to Nellore (Andhra Pradesh), where his advance was stopped by a defeat at the hands of the Rāṣṭrakūṭa Rashtrakuta king Krishna III. Parāntaka Parantaka was more successful in the south, where he defeated both the Pāṇḍyas Pandyas and the GaṅgasGangas. He also launched an abortive attack on Sri Lanka. For 30 years after his death, there was a series of overlapping feeble reigns that did not strengthen the Coḷa Cola position. There then followed two outstanding rulers who rapidly reinstated Coḷa Cola power and ensured the kingdom its supremacy. These were Rājarāja Rajaraja I and RājendraRajendra.
Rājarāja Rajaraja (reigned 985–1014) began establishing power with attacks against the Pāṇḍyas Pandyas and Īllamaṇḍalam (Illamandalam of Sri Lanka). Northern Sri Lanka became a province of the Coḷa Cola kingdom. A campaign against the Gaṅgas Gangas and Cālukyas Calukyas extended the Coḷa Cola boundary north to the Tungabhadra River. On the eastern coast the Coḷas Colas battled with the Cālukyas Calukyas for the possession of VeṅgiVengi. A marriage alliance gave the Coḷas Colas an authoritative position, but Veṅgi Vengi remained a bone of contention. A naval campaign led to the conquest of the Maldive Islands, the Malabār Malabar Coast, and northern Sri Lanka, all of which were essential to the Coḷa Cola control over trade with Southeast Asia and with Arabia and East eastern Africa. These were the transit areas, ports of call for the Arab traders and ships to Southeast Asia and China, which were the source of the valuable spices sold at a high profit to Europe.
Rājarāja Rajaraja I's son Rājendra Rajendra participated in his father's government from 1012, succeeded him two years later, and ruled until 1044. To the north he annexed the Rāichūr Doab and moved into Mānyakheṭa Raichur Doab (the interfluve between the Krishna and Tungabhadra rivers in Karnataka) and moved into Manyakheta in the heart of Cālukya Calukya territory. A revolt against Mahinda V of Sri Lanka gave Rājendra Rajendra the excuse to conquer southern Sri Lanka as well. In 1021–22 the now-famous northern campaign was launched. The Coḷa Cola army campaigned along the east coast as far as Bengal and then north to the Ganges River—almost the exact reverse of Samudra Gupta's campaign to Kānchipuram Kanchipuram in the 4th century AD CE. The most spectacular campaign, however, was a naval campaign against the Śrivijaya kingdom Srivijaya empire in Southeast Asia in 1025. The reason for the assault on Śrivijaya Srivijaya and neighbouring areas appears to have been the interference with Indian shipping and mercantile interests seeking direct trading connections with South southern China. The Coḷa Cola victory reinstated these connections, and throughout the 11th century Coḷa Cola trading missions visited China.
The succession after Rājendra Rajendra is confused until the emergence of Kulottuṅga Kulottunga I (reigned 1070–1122), but his reign was the last of any significance. The 12th and 13th centuries saw a gradual decline in Coḷa Cola power, accelerated by the rise of the Hoysaḷas Hoysalas to the west and the Pāṇḍyas Pandyas to the south.
The Hoysaḷas Hoysalas began as hill chieftains northwest of Dōrasamudra Dorasamudra (modern HalebīdHalebid), feudatory to the CālukyasCalukyas. Viṣṇuvardhana Vishnuvardhana consolidated the kingdom in the 12th century. The Hoysaḷas Hoysalas were involved in conflict with the Yādava Yadava kingdom, which was seeking to expand southward, particularly during the reign of Ballāla Ballala II (reigned 1173–1220). Hostilities also developed with the Coḷas Colas to the east. The armies of the Turks eroded the Hoysaḷa Hoysala kingdom until, in the 14th century, it gave way to the newly emerging Vijayanagara empire. In the 13th century the Pāṇḍyas Pandyas became the dominant power in the south, but their supremacy was brief because they were attacked in the 14th century by Turkish armies. Information on the dynasty is supplemented by the colourful account of Venetian traveler Marco Polo, who visited the region in 1288 and 1293.
Apart from the political events of the time, a common development in the subcontinent was the recognizable decentralization of administration and revenue collection. From the Coḷa Cola kingdom there are long inscriptions on temple walls referring to the organization and functioning of village councils. Villages that had been donated to Brahmans had councils called the sabhā sabhas; in the non-Brahman villages the council was called the ur. Eligibility qualifications generally relating to age and ownership of property were indicated, along with procedural rules. The council was divided into various committees in charge of the different aspects of village life and administration. Among the responsibilities of the council was the collection of revenue and the supervision of irrigation. References to village bodies and local councils also occur in inscriptions from other regions. A more recent and much-contested view held by some historians , which has been much contested, holds that the Coḷa Cola state was a segmentary state with control decreasing from the centre outward and a ritual hierarchy that determined the relations between the centre and the units of the territory. The nature of the state during this period has been the subject of widespread discussion among historians.
In the Deccan , the rise and fall of dynasties was largely the result of the feudatory pattern of political relationships. The same held true of northern India and is seen both in the rise of various Rājpūt Rajput dynasties and in their inability to withstand the Turkish invasions. There is considerable controversy among historians as to whether it would be accurate to describe the feudatory pattern as feudalism per se. Some argue that, although it was not identical to the classic example of feudalism in western Europe, there are sufficient similarities to allow the use of the term. Others contend that the dissimilarities are substantial, such as the apparent absence of an economic contract involving king, vassal, and serf. In any event, the patterns of land relations, politics, and culture changed considerably, and the major characteristic of the change consists of forms of decentralization.
The commonly used term for a feudatory was sāmanta samanta, which designated either a conquered ruler or a secular official connected with the administration who had been given a grant of land in lieu of a salary and who had asserted ownership over the land and gradually appropriated rights of ruling the area. There were various categories of sāmanta samantas. As long as a ruler was in a feudatory status, he called himself sāmanta samanta and acknowledged his overlord in official documents and charters. Independent status was indicated by the elimination of the title of sāmanta samanta and the inclusion instead of royal titles such as mahārāja maharaja and mahārāıādhirāja maharatadhiraja. The feudatory had certain obligations to the ruler. Although virtually in sole control administratively and fiscally over the land granted to him, he nevertheless had to pay a small percentage of the revenue to the ruler and maintain a specified body of troops for him. He was permitted the use of certain symbols of authority on formal occasions and was required, if called upon, to give his daughter in marriage to his suzerain. These major administrative and economic changes, although primarily concerning fiscal arrangements and revenue organization, also had their impact on politics and culture. The grantees or intermediaries in a hierarchy of grants were not merely secular officials but were often Brahman beneficiaries who had been given grants of land in return for religious services rendered to the state. The grants were frequently so lucrative that the Brahmans could marry into the families of local chiefs, which explains the presence of Brahman ancestors in the genealogies of the period.
Cultivation was still carried out by the peasants, generally ŚūdrasShudras, who remained tied to the land. Since the revenue was now to be paid not to the king but to the sāmanta samanta, the peasants naturally began to give more attention to his requirements. Although the sāmanta samantas copied the life-style of the royal court, often to the point of setting up miniature courts in imitation of the royal model, the system also encouraged parochial loyalties and local cultural interests. One manifestation of this local involvement was a sudden spurt of historical literature such as Bilhaṇa's VikramāṅkadevacaritaBilhana's Vikramankadevacarita, the life of the Cālukya Calukya king Vikramāditya Vikramaditya VI, and Kalhaṇa's RājataraṅgiṇīKalhana's Rajatarangini, a history of Kashmir.
The earlier decline in trade was gradually reversed in this period, with trade centres emerging in various parts of the subcontinent. Some urban centres developed from points of exchange for agrarian produce, whereas others were involved in long-distance trade. In some cases, traders from elsewhere settled in India, such as the Arabs on the Malabār Malabar Coast; in other cases Indian traders went to distant lands. Powerful trading guilds could enjoy political and military support, as was the case during the Coḷa Cola monarchy. Even the rich Hindu temples of South southern India invested their money in trade. Pāla Pala contacts were mainly with ŚrivijayaSrivijaya, and trade was combined with Buddhist interests. The monasteries at Nālandā Nalanda and Vikramaśīla Vikramashila maintained close relations. By now eastern India was the only region with a sizable Buddhist presence. The traditional trade routes were still used, and some kingdoms drew their revenue from such routes as those along the Arāvalli Aravalli Range, MālavaMalava, and the Chambal and Narmada valleys. Significantly, the major technological innovation, the introduction of the sakia sāqiyah (Persian wheel), or araghaṭṭa araghatta, as an aid to irrigation in northern India, pertains to agrarian life and not to urban technology.
Historians once believed that the Postpost-Gupta Period period brought greater rigidity in the caste structure and that this rigidity was partially responsible for the inability of Indians to face the challenge of the Turks. This view is now being modified. The distinctions, particularly between the Brahmans and the other castes, were in theory sharper, but in practice it now appears that social restrictions were not so rigid. Brahmans often lived off the land and founded dynasties. Most of the groups claiming Kṣatriya Kshatriya status had only recently acquired it. The conscious reference to being KṣatriyaKshatriya, a characteristic among RājpūtsRajputs, is a noticeable feature in Postpost-Gupta politics. The fact that many of these dynasties were of obscure origin suggests some social mobility: a person of any caste, having once acquired political power, could also acquire a genealogy connecting him with the traditional lineages and conferring Kṣatriya Kshatriya status. A number of new castes, such as the Kāyasthas Kayasthas (scribes) and Khatris (traders), are mentioned in the sources of this period. According to the Brahmanic sources, they originated from intercaste marriages, but this is clearly an attempt at rationalizing their rank in the hierarchy. Many of these new castes played a major role in society. The hierarchy of castes did not have a uniform distribution throughout the country. But the preeminent position of the Brahman was endorsed not merely by the fact that many had lands and investments but also by the fact that they controlled education. Formal learning was virtually restricted to the institutions attached to the temples. Technical knowledge was available in the various artisan guilds. Hierarchy existed, however, even among the Brahmans; some Brahman castes, who had perhaps been tribal priests before being assimilated into the Sanskritic tradition, remained ordinary village priests catering to the day-to-day religious functions.
The local nucleus of the new culture led to a large range of religious expression, from the powerful temple religion of Brahmanism to a widespread popular bhakti religion and even more widespread fertility cults. The distinctions between the three were not clearly demarcated in practice; rites and concepts from each flowed into the other. The formal worship of Vishnu and Śiva Shiva had the support of the elite. Temples dedicated to Vaiṣṇava Vaishnava and Śaiva Shaiva deities were the most numerous. But also included were some of the chief deities connected with the fertility cult, and the mother goddesses played an important role. The Purāṇas Puranas had been rewritten to incorporate popular religion. Now the Upapurāṇa; now the upa-puranas were written to record rites and worship of more-localized deities. Among the more-popular incarnations of Vishnu was Krishna, who, as the cowherd deity, accommodated pastoral and erotic themes in worship. The love of Krishna and Rādhā Radha was expressed in sensitive and passionate poetry.
The introduction of the erotic theme in Hinduism was closely connected with the fertility cult and Tantrism. The latter, named after for its scriptures, the TantrasTantras, influenced both Hindu and Buddhist ritual. Tantrism, as practiced by the elite, represented the conversion of a widespread folk religion into a sophisticated one. The emphasis on the mother goddess, related to that expressed in the Shakti (Śakti (Shakti) cult, strengthened the status of the female deities. The erotic aspect also was related to the importance of ritual coition in some Tantric rites. The depiction of erotic scenes on temple walls therefore had a magico-religious context.
Vajrayāna Vajrayana Buddhism, current in eastern India, Nepal, and Tibet, shows evidence of the impact of Tantrism. The goddess Tārā Tara emerges as the saviour and is in many ways the Buddhist counterpart of ŚaktiShakti. Buddhism was on the way out—the Buddha had been incorporated as an avatar of Vishnu—and had lost much of its popular appeal, which had been maintained by the simple habits of the monks. The traditional source of Buddhist patronage had dwindled with declining trade. Jainism, however, managed to maintain some hold in RājasthānRajasthan, GujarātGujarat, and KarnātakaKarnataka. The protest aspect of both Buddhism and Jainism, especially the opposition to Brahmanic orthodoxy, had now been taken over by the Tantrists and the bhakti cults. The Tantrists expressed their protest through some rather extreme rites, as also did some of the heretical sects such as the Kālamukhas Kalamukhas and KāpālikasKapalikas. The bhakti cults expressed the more-puritanical protest of the urban groups, gradually spreading to the rural areas. Preeminent among the bhakti groups during this period were the LiṅgāyatsLingayats, or VīraśaivasVirashaivas, who were to become a powerful force in KarnātakaKarnataka, and the Pandharpur cult in MahārāshtraMaharashtra, which attracted such preachers as Nāmadeva Namadeva and JñāneśvaraJnaneshvara.
It was also in the maṭha matha (monastery) and the ghaṭikā ghatika (assembly hall), attached to the temples, that the influential philosophical debates were conducted in Sanskrit. Foremost among the philosophers were Śaṅkarācārya Shankara (9th 8th–9th century), Rāmānuja Ramanuja (1017–1137d. 1137), and Madhva (13th century). The discussions centred on religious problems, such as whether knowledge or devotion was the more effective means of salvation, and problems of metaphysics, including that of the nature of reality.
Court literature, irrespective of the region, continued to be composed in Sanskrit, with the many courts competing for the patronage of the poets and the dramatists. There was a revival of interest in earlier literature, generating copious commentaries on prosody, grammar, and technical literature. The number of lexicons increased, perhaps necessitated by the growing use of Sanskrit by non-Sanskrit speakers. Literary style tended to be pedantic and imitative, although there were notable exceptions, such as Jayadeva's lyrical poem on the love of Rādhā Radha and Krishna, the Gītagovinda Gitagovinda. The bhakti teachers preached in the local languages, giving a tremendous fillip stimulus to literature in these languages. Adaptations of the Rāmāyaṇa Ramayana, Mahābhārata Mahabharata, and Bhagavadgītā Bhagavadgita were used regularly by the bhakti teachers. There was thus a gradual breaking away from Sanskrit and Prākrit the Prakrit languages via the Apabrahṃśa (the "crooked language") Apabhrahmsha language and the eventual emergence and evolution of such languages as KannaḍaKannada, Telugu, MarāthīMarathi, GujarātīGujarati, Bengali, and Oṛiyā Oriya and of the dialects of Bhojpuri, Maithili, and MāgadhīBihari languages.
The period was rich in sculpture, in both stone and metal, each region registering a variant style. Western India and Rājasthān Rajasthan emphasized ornateness, with the Jaina Jain temples at Mount Ābu Abu attaining a perfection of rococo. Nālandā Nalanda was the centre of striking but less-ornate images in black stone and of Buddhist bronze icons. Central Indian craftsmen used the softer sandstone. In the peninsula the profusely sculptured , rock-cut temples such as the Kailāsa Kailasa at the Ellora Caves, enjoying Cālukya under Calukya and Rāṣṭrakūṭa Rashtrakuta patronage, created displayed a style of their own. The dominant style in the south was that of Coḷa Cola sculpture, particularly in bronze. The severe beauty and elegance of these bronze images, mainly of Śaiva Shaiva and Vaiṣṇava Vaishnava deities and saints, remains unsurpassed. A new genre of painting that rose to popularity in Nepal, eastern India, and Gujarāt Gujarat was the illustration of Buddhist and Jaina Jain manuscripts with miniature paintings.
Temple architecture was divided into three main styles—nāgaranagara, drāviḍa dravida, and vasara—which were distinguished by the ground plan of the temple and by the shape of the śikhara shikhara (tower) that rose over the garbhagṛha garbhagrha (cubical structure) and that became the commanding feature of temple architecture. The North north Indian temples conformed to the nāgara nagara style, as is seen at Osiān Osian (Rājasthān Rajasthan state); Khajurāho Khajuraho (Madhya Pradesh state); and KonārkaKonarka, Bhubaneshwar, and Puri (Orissa state). The Orissa temples, however, remain nearest to the original archetype. The South Indian temple architecture, or drāviḍa dravida, style with style—with its commanding gopuram gopuras (gateways) can —can be seen in the Rājarājeśvara Rajarajeshvara and the Gaṅgaikoṇdacōḷapuram Gangaikondacolapuram temples. The Deccan Deccani style, vasara, tended to be an intermixture of the northern and the southern, with early examples at VāṭāpiVatapi, AihoḷeAihole, and Paṭṭadakal Pattadakal and, later, at HalebīdHalebid, BelūrBelur, and Somnāthpur Somnathpur in the vicinity of Mysore. The wealth of the temples made them the focus of attack from plunderers.
The question that is frequently posed as to why the Turks so easily conquered northern India and the Deccan has in part to do with what might be called the medieval ethos. A contemporary observed that the Indians had become self-centred and unaware of the world around them. This was substantially true. There was little interest in the politics of neighbouring countries or in their technological achievements. The medieval ethos expressed itself not only in the "feudatory" attitude toward politics and the parochial concerns that became dominant and prevented any effective opposition to the Turks but also in the trappings of chivalry and romanticism that became central to elite activity.
It has been generally held that the medieval period of Indian history began with the arrival of the Turks (dated to either AD 1000 or 1206 CE), because the Turks brought with them a new religion, IslāmIslam, which changed Indian society at all levels. Yet the fundamental changes that took place around about the 8th century, when the medieval ethos was introduced, would seem far more significant as a criterion of changecriteria.